German Jazz Prize 2026
Aki Takase Receives German Jazz Prize for Lifetime Achievement – A Defining Voice of Contemporary Jazz
Berlin, April 15, 2026
The German Jazz Prize honors one of the defining figures of contemporary jazz in 2026: Aki Takase receives the German Jazz Prize for her lifetime achievement. For decades, the Japanese jazz musician has stood for a distinctive musical language that moves between composition and improvisation, between different cultural contexts and aesthetic traditions.
A crucial step in her artistic development was her move from Osaka to Berlin in the late 1980s. Here, she became part of a scene where improvisation, collaboration, and artistic exchange are central, and which continues to shape her work today.
Takase’s music is often clearly structured while remaining open to the unplanned.
Many of her projects emerge from dialogue with other musicians in long-term artistic relationships. These collaborations focus less on fixed forms and more on shared development
She also repeatedly engages with the history of jazz, for example with composers like Duke Ellington or Thelonious Monk. She takes up their music, gives it her own reinterpretation and continually develops her own sonic languages.
With this award, the jury of the German Jazz Prize honors an artist who understands jazz not as a rigid and inflexible, but as an open, ever-evolving practice. Her influence is particularly evident in her participatory approach and the many musical connections that have arisen from it.
„I am very proud to receive this award, the ‚German Jazz Prize – Lifetime Achievement‘. Even though I am probably on the home stretch of my career, I sincerely hope that my husband Alexander and I can continue our musical activities for as long as possible and stay healthy while ‚Take the AA Train‘.“ – Aki Takase, recipient of the German Jazz Prize for Lifetime Achievement
Björn Meyer Solo
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