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Krzysztof Penarski<br />
Tim Daisy I Juggling Finesse & Fury<br />
Chicago’s intimate, homey venue the<br />
Hideout has a reputation for creative<br />
bookings like the free-jazz outfit Klang, which<br />
played a CD release gig there in May. The<br />
band’s drummer, Tim Daisy, juggled finesse,<br />
fury and fun rhythmic interplay as though he’d<br />
filled up on ultra-high octane beforehand.<br />
Not that Daisy had an easy assignment:<br />
The new Klang album Other Doors (Allos<br />
Documents) takes the music of Benny<br />
Goodman, along with Goodman-inspired originals,<br />
and launches it all on an improvisational<br />
flight that ricochets from familiar themes to<br />
ferocious flights, then back again. But Daisy,<br />
34, has the stamina and smarts to pull it off live,<br />
whether hitting his staccato stops with exactitude,<br />
or chasing the torrential runs of clarinetist<br />
James Falzone as though running sweet circles<br />
around a twister. In Daisy’s capable hands,<br />
the music of Goodman emerged as though telegraphed<br />
from a Gotham back alley during the<br />
ebb and flow of a stormy midsummer’s eve.<br />
Daisy provides the surest foundation imaginable<br />
for this formidable quartet. He’s also a<br />
joy to watch; rendering the album’s title track,<br />
Daisy whipped his brushes on the rims into<br />
such a froth of sound that you might think<br />
locusts had swarmed the stage.<br />
Daisy’s adventurous playing reflects a wide<br />
range of influences, running the gamut from<br />
avant-garde pioneer Milford Graves to postbop<br />
paragon Elvin Jones. Daisy also counts<br />
himself a fan of European improvisers such as<br />
German drummer Paul Lovens.<br />
Closer to home, he credits fellow Chicago<br />
musicians for toughening and tightening his<br />
sound, and helping him find his voice as a<br />
percussionist. “One beautiful thing about the<br />
scene here is that we all work in various groups<br />
together, so we get to know each other as players,”<br />
said Daisy, who performs frequently<br />
with acclaimed saxophonist Ken Vandermark.<br />
Daisy and Falzone trade places as bandleaders<br />
for the outfit Vox Arcana, which also includes<br />
Klang contributor Fred Lonberg-Holm on cello.<br />
Daisy says the side project has deepened<br />
his approach to Klang’s excursions: “It’s very<br />
structured chamber music, so there’s a different<br />
vocabulary. You bring that back into Klang,<br />
and it changes things in all sorts of ways.<br />
There’s a fluidness and a synergy that creates<br />
an expanded sense of possibility.”<br />
Daisy has developed a great working relationship<br />
with Vandermark: “He’s got one of the<br />
strongest work ethics I’ve ever seen,” Daisy<br />
says. “He’s constantly putting together bands,<br />
setting up rehearsals, making records. I’ve<br />
actually learned a lot just hanging out with him.<br />
On the road, he’s taking me to art museums.”<br />
Daisy’s two new releases are duo projects.<br />
He recorded The Conversation (Multikulti)<br />
with Vandermark, and The Flower And The<br />
Bear (Relay) with cellist Daniel Levin.<br />
In his own way, Daisy has fashioned an<br />
approach to drums and rhythm that goes far<br />
beyond meter and tempo, into the realm where<br />
his playing splashes color like Jackson Pollock<br />
one minute and renders a sublime backdrop of<br />
cyan-tinged hues the next.<br />
Beyond that, Daisy’s also a guy who’ll substitute<br />
knitting needles for sticks to generate an<br />
exotic percussive thread, or smack an ashtray<br />
if it helps him close a musical sentence with<br />
trashy punctuation.<br />
Chicago music lovers who haven’t seen<br />
Daisy play should check him out soon, with<br />
Klang or any of his other projects, because if<br />
he has his way, the future will turn this rhythm<br />
king into a road warrior. “I’d like to do more<br />
touring with my own groups,” he says. “I love<br />
traveling and meeting people, playing in front<br />
of new crowds.”<br />
—Lou Carlozo<br />
SEPTEMBER 2011 DOWNBEAT 21