Artist: Bernat Font Trio
Album: The Sand: Live
Genre: Swing, Ragtime
Label: Swit Records
Released: 2014
Quality: FLAC (tracks+.cue)
Tracklist:
- Opening (4:38)
- Mice (4:25)
- Smiling Woo (3:44)
- Ulls Ametlla (4:25)
- Seafood (8:18)
- People (4:44)
- Crawlin' Rag (piano solo) (5:08)
- Disappearance (4:12)
- Himalayan Sun (5:37)
- Dreams Can Be Nightmares (5:10)
- Wakin' Up Peacefully (5:52)
- The Lord Is Back (5:37)
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A new record from Bernat Font is cause for total celebration. And more so when it is live, which is where his music radiates all the passion boiling inside, which is considerable. Blues, swing, jazz, ragtime, boogie, stride… all the styles meld in the fingers of this keyboard prodigy who gives off a fire that sets the spirit burning as soon as it hits your ears.
The ability to shake loose is uncontainable, as this recording makes clear with the reinvention of three numbers from his first studio album (Ulls Ametlla, Seafood and The Lord Is Back), a composition from the second (Himalayan Sun), and eight new pieces that give him the chance to show off his skills as both a composer and an instrumentalist.
Although the sources nurturing his musical outpouring lie in both the primitive cult (Scott Joplin) and the popular (Fats Waller), Font knows how to carry this primal current into the 21st century by drawing on other contemporary sources, from Thelonious Monk to Keith Jarrett.
Nor are the classics–from Bach to Liszt–overlooked in his enlightened pianistic efforts. It is the combination of lyricism, acceleration, and precision that confers uniqueness on his artistic personality. This is the admirable virtue of what he offers, which quickly becomes a challenge by shaking up the poor understanding of the contemporary held by the overlyliterate while also leaving the purists squirming.
His technique is beyond reproach, but he never deigns to show off his virtuosity, which leaves a pleasant taste. His skill is in service to the stories, images, and experiences that inspire his compositions and make of him an imaginative and powerful teller of stories in sound, like few others.
He benefits from the support of an impeccable rhythm section made up of bassist Ivan Kovacevic and Marti Elias on drums. They comprise an extraordinary, veritable cornerstone that keeps the flame lit under the eighty-eight keys of this magic pianist.
Review by Pere Pons