Despertando

Diego Pinera - Odd WisdomCD / digital Diego Pinera drums Donny McCaslin saxophone Ben Monder guitar Scott Colley bass Diego Pinera 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 Pinera’s accretion of wide knowledge and consummate skill, but also to mystery and alchemy: the track “Conversations 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 drumhead. “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.” Pinera 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 Pinera’s favourite words). In these truly capable hands, complex music has a magical fluidity, free-dom and flow. Pinera 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.)Credits: Music composed by Diego Pinera except Blue Monk composed by Thelonious Monk, arranged by Diego Pinera Recorded and rough mix by Chris Sulit at Trading 8s Recording Studio, New Jersey (NYC), February 07, 2020Final mix and mastering by Klaus Scheuermann Produced by Diego Pinera

Diego Pinera - DespertandoCD / digital Diego Pinera drums, percussion & steel drum Tino Derado piano & accordion Omar Rodriguez Calvo bass Daniel Manrique-Smith flutes Julian Wasserfuhr trumpet & flugelhorn It was the awakening (Despertando) of a tinge of longing which inspired Diego Pinera to record this album. More than seventeen years after having left his native Uruguay, he re-visits his roots, the influences which first left their mark on him, and the legacy which made him the musician he is today.His choice of compositions is highly personal: tunes by Gato Barbieri and Ernesto Lecuona are clear cultural references to Argentina and Cuba (Pinera also studied in Havana). His own composition “Osvaldo por Nueve” is a homage to his first teacher and mentor Osvaldo Fattoruso. It is also Pinera’s modern take on the ‘candombe’ folklore tradition, popular in Uruguay. The track “Yakarito Terere” is personal too: a composition by his father, inspired by a memory from childhood, of regular excursions into the hinterland of Montevideo.Pinera’s encounters with Latin American music, and with jazz in all its breadth, have led him to develop an unmistakable style which serves as the artistic filter for “Despertando”: through the combination of his advanced conception of rhythm, a jazz sound with a Latin touch, and the freedom of improvisation, this album becomes a portrait of the artist in full, and one in which his strong character comes across vividly.Pinera’s fellow musicians also inhabit this field of creative tension. Each of them has a very different musical background, and together they combine to make a concept of jazz which is stylistically open, deeply marked by their origins, and coloured by Latin American music. This unusual chemistry between the musicians - and also their extraordinary talent – keep the music fresh and airy; there is musical complexity and virtuosity in abundance, but it is imbued with great subtlety. “Despertando” avoids all temptation to wallow in nostalgia. What Pinera has achieved is to re-invent the place he dreams about, to awaken Latin jazz in a way which is deep-rootedly his own, and is able to stand on its own terms. Far removed from folklore, cliché and superficiality, this is not a reversion to the past, but to the present.Credits: Produced by Siggi Loch Recorded by Klaus Scheuermann at Hansa Studios Berlin, April 24 -25, 2017 Assistant: Nanni Johansson Mixed and mastered by Klaus Scheuermann The Art in Music: Cover art by Nathan Carter, Fascinator For For Gene Genie, 2016 Acrylic on aluminum, 74 x 63.25" / 188 x 160.7cm Courtesy of the artist and Casey Kaplan, New York