Home » Jazz Articles » Album Review » Tim Daisy: A Fine Day In Berlin

Tim Daisy: A Fine Day In Berlin

By Mark Corroto
December 17, 2013
View read count

Blender drinks sometimes disguise their ingredients. A little peanut butter and banana tossed into your kale and spinach smoothie might provide just the right flavor camouflage. Likewise, adding drummer Tim Daisy (and his compositions) into a piano trio recording will produce results that are anything but standard trio fare.

Daisy, one of Chicago's go-to drummers for the past decade can be heard in duo with

Ken Vandermark

saxophone
b.1964

" data-original-title="" title="">Ken Vandermark and in his bands Made To Break, The Margots, and Topology Nonet. He also works in

Dave Rempis

saxophone
b.1975

" data-original-title="" title="">Dave Rempis' Percussion Quartet and The Engines, plus is a member of

James Falzone

clarinet

" data-original-title="" title="">James Falzone's Klang and Vox Arcana, and

Marc Riordan

drums

" data-original-title="" title="">Marc Riordan's Trio. His influence is also heard in European circles recording with Resonance Ensemble, Mikolaj Trzaska's Inner Ear, Hans-Peter Pfammatter, and Waclaw Zimpel.

A Fine Day In Berlin finds Daisy in the company of Norwegian pianist

Håvard Wiik

piano

" data-original-title="" title="">H?vard Wiik and Australian bassist Clayton Thomas. Their 'piano trio' might be marked with an asterisk, as it often functions here as a percussion trio and a minimalist improvising group; it often disguises its ingredients.

Thomas is a member of The Ames Room, a trio with saxophonist Jean-Luc Guionnet and drummer Will Guthrie. Wiik's piano, heard in the bands Atomic, Freefall, and Side A, can be lyrically beautiful or jaggedly emotional. Here, with Daisy coaxing nonlinear passages from the pianist, he responds with percussive runs, shimmering bells, and pounded block chords. The pieces, all lengthy, ebb and flow between meditative references, echoing experiments in percussive attack, and high speed improvisation. The disc is both densely packed and sparsely presented. Maybe that's what you get when you mix a Chicago sound into a European environment.

Learn more about our star rating system

Track Listing

Suite For Three; Spreepark Serenade; There Goes The Sun; Treptow Promenade.

Personnel

Tim Daisy: drums, percussion; Clayton Thomas: bass; H?vard Wiik: piano.

Album information

Title: A Fine Day In Berlin | Year Released: 2013 | Record Label: Relay

PREVIOUS / NEXT

What's Wrong With Today's Live Jazz
< Previous

Mark Corroto's Best Releases Of 2013
Next >

Support All About Jazz

All About Jazz has been a pillar of jazz since 1995, championing it as an art form and, more importantly, supporting the musicians who make it. Our enduring commitment has made "AAJ" one of the most culturally important websites of its kind, read by hundreds of thousands of fans, musicians and industry figures every month.

Go Ad Free!

To maintain our platform while developing new means to foster jazz discovery and connectivity, we need your help. You can become a sustaining member for as little as $20 and in return, we'll immediately hide those pesky ads plus provide access to future articles for a full year. This winning combination vastly improves your AAJ experience and allow us to vigorously build on the pioneering work we first started in 1995. So enjoy an ad-free AAJ experience and help us remain a positive beacon for jazz by making a donation today.