Keep (it) Swinging: Michael Simon releases promising album: New York Encounter

MICHAEL SIMON releases promising album: NEW YORK ENCOUNTER
The Dutch - Venezuelan trumpet player second album ..... Hans Koert

Michael Simon brengt veelbelovend album uit: New York Encounter (Nederlands)Michael Simon releases a promising album New York Encounter (English)

The album New York Encounter by the Dutch - Venezuelan trumpet player Michael Simon, which was released two years ago, is the second album under his own name. The first was with his group Roots United and entitled Revelacion. Michael's trumpet can be heard on dozens other productions and I came into contact with his music thanks to a great album, For Now, a production in which the Dutch - Surinam band De Nazaten performs together with baritone saxophone player James Carter.

The album New York Encounter was recorded in the US with a great band, which features Miguel Zenon on alto saxophone, Peter Brainin on tenor saxophone, Andy Gonzalez on double bass and Roberto Quintero on various percussion instruments. His two brothers, Edward and Marlon can be heard on piano and drums.

Michael Simon ( source: www.michaelsimon.nl )
Michael Simon was born in Punta Cardón in Venezuela January 1975 and was raised in a musical family. His father was a guitar player and vocalist and his brothers are active in music too, as told before. He started to learn to play the trumpet as a young teenager and became interested in jazz music, thanks to his brothers. He studied at the Escuela de Superación Professional Ignacio Cervantes in Havana, Cuba. He learned to play trumpet from musicians like Juan Mungula, who played with Irakere, the group that inspired him. Fascinated by jazz music he wanted to become a jazz musician and did an audition at the Rotterdam Conservatory, which he finished in 1998. Since that times he lives in Holland. He is a sought after trumpet player in world/jazz ensembles like De Nazaten and the Dutch Fra Fra Sound and the Lucas van Merwijk Cubop City Big Band. He founded his own Latin jazz septet Roots United and the Caribbean Jazz Quartet Crianzas. He loves to play with his brothers band, like the Nagual Spirits, directed by Marlon Simon, and the Simon, Simon & Simon Reunion project as a kind of modern reconstruction of the Heath Brothers or Jones Brothers bands.

Michael loves to compose his own music and this eight track album has six own compositions; two others are composed by his brother Edward. His music has, especially in the first tracks, that Latin American groove I do like from musicians like Claudio Roditi. Claudio Roditi has that unique mix from hard bop jazz with Latin American rhythms, which you can hear in the opening tune
The tune House of Thoughts starts like a classical choral it seems, but develops into a modern arranged jazz theme with a mix of Afro-Venezuelan and Afro-Cuban rhythms. It is one of the tracks that surprise. This album is like a good bottle of wine, which doesn't shows its refined taste right after the first sip. An promising album by a talented trumpet player; an album to play and replay .... You can find a copy of this album at Michael Simon's website.

Hans Koert

keepswinging@live.nl

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Some albums escape ones notice, like this great second album by the Dutch - Venezuelan trumpet player Michael Simons. An album with well arranged compositions by Michael Simon, rooted in the hardbop - latin-american tradition - a promising trumpet player and a great composer to keep an eye on..............

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