Sometimes in a dream you come across a familiar street
or a good friend, and they look somehow different. Yet
you recognize them, you feel almost that you have had
a glimpse of their essence. A minute shift or a slight turn
of phrase add life, wit and sensuality to the familiar picture.
Those famous old melodies that suddenly surface through
Aki Takase's music only to drift away again remind me
of the wonderful images we see in a dream.
Yoko Tawada, translated by Ilse Zambonini
W. C. Handy (1873-1958), the „Father of the Blues,“ wrote more than 70 compositions many of which became evergreens. Never making a secret of his inspirational sources, Handy would frankly explain that he got his compositional ideas from listening to the people in the streets. His most popular tune, „St. Louis Blues,“ was written in 1913 and started Handy’s own publishing house. For this composition Handy got inspiration from several sources, among them a woman in St. Louis who sang the blues while frying fish, a piano player in Memphis and the tango and habanera tunes that were quite fashionable at that time. Like in ragtime, the „St. Louis Blues“ is composed of several parts. There is a 12-bar blues verse („I hate to see the evening sun go down“), a 16-bar section with a Spanish tinge („St. Louis Woman with her diamond rings“), and a 12-bar blues chorus („Got the St. Louis blues, I’m blue as I can be“). Normally this composition is played in the form of AABC. While the three sections can also be combined in other ways, the habanera part (section B), probably a heritance of the Spanish-Creole tradition, is mostly used as a formal hinge within the overall form.
Hans-Jürgen Schaal
Tracks
01. St. Louis Blues (W.C. Handy)
02. Way Down South Where the Blues Began (W.C. Handy)
03. Mobilat (Rudi Mahall)
04. Morning Star (W.C. Handy)
05. Eine Drehorgel aus dem 21. Jahrhundert (Aki Takase)
06. Lulu (Harry Warren)
07. Wer kommt mehr vom Blues (Rudi Mahll)
08. St. Louis Blues (W.C. Handy)
09. Nur da wo du bist da ist nichts (Aki Takase)
10. Memphis Blues (W.C. Handy)
11. Jazz Ain’t What It Used To Be (Nils Wogram)
12. Yellow Dog Blues (W.C. Handy)
AKI TAKASE piano
RUDI MAHALL bass clarinet
FRED FRITH guitar
NILS WOGRAM trombone
PAUL LOVERS drums
Recorded July 29-31, 2001 at Studio Vagnsson, Germany
Enja Records - enja CD 9130-2