Diego Piñera - Odd Wisdom
Linernotes 
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Linernotes
Schlagzeuger Diego Piñera vereint mit seinem prominent besetzten Album "Odd Wisdom" den Groove und Vibe dreier Welten: Der perkussiven Vielfalt seiner lateinamerikanischen Herkunft, dem Freiheitsdrang seiner Wahl-Heimat Berlin und der Energie der Metropole New York, in der die Aufnahmen stattfanden. Und mit Saxofonist Donny McCaslin, Gitarrist Ben Monder und Bassist Scott Colley, drei Vertretern der Spitze des aktuellen US-Jazz, liefert sich Piñera einen packenden Austausch von außergewöhnlicher Energie, Sound, Komplexität und Spannung.
Diego Piñera ist ein Meister der Rhythmik. Die Leidenschaft und das Gefühl für diese wurden ihm bereits in die Wiege gelegt. In Montevideo, Uruguay, geboren und aufgewachsen hat der Schlagzeuger die lateinamerikanischen Musik verinnerlicht, ist dann aber einen entscheidenden Schritt weitergegangen: Piñera wollte erforschen, wie die Latin-Rhythmik den amerikanischen und europäischen Jazz beeinflusst hat. So zog es ihn an das Berklee College of Music nach Boston sowie an die Hochschule für Musik und Theater Leipzig, wo er bei Größen wie Danilo Pérez, Changuito oder Bob Moses studierte. Rhythmik neu zu denken und traditionelle Muster weiterzuführen, sie vor allen aber dem zeitgenössischen Jazz einzuverleiben - das ist seitdem Piñeras Ding. Gerade die "krummen Takte" haben es ihm dabei angetan.
Diego Piñera is a unique figure who is genuinely taking music in new directions by juxtaposing the polyrhythmic freedom of jazz with other metric systems. As he says, "I studied music in the places where it came from." He started playing drums as a four-year old in Montevideo. His student years were spent in Havana, Boston (Berklee) and Leipzig. Based in Berlin since 2003, he has continued to widen his musical horizons, immersing himself in the ‘odd’ meters of the title through extensive work with Berlin-based musicians from Greece and Bulgaria.
‘Wisdom’ here refers not just to Piñera’s accretion of wide knowledge and consummate skill, but also to mystery and alchemy: the track "Conversation With Myself" is a hushed, concentrated masterpiece. His ear for fresh colours and timbres is astonishing. His ACT debut "Despertando" was described as a "treat for the ear," and "Odd Wisdom" is a kaleidoscope of sonic inventiveness. "Mi Cosmos", for example, has the rasping sound of a snare over the drum-head. "Robotic Night" features a drum synth pad, played live in the studio.
"Odd Wisdom" is a significant and personal album. "It brings together all of the sounds and rhythms that I have been working on for the past decade." Piñera gathered a dream team from the New York top flight together for just one day at the Trading 8s studio in New Jersey: Donny McCaslin, Ben Monder and Scott Colley have already made their mark in countless other contexts, and they are on spellbinding form here.
And yet "Odd Wisdom" also has a wonderful ‘lightness’ about it (it is one of Piñera’s favourite words). In these truly capable hands, complex music has a magical fluidity, freedom and flow. Piñera has acquired his wisdom by being watchful. As his evocative lyric for "Space" expresses it: "Al mirar arriba, más allá, en el sol." (I understood by looking up, beyond, into the sun.)