Berlin Odd Wisdom - Underground Rollercoaster

Double Moon, release October 2024

Diego Pinera has already proved several times that he is one of the most exciting drummers of contemporary jazz and knows how to build up a good band. The 42-year old’s life path leads from Uruguay to Cuba, from the USA to Berlin; from 16 released records (2 of them with ACT Music), over hundreds of concerts on 4 continents to a Grammy nomination, an Echo Jazz Award and most recently to the German Jazz Award 2023.

Scott Colley, Donny Mc Caslin, Ben Monder, Sebastian Schunke, Joo Kraus, Omar Sosa - even just a small selection of the list of Diego’s collaborations reads accordingly exciting.

"A quirkily creative contribution to global jazz." The Guardian (GB)

"A rhythmic treat, progressive, yet accessible and delightfully playful." JAZZIZ (US)

"A multicultural post-bop vision." Downbeat (US)

Of course, Diego’s next album had to be something that not only draws on his hard-earned experience, but also represents a new (re)discovery as well as a personal venture. A masterpiece that embodies both Diego’s impulsive passion and his “musical wisdom”. The album Underground Rollercoaster stands for all of this.

But what is in this music and what makes it so special? Underground Rollercoaster is more than just music. It is a true story from the life of a great musician about happiness and fear, failure and fighting spirit, about illness and reorientation. Latin Jazz meets Berlin Jazz has always been the motto of this quartet with Igor, Marcel and Peter. But it is only after a long musical journey that Diego finally finds his way back to his home country Uruguay by playing various traditional percussion instruments from there, which he knows from earlier times. Also in the style of the old school, everything was recorded and played at the same time in the same room. You can literally hear the shared energy; never before had Diego played together with the same formation for so long.

Unadorned, authentic and simply good. This truly identity-forming album is a must for jazz and world music fans, as well as for all those who engage with Pinera’s highly complex metrics. It may sound simple, but technically it is Diego’s most challenging work to date.