Pianist and composer Edward Simon beautifully recasts the music of his native Venezuela in a jazz idiom, and trumpeter and composer Adam O’Farrill blends minimalism and postbop in a dazzling contemporary offering.

Edward Simon
Venezuela: Latin American Songbook Vol. 2 (ArtistShare)
A review
Award-winning pianist, arranger, and producer Edward Simon returns to the music of his native country once more on Venezuela: Latin American Songbook Vol. 2, and once more, his recasting of popular and traditional Latin American music in a contemporary jazz setting offers a collection as sophisticated as it is approachable. Ably assisting him are his usual trio collaborators, Reuben Rogers (bass) and Adam Cruz (drums), with guest Venezuelan multi-instrumentalist Jackeline Rago on cuatro and maracas on one track. Simon’s sensitivity, alert to the nuances of romantic feeling, delivers illuminating arrangements and performances across each of the album’s six tunes. At the center of the album is Francisco de Paula Aguirre’s “Dama Antañona” (“Woman of Yesteryear”), which celebrates the reserve and refinement of Venezuelan women of the colonial era. Simon unpacks the tune’s nostalgic recollection in successive sections over nearly 18 quickly passing minutes that culminate in a triumphant close. The ache and the madness of longing are eloquently communicated in José “Pollo” Sifontes’ “Anhelante,” with Rogers’ expressive bass taking the lead. His arco work and Cruz’s cymbal work are instrumental in capturing the heartache of Simón Díaz’s “Sabana,” which chronicles the longing for home of the campesinos who left their lands to find work in the oil fields. Rounding out the collection are Enrique Hidalgo’s “Presagio,” which mourns lost love, Alejandro Luis Laguna’s “Atardecer,” which celebrates romance, and Jacob Do Bandolim’s “El Vuelo de la Mosca” (“The Flight of the Fly”), a burning joropo that has Simon’s fingers flying. At the center of it all are Simon’s fluid and balanced pianism and his astute and moving arrangements. Available on the usual streaming platforms and at artistshare.com.

Adam O’Farrill
Elephant (Out of Your Head Records)
A review
If you are looking for the standard jazz structures (e.g., head–improv–head), you won’t find much of it on trumpeter and composer Adam O’Farrill’s latest release—and his first as the only horn in the group—Elephant. What you will find are dazzling, linearly developed original compositions, and one cover, that draw as much on minimalism as they do on postbop sensibilities, with morphing motifs, fearless improvisations, and a dose of electronics to enhance the textural possibilities. O’Farrill (trumpet/electronics, Fender Rhodes on track 1) is joined by Yvonne Rogers (piano, synthesizer), Walter Stinson (double bass), and Russell Holzman (drums)—all of whom offer inspired support. Rogers, in particular, makes signal contributions in bringing O’Farrill’s music to life, all in as both accompanist and soloist. The opening track, “Curves and Convolutions,” sets the stage for the album, beginning with an insistently repeating pattern on the piano and an aggressively plucked bass in step with the punctuating drum kit. O’Farrill states his thesis with clipped, guttural tones squeezed from the trumpet before picking up the piano’s line and dropping out. The rhythm section deconstructs the rhythmic elements in a stop/start section, which segues into a dreamlike passage with the trumpet returning. With the rhythm section rippling along in dreamy accompaniment, O’Farrill then launches into a powerful and expressive improvisation that draws the entire quartet into a march that culminates in a sea of sound. Quite a journey in just under seven minutes. O’Farrill employs a wide variety of sonic qualities across the album, among the most remarkable and affecting of which is his whale song–like expression on the lovely “Sea Tryptich, Pt. 2—The Three of Us, Floating.” The album closes with O’Farrill’s reimagining of Ryuichi Sakamoto’s beautiful “Bibo No Aozora,” famously featured the 2006 film Babel, with the quartet drawing a world of feeling from the continually morphing five-note motif. Elephant’s stirring, intricately constructed compositions stretch the boundaries of contemporary jazz, and they are delivered with exceptional musicality, technical brilliance, and fierce immediacy. Available March 20.

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