CURATION
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from this page:
by Augmented Matrix
Network Node
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Name:
Alex Conde
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City/Place:
Madrid
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Country:
Spain
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Hometown:
Valencia, Spain
Life & Work
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Bio:
Flamenco music, with its passionate flourishes and virtuosic improvisation, has long captivated jazz musicians. Miles Davis, Charles Mingus and Chick Corea have all been obsessed with flamenco. Pianist Alex Conde has emerged as one of the most versatile contemporary performers of jazz-flamenco fusion, dazzling audiences and earning rave reviews across the world.
Conde delivered these performances on the heels of recording his fourth album, “Origins” (2018, Ropeadope) with Marcus Gilmore on drums, Luques Curtis on bass, Dayna Stephens on saxophone, Brian Lynch on trumpet, Conrad Herwig on trombone, John Benitez on electric bass, and gypsy singer Ismael Fernandez.
The album was released in May 2018 with an official presentation at the legendary Blue Note in NY, Symphony Space on Broadway, and collaboration at the Lehman Performing Arts Center, alongside flamenco singer Diego el Cigala, before a fantastic audience of flamenco and jazz lovers.
These performances are a mere handful among hundreds in a career that began in Conde’s childhood in Valencia, Spain. A recognized prodigy, Conde demonstrated perfect pitch at the age of four. His parents gave him his first keyboard, and encouraged him as he began taking formal piano instruction. Conde practiced everything he heard from his father, Alejandro Conde, an acclaimed singer with more than 20 albums to his name, and one of the foremost performers of Copla, the flamenco-infused song book of popular works. Conde earned his first bachelor’s degree in Classical from the Jose Iturbi Conservatory of Music in 2001. From there, he went on to study at L’aula de Musica de Barcelona and earned a Diploma of Excellence in 2006.
In 2006, Conde was offered scholarships to pursue a second bachelor’s degree from Berklee College of Music. During his tenure at Berklee, his playing matured in his melding of musicality and increasing technical proficiency. He began playing professionally alongside jazz musicians and studied with trumpeter Mike Mossman, alto saxophonist Antonio Hart and pianist Jeb Patton.
In 2009, Conde met producer Fernando Brunet, with whom he released Jazz and Claps, an album featuring Alex original compositions. The album was released with Contraseña Records and opened the path of jazz and flamenco and stamped the music of Alex Conde as a center and as a mature composer and arranger for small ensemble.
In 2013, Conde self-produced and released his second album, Barrio del Carmen, a collection of music composed and arranged for the flamenco companies for which he has composed music over the years. The album features flamenco stars including gypsy singer Kina Mendez, nephew of the great Paquera de Jerez, and guitarist Jose Luis Rodriguez, long-time musical director for Cristina Hoyos. The album became a classic on TV programs such as Television Castilla la Mancha, presented by Rocío Sañudo, and in flamenco dance classes, where it is prized for its musicality and structure.
In 2015, Conde recorded an Iberian-inflected tribute to Thelonious Monk, Descarga for Monk (ZOHO), accompanied by seven-time Grammy-nominated percussionist John Santos and bassist Jeff Chambers, earning international recognition.
Today, Conde has become one of his generation’s pivotal figures in flamenco piano. With a fluid technique, an innovative tonal palette, and an extensive repertoire, he plays with the passion of a young artist and the command of a seasoned veteran, and remains in constant demand as both a studio artist and a performer.
More
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Quotes, Notes & Etc.
‘‘... Origins is a tremendous calling card for Alex Conde as composer and pianist. But it’s also a demonstration of the adaptability of Latin jazz, as the genre readily accepts Conde’s flamenco influences. Easily recommended to Latin jazz fans, with the additional spice of a fresh Spanish flavor.”
— MARK SULLIVAN, ALLABOUTJAZZ
“... When Alex Conde turns up the power at any given time, he’s like an orchestra all by himself. All of this firepower together with Marcus Gilmore, Conrad Herwig, Dayna Stephens and Luques Curtis makes Origins a very special experience. Mr. Conde is a pianist whose music is sustained by the fecundity of his Spanish roots. Through it all, of course, Mr. Conde is absolutely thrilling.”
