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Pianist Aki Takase and saxophonist Daniel Erdmann, whose album Isn’t It Romantic? was released on April 9, 2021 by the BMC Records, won the Deutscher Jazz Preis in the categories of their respective instruments.

Deutscher Jazz Preis was launched by Prof. Monika Grütters, the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media with the aim of support those artist, who use their music to contribute to building bridges between cultures and to represent cosmopolitan values. "With this award, we will put the diversity, creativity and communicative power of jazz in the deserved spotlight and honour outstanding artistic achievements with endowed prizes. The jazz music scene has always built sounding bridges between different cultures, it stands for courage, exchange, cooperation – and is thus also a reflection of our pluralistic society. It is precisely this cosmopolitanism that we want to continue to support in the future” – said Prof. Monika Grütters.

Isn't It Romantic? by Aki Takase and Daniel Erdmann is a dialogue between two musicians sensitive to the problems of the world, where the saxophone and piano not only concur, but sometimes even dare to contradict one another. Takase and Erdmann were teacher and pupil but became colleagues, and following their quartet Japanic, they are now recording as a duo, in the studios of BMC Records. The album Isn’t It Romantic? points whimsically back to the history of jazz through the most personal stories, and all the while their playing is marked by clear contours, romance, a story-telling bent, and spontaneity.