TAKE TAKE — Take Take (review)

TAKE TAKE — Take Take album cover Album · 2011 · Post-Fusion Contemporary Buy this album from MMA partners
3.5/5 ·
DamoXt7942
The two jazz artists should hit it off perfectly and naturally, let me say. They've played for two dozen years indeed, but their soundscape reminds us something of nature, regardless of their career, I guess.

TAKE TAKE are a Japanese (Osakan) jazz duo founded by Takeshi SHIMIZU (piano, keyboards) and Tsutomu TAKEI (saxophone). Takeshi started playing jazz piano and keyboards in his junior high school days. He formed his jazz rock band E.D.F. with a "killa" drummer Baker DOI in 1992, and has played in various projects or units. Tsutomu has taken a tenor saxophone in hand at first in his junior high school days, and started playing professionally whilst a student in Kobe University. In 1992, Takeshi recruited Tsutomu to his project E.D.F., and this was a fateful encounter for the two. TAKE TAKE released their first eponymous album via a Japanese independent label Follow Club Record in August, 2011.

Sorry for my less familiarity with jazz but I can feel their comfort, pleasure for daily life in their play or creation. Their easygoing, optimistic ambiance under such a steady play, especially in the first track "Hitorigoto (Mutter To Oneself)" or second "Nekosampo (Cat Walk)", can notify us how important is easy life for human. Guess lots of listeners cannot help smiling whilst feeling their motivation. "Hey Doctor" has comical touches, as if innocent children would ask him / her something difficult with sincere appearance. Fantastic texture we can feel there.

Contrary to above, "Film" is a sepia-coloured tragic one, with Tsutomu’s crying saxophone and Takeshi’s quiet and modest piano solo. Oh well, in "But For You, I Couldn't Live Any Longer" they play a bit plaintively, but with something smart like words of a professional lover (in a sense, very cool and dangerous). As for the word "dangerous", dunno the actual meaning of "Baby Scrapper" but they can let us listen to this track smoothly and comfortably ... want to let me know more about this song indeed.

"Komorebi (Sunshine Between Trees)" or "Hoshizora (Starlit Sky)" is Takeshi’s artistic piano power of expression itself (fresh, gentle, quiet but cool, enthusiastic) with Tsutomu’s energetic saxophone supplement. Anyway in "Haru No Kizashi (Signs Of Spring)" the two encourage each other with their lightly touched but uptempo sound bullets. Their representation of natural landscapes or views can give us spiritual elevation, for a brilliant future.

And let me say, I love "interlude" as honestly I say. Such a avantgarde / progressive air (especially Tsutomu’s sharp-edged "breath"!) I can feel, in this fantasy creation. So that, this album is "Fine weather almost all day, sometimes coolly stormy” I imagine? Recommended.
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