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.

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.


One of the leading jazz artists from Latin America and perhaps best known as a member of the SF Jazz Collective, award-winning Venezuelan composer and pianist Edward Simon makes good use of both his jazz chops and his Latin background on his latest release, Las Femeninas, Songs of Latin American Women, which features jewels from the Latin American songbook—all by female songwriters—in exquisite jazz settings. In addition to those songs, Simon’s Latino Soy suite graces the album with three original compositions. Simon’s trio, with Reuben Rogers on bass and Adam Cruz on drums, will bring that music to the Outpost this week, along with two guest artists, Grammy-nominated Mexican vocalist Magos Herrera and Venezuelan percussionist Luis Quintero.

A few weeks ago, when I complained about many jazz solos sounding the same these days, I discovered that I was not alone. One colleague put it this way: “Too many jazz degrees, not enough jazz players.” Well, we don’t need to worry about that on these two releases. Most of these folks have jazz degrees, and they are all jazz players.
