Alberto Conde / The Iberian Roots Trio - The Wake of an Artist

2019 release

By this time, the usual listeners of the Clean Feed catalogue are familiar with the name of the late Portuguese pianist and composer Bernardo Sassetti – the Lisbon-based label released five records with his name. Among those listeners, many musicians from other countries admire his exquisite and very personal writing and his astonishing work with the black and white keyboard. One of them is the Spanish (from Galicia) piano player Alberto Conde, who felt the need to pay tribute to his pair from the other side of the Iberian frontier.

With the support of the two other members of the Bernardo Sassetti Trio, Carlos Barretto and Alexandre Frazão, here is the result – a collection of interpretations of trademark pieces by Sassetti himself, “O Sonho dos Outros”, “Reflexos” and “Noite – Alice”, one from the contemporary music composer Federico Mompou usually included by Sassetti in his concert repertoire (“Musica Callada”) and scores by Conde, Pablo Beltrán and José Valente (also playing his viola in “Embalo para Bernardo”) composed under the influence of the artist who left us in 2012. Alberto Conde doesn’t try to sound like Bernardo Sassetti – he questions himself in reference to the other pianist, crossing several planes of ideas, like we hear in “Monkssetti”, an investigation of the ascendancy of Thelonious Monk in both of their improvisational approaches. The music is emotional, vibrant, poetic, reflecting the best Conde has to offer and the best Sassetti gave us in life.