Edward Simon shows again on this new album of re-imagined songs from Venezuela what a very fine pianist he is. His touch and inventiveness, his command of counterpoint and voice-leading are never short of jaw-dropping, and what he does remarkably well here is to create a succession of specific, authentic moods from songs that have a personal resonance.
Simon is from that golden generation of musicians who studied as teenagers at the Philadelphia High School for Creative and Performing Arts (CAPA) – Christian McBride, Kurt Rosenwinkel and the late Joey De Francesco. Simon arrived there as a fifteen year-old from his native Venezuela (some sources say he was 10). He and McBride both joined Bobby Watson’s band at the same time, and the pianist has been in the top flight of American jazz musicians ever since, winning fistfuls of awards and commissions along the way, a Guggenheim Fellowship being just one of many.
He is also one of those pianists at the fascinating confluence of Latin American music and ‘American’ jazz – Eliane Elias (Brazil), Danilo Perez (Panama) and Luis Perdomo and Leo Blanco (fellow Venezuelans) also come to mind. Simon’s two albums of Latin American Songbooks explore those connections.
The first volume, released in August 2016, was a tour of very well-known latin "standards" done differently (“Volver” in tricksy seven-time, “Chega de Saudade” as the stepping-off point for one flight of solo fantasy after another, and “Libertango” with more freedom than dance). The new Volume 2 deals with songs from Venezuela and has a much more organic, authentic and connected feel.
He plays on this album in a trio of top flight players with whom he has worked for years: bassist Reuben Rogers might be to indelibly fixed in my mind as a member of Joshua Redman’s classic trio in the 2010s, but again and again on this album he shows his versatility and ability to convey real melodic heft and to carry emotion as soloist – both placked and "arco". Adam Cruz’s drumming here is every bit as crisp, fresh and youthful as it was on “Colega”, the opening track of Edward Simon’s self-titled debut album from 1995. It hardly needs saying: Simon, Cruz and Rogers know and understand each other’s playing very well indeed and seem to think with one mind.
The track which leans most directly into nostalgia is Lencho Amaro’s “Atardecer”, where the original, slow and gentle three of the vals venezolano is allowed to flourish, and Reuben Rogers plays the tune meltingly on plucked bass. Another tune which is often played as a waltz is Francisco de Paula Aguirre’s “Dama Antañona”, but Edward Simon produces a lengthy structure, nearly 18 minutes. It feels more like a soulful – and perfectly shaped – meditation on a tune from a time which can no longer exist. Nothing is superficial, every note seems lived, balanced, perfectly expressed, and yet he is looking back at the long-gone world of the original songs with massive regret - and poignancy here comes from a another beautifully lyrical bass solo. The opener “Presagio” has also moved even further away from the romantic images of the original (a wounded seagull as a symbol of lost love...) into exploiting the melodic and counterpoint possibilities of a fine tune.
There is a lot to enjoy, for the heart as much as the head. The recorded balance is superb. Edward Simon’s Venezuela Latin American Songbook Volume 2 is an album which definitely repays repeated and concentrated listens, and if it draws the listener back to an idealised, bygone and more innocent era of life in Venezuela, that can be no bad thing either.
- Venezuela: Latin American Songbook Volume 2 is out on Artistshare on 27 February 2026
- More New Music reviews on theartsdesk
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