Clifton Worsley: Valse Boston “Vertige“

Not much is known about the pianist and composer Pere Astort i Ribas, better known – or maybe less unknown – by the alias Clifton Worsley. Despite being one of the most famous musicians in the city of Barcelona at the turn of the 20th century, it is next to impossible to find any mention of him in any history of Catalan music. Great efforts will uncover just a few encyclopaedic references to him, in spite of his importance: a distinguished Barcelonian who found success in the United States with compositions he wrote himself, inspired by the popular music from the other side of the Atlantic. A jazz pioneer from Catalonia? A musical visionary who was able to predict the fashionable trends in Barcelona’s most sophisticated dance halls during the first third of the 20th century? Or just a composer of popular pieces who, without at all realising, wrote waltzes comparable to the music of the first jazz schools? Perhaps. There is one thing about Pere Astort that we know for certain: he died in Barcelona on 13