The drummer Diego Pinera grew up in Montevideo (Uruguay) and has now been living in Germany for several years. He studied drumming at the Berklee College of Music (USA), at the University of Music in Havana (Cuba) and at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Leipzig. He received lessons from Danilo Perez, Bob Moses, Jose Luis Quintana ‘Changuito’, and Kenwood Denard.
Settled to Berlin he founded his Berlin Quartett and recorded his album Reflexiones feat. Tony Lakatos. In 2014 the Jazz Thing Next Generation Series with his album Strange Ways followed. In 2015 he recorded his album My Picture with Mark Turner and Ben Street in New York and he invited Donny McCaslin to play with him his release tour in May 2016.
As ‘Sideman’ he played with musicians such as Donny McCaslin, Jerry Bergonzi, Danilo Perez, Hans Glawischnig, Dan Tepfer, Alex Sipiagin, Miguel Zenon, Wilson de Oliveira, Tony Lakatos, Nene Vazquez, Joe Gallardo, Katja Riemann, Nils Wogram and Paul Brody.
With his Trio he achieved in his compositions a new, unusual approach to Latin Jazz. Sometimes this approaches Pop and Modern Jazz, sometimes he concentrates on the original, multilayered rhythms of this improvisational music. Pinera’s playing is nonetheless always grounded in the Latin American musical tradition.
Diego Pinera was nominated in 2015 for the ECHO Music Prize in the category ‘Best Instrumentalist of the Year’. In 2017 he received the prestigous prize ECHO Jazz for his album ‚my picture‚ as best instrumentalist national beside of his collegue Antonio Sanchez in the international category. In 2018 he released his Album ‚Despertando‚. It is his debut with ACT Music.
Since 2018, Diego Piñera is endorser for REMO drum heads. GEWA Drums is very happy about having Diego as a member of #teamremo!