— RAUL DA GAMA, LATIN JAZZ NETWORK
“... Gifted Spanish pianist Alex Conde, has his way with the high priest of bop in an adventurous all-Monk program.’’
— JAZZ CRITIC BILL MILKOWSKI
‘‘... [Alex’s] Thelonious Monk is rock solid. Its rhapsodic elegance is informed by all of the mystery and majesty of Monkish-ness. The elemental irreverence of Monk-music has been mastered by the young Spaniard. He worships at the altar of originality, as Thelonious Monk did, pouring his twisting duende into molten chords. His phrases make for lines that erupt with volcanic brilliance and a viscosity that is unlike anything that has been sung of Thelonious Monk in a very long time.”
— RAUL DA GAMA, LATIN JAZZ NETWORK
“... I have the honor of being part of this wonderful project. If you know Alex, you know what I’m talkin’ about. If not, you need to check him out. He’s a virtuoso pianist from Spain, and has prepared some extremely hip arrangements of classic and off-the-beaten-path Monk compositions — just when you thought you’ve heard Monk every way possible. The intimate setting and the sparkling musicianship of my colleagues is a ripe combination.”
— SEVEN-TIME GRAMMY-NOMINATED ARTIST JOHN SANTOS
My Instruction
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Lessons/Workshops:
For private or online lessons and music scores please contact: (English and Spanish)
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Instruction:
http://[email protected]
Clips (more may be added)
We use the mathematics of the small world phenomenon to transform the creative universe into a creative village wherein all are connected by short pathways to all... (Wolfram explains how above)
This Integrated Global Creative Economy uncoils from a sprawling Indigenous, African, Sephardic and then Ashkenazic, Arabic, European, Asian cultural matrix...
Great culture is great power. From Brazil.
"Thanks, this is a brilliant idea!!"
—Alicia Svigals (NEW YORK CITY): Apotheosis of klezmer violinists
"Dear Sparrow: I am thrilled to receive your email! Thank you for including me in this wonderful matrix."
—Susan Rogers (BOSTON): Director of the Berklee Music Perception and Cognition Laboratory ... Former personal recording engineer for Prince; "Purple Rain", "Sign o' the Times", "Around the World in a Day"
"Dear Sparrow, Many thanks for this – I am touched!"
—Julian Lloyd Webber (LONDON): Premier cellist in UK; brother of Andrew (Evita, Jesus Christ Superstar, Cats, Phantom of the Opera...)
"This is super impressive work ! Congratulations ! Thanks for including me :)))"
—Clarice Assad (RIO DE JANEIRO/CHICAGO): Pianist and composer with works performed by Yo Yo Ma and orchestras around the world
"We appreciate you including Kamasi in the matrix, Sparrow."
—Banch Abegaze (LOS ANGELES): manager, Kamasi Washington
"Thanks! It looks great!....I didn't write 'Cantaloupe Island' though...Herbie Hancock did! Great Page though, well done! best, Randy"
Our Matrix was conceived under a Spiritus Mundi ranging from the quilombos and senzalas of Cachoeira and Santo Amaro to Havana and the provinces of Cuba to the wards of New Orleans to the South Side of Chicago to the sidewalks of Harlem to the townships of South Africa to the villages of Ireland to the Roma camps of France and Belgium to the Vienna of Beethoven to the shtetls of Eastern Europe...*
Sodré
*...in conversation with Raymundo Sodré, who summed up the irony in this sequence by opining for the ages: "Where there's misery, there's music!" Hence A Massa, anthem for the trod-upon folk of Brazil, which blasted from every radio between the Amazon and Brazil's industrial south until...
And hence a platform whereupon all creators tend to accessible proximity to all other creators, irrespective of degree of fame, location, or the censor.
Matrix Ground Zero is the Recôncavo, bewitching and bewitched, contouring the resplendent Bay of All Saints (end of clip below, before credits), absolute center of terrestrial gravity for the disembarkation of enslaved human beings (and for the sublimity these people created), the bay presided over by Brazil's ineffable Black Rome (where Bule Bule is seated below, around the corner from where we built this matrix as an extension of our record shop).
