I'm still in a numbed but ecstatic shock at listening to the music of Portuguese pianist Bernardo Sassetti. I didn't think there was music being made today as jaw droppingly beautiful as this. Recorded so brilliantly it feels like you're perching on the piano stool able to hear his breath, each piece seems to harken to ghosts of piano past with a lineage ending (and beginning?) with Bill Evans (or Debussy?). Actually I'm fed up with reviews that always mention Bill Evans when any pianist shows a sensitive side and uses those close chord voicing but in this case, with all of Sassetti's nocturnal majesty, it's the right allusion. His smouldering cover of Time For Love should come with an 'adult content' warning, his tribute Monkais sans bass sounds like somebody juggling chairs. The elegance and classical stateliness of the pieces like Musica Callada remind you of the breadth, depth and width of latin music often consigned to overblown beats and mucho cowbells. Always interesting and never soporific, Nocturno is a privilege to have and listen to over and over again.
Do you remember as a child finding a book, in my case Sweet Thursday or Catcher in the Rye and feeling like it was a friend in bed with you and you couldn't believe the meaning on each page related directly to your life? Bienvenuto Bernardo.
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