Tim Collins Trio – “Uncertainty” (CD & Digital Download)

“Uncertainty” is probably the understatement of the year in 2020, and honestly, I named the record back in February before the REAL uncertainty took over the world. I thought about changing the title, but then I figured it’s fitting so I might as well keep it.

I’m not one to have any big master grand plans or deep stories behind a record – rather I think this record just represents an overall feeling I hadn’t been able to quite pinpoint.. a general unease with where things are going.

This album is meditative, slow, possibly a bit dark – and very beautiful (I think so at least, hopefully you agree with me ;).

I had the pleasure to record with two of my friends in Munich, although they are both from Japan – Shinya Fukumori and Masaki Kai. The enigmatic and mysterious Gwen also contributed her vocal talents to this record.

Everything was recorded in one day, and almost all of the songs were done in one take.

“The Other Side” – an ethereal 5/4 melody that weaves around but always gets stuck in my head..

“Gray” – a slow, dark, cloud is rolling in. How will we react to it?

“Babble” – inspired by a musician here in Munich, this song uses the beautiful up tempo African 9/8 rhythms.

“Some Other Time” – from the musical “Our Town”, one of the classic compositions of Leonard Bernstein, with inspiration from Bill Evan’s arrangement of the song.

“Ichiro” – both Shinya and I are huge baseball fans, and Ichiro Suzuki is a cultural icon. This song is quick, surprising, and most of all fun – just like the player himself.

“I See The Sky” – sung beautifully by special guest Gwen, this is a singer/songwriter style piece from a band called Cat & The Kings that always gets stuck in my head.

“Serenade” – simple, haunting, uplifting melody by Shinya Fukumori.

“Dolphin Dance” – Herbie Hancock, do I really need to say any more?

“Youth” – another gorgeous ballad written by Shinya, he writes melodies that can open up into so much, or they can simply be stated as is and it’s always powerful and memorable.

“Wrecked” – This song is inspired by the Tom Petty song “You Wreck Me”. I wrote it in a hotel room by singing the melody and playing the bass line on my iPhone piano. Not kidding.

“The Observer” – This waltz originally started out as being entirely in the key of C, but I quickly got sick of that key and decided to put the first three lines in three different keys, while keeping the same melody structure.

“Uncertainty” – Most of the new compositions are the result of early morning improvisations on either piano or vibraphone that I recorded and transcribed later. This piece is very meditative, with the repeating vibraphone riff at the beginning and end. It’s “through-composed” which means there aren’t really any repeating sections other than the intro and outro.

As always, thank you for listening and I hope you enjoy the music!

–Tim