Tim Collins grew up in Plattsburgh taking piano lessons. But he really wanted to be a drummer. Those dual tracks led him to a less common instrument, the vibraphone. "Drums plus piano equals vibes, eventually," said Collins, laughing. "That's the formula. For me, I got into vibes in college."
Today Tim Collins is a world-renowned jazz vibes player who lives in Munich, Germany. He's returning this weekend for a hometown concert with the German band Quadro Nuevo Sunday at 3pm at the Strand Theatre in Plattsburgh. It's put on by Hill and Hollow Music.
Plattsburgh native Tim Collins on the vibraphone, his music, and Quadro Nuevo
Tim Collins spoke with David Sommerstein. Their conversation has been lightly edited for clarity.
TIM COLLINS: Sometimes I'm playing music despite the vibes. It's like that's just what I'm the best at. That's the instrument I can express myself the best on, but that doesn't mean I don't wish I played something else once in a while.
It's an instrument that definitely conjures up imagery. Some of it can kind of be old-fashioned too. Like you might immediately think of a 1950s movie or something, but it's kind of cool now how you're starting to see young vibraphone players come up who are taking the old-fashioned sound of the vibraphone and putting it in a completely new context and therefore kind of redefining it.
DAVID SOMMERSTEIN: Let's talk about your latest music. I was listening to a new single "Frame by Frame'. Tell us about that.
COLLINS: That's a King Crimson cover from 1981! I told you that I grew up playing drums. Well, that means I have eighteen Rush CDs and five or six King Crimson CDs. This one I've been wanting to play for probably 20 years. In fact, I've tried it a few times but it's so convoluted. The original is two guitars, bass, and drums and there's singing and overdubs and stuff. I did three or four vibraphone parts, two different piano parts. I played the electric bass. I played the drums. I played all the parts on that.
SOMMERSTEIN: Tell us a little bit about the music that you're going to be playing in the North Country with Quadro Nuevo.
COLLINS: Quedro Nuevo is a band that has existed since 1996, somewhere around there. They're musicians that I met since I've been living in Germany. And they've been touring. They've played the Montreal Jazz Festival. They've played Mexico Jazz Festival. They've played in Carnegie Hall.
One of their original members about 10 years ago passed away and since then they've used a rotating cast of people to fill that fourth spot. And so for the last four years, they've been having me on vibraphone. And so I've been touring Germany with them off and on the last four years. When the opportunity came up to play in the North Country, they were super excited and I was very excited to have the opportunity to bring them here.
The music is a mix of everything: tango, jazz, minimalist pop, sort of Radiohead vibes.
SOMMERSTEIN: It says here, "the melodies of Old Europe and the Mediterranean spirit of 'la dolce vita' have always been the defining features of Quadro Nuevo's sound."
COLLINS: Yes, that's a pretty good way to describe it. They are these guys who are keen to play on the street anywhere. There's a piece that we play called 'Canzone della Strada". It's in Italian, it means 'song of the street' and it sounds like street music and it's really lively.
SOMMERSTEIN: How do you feel as a musician plugging in with these three guys who have played together for so long?
COLLINS: Man, that's one of the things that makes it really easy because they've played together so long that they can read each other's minds. If we want to play a new tune, obviously, I'll do my homework and I'll go and check some tunes that maybe I've never played with them. I'll check it and make sure I know how all of the parts go so I can fit it in but as far as playing live, I think I've played probably 70 to 100 gigs with them and there's a lot of non-verbal communication going on. But also everybody just knows the music so through and through that it's quite easy. It's like just jumping on a nice moving train.
One of the things that impresses me the most about this band is how seriously they take the background story of the music. During COVID, everything shut down and everybody went online. We started doing online concerts and everything. And then the saxophone player had this idea that he was going to just read lots and lots of books, right? It's a pandemic ,everything shut down. I'm gonna read books. He started with Homer's Odyssey and he never got any further than that because what happened was as he's reading the book, he had a great idea which was to take the band plus several other people to rent a ship, like one of these old-style ships and sail through the Greek Islands and follow the path of Homer's Odyssey. The entire goal for this was to get inspiration. Composing for somebody like me, a jazz musician, I'm like, 'all right. I need to write a tune. All right, I need a waltz. I need a tempo. I need something, blah blah,' and then I sit down and I try to do it. These guys are like, yeah, let's make an album but let's first take a ship through the Aeolian sea and let's find some inspiration that way.
I love coming back to Plattsburgh and playing for Hill and Hollow. Every time I've done it, there's no substitute. I may live in Germany for 15 years, but it really doesn't matter where I go or how long, Plattsburgh always has been, always will be my home. That's the end of the story. Period. Finished. That's it. That's how it is.