Assis Valente's (of Santo Amaro, Bahia) "Brasil Pandeiro" filmed by Betão Aguiar
Betão Aguiar
("Black Rome" is an appellation per Caetano, via Mãe Aninha of Ilê Axé Opô Afonjá.)
Replete with Brazilian greatness, but we listened to Miles Davis and Jimmy Cliff in there too; visitors are David Dye & Kim Junod for NPR/WXPN
I opened the shop in Salvador, Bahia in 2005 in order to create an outlet to the wider world for magnificent Brazilian musicians.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar found us (he's a huge jazz fan), David Byrne, Oscar Castro-Neves... Spike Lee walked past the place while I was sitting on the stoop across the street drinking beer and listening to samba from the speaker in the window...
But we weren't exactly easy for the world-at-large to get to. So in order to extend the place's ethos I transformed the site associated with it into a network wherein Brazilian musicians I knew would recommend other Brazilian musicians, who would recommend others...
And as I anticipated, the chalky hand of God-as-mathematician intervened: In human society — per the small-world phenomenon — most of the billions of us on earth are within some 6 or fewer degrees of each other. Likewise, within a network of interlinked artists as I've described above, most of these artists will in the same manner be at most a handful of steps away from each other.
So then, all that's necessary to put the Brazilians within possible purview of the wide wide world is to include them among a wide wide range of artists around that world.
If, for example, Quincy Jones is inside the matrix, then anybody on his page — whether they be accessing from a campus in L.A., a pub in Dublin, a shebeen in Cape Town, a tent in Mongolia — will be close, transitable steps away from Raymundo Sodré, even if they know nothing of Brazil and are unaware that Sodré sings/dances upon this planet. Sodré, having been knocked from the perch of fame and ground into anonymity by Brazil's dictatorship, has now the alternative of access to the world-at-large via recourse to the vast potential of network theory.
...to the degree that other artists et al — writers, researchers, filmmakers, painters, choreographers...everywhere — do also. Artificial intelligence not required. Real intelligence, yes.
The deep roots of this project are in Manhattan, where Allen Klein (managed the Beatles and The Rolling Stones) called me about royalties for the estate of Sam Cooke... where Jerry Ragovoy (co-wrote Time is On My Side, sung by the Stones; Piece of My Heart, Janis Joplin of course; and Pata Pata, sung by the great Miriam Makeba) called me looking for unpaid royalties... where I did contract and licensing for Carlinhos Brown's participation on Bahia Black with Wayne Shorter and Herbie Hancock...
...where I rescued unpaid royalties for Aretha Franklin (from Atlantic Records), Barbra Streisand (from CBS Records), Led Zeppelin, Mongo Santamaria, Gilberto Gil, Astrud Gilberto, Airto Moreira, Jim Hall, Wah Wah Watson (Melvin Ragin), Ray Barretto, Philip Glass, Clement "Sir Coxsone" Dodd for his interest in Bob Marley compositions, Cat Stevens/Yusuf Islam and others...
...where I worked with Earl "Speedo" Carroll of the Cadillacs (who went from doo-wopping as a kid on Harlem streetcorners to top of the charts to working as a janitor at P.S. 87 in Manhattan without ever losing what it was that made him special in the first place), and with Jake and Zeke Carey of The Flamingos (I Only Have Eyes for You)... stuff like that.
Yeah this is Bob's first record contract, made with Clement "Sir Coxsone" Dodd of Studio One and co-signed by his aunt because he was under 21. I took it to Black Rock to argue with CBS' lawyers about the royalties they didn't want to pay (they paid).
Matrix founding creators are behind "one of 10 of the best (radios) around the world", per The Guardian.
Salvador is our base. If you plan to visit Bahia, there are some things you should probably know and you should first visit:
www.salvadorbahiabrazil.comAcross the creative universe... For another list, reload page.
This list is random, and incomplete. Reload the page for another list.
Wolfram MathWorld
Ex Terra Brasilis
Alicia Svigals
Susan Rogers
Julian Lloyd Webber
Clarice Assad
Kamasi Washington
Randy Brecker
Roberto Mendes
Luciano Calazans
Gustavo Caribé
J Velloso
Lázaro Ramos
Fernando Guerreiro
Maria Marighella
Russell Okung
Bule Bule
Caetano Veloso
RÁDIO MATRIX