BERNARDO SASSETTI TRIO – Motion – CD – CF177CD

After seven years of the enormous success obtained by the album “Nocturno”, the most selled instrumental jazz record ever in Portugal, the Bernardo Sassetti Trio is back with another masterwork. “Motion” opens with a surprising jazz arrangement of a song by Mark Linkous for the alternative rock band Sparkle Horse, and includes an exquisite version of a piece by the catalan classical contemporary composer Federico Mompou. The rest are wonderful suites written by the renowned Portuguese jazz pianist, also internationally recognized as the author of several film soundtracks. Bernardo Sassetti is like a good Portuguese red wine: he gets better over the years. And in “Motion” we find him at the top of his game, either dealing with the black and white keyboard as with a pen. His trio with Carlos Barretto (double bass) and Alexandre Frazão (drums) is the older and most stable combo in this country (more than 12 years now), but the music they present in this CD isn’t the freezed result of a closed concept: it developed in astonishing ways, it’s more profound and incisive, more mysterious and sublimated. Like with Sparkle Horse, this music can be surrealistic and ethereal, and like with Mompou it deals with secret emotions and with the essentiality obtained by the use of fewer, but fundamental and opportune, notes and sounds. What a fantastic achievement indeed!

Clean Feed Records