Edward Simon at Jazz Bakery in Los Angeles

Venezuelan pianist Edward Simon is going to be at Jazz Bakery today.Edward Simon was born in the coastal town of Punta Cardon, Venezuela where he grew up in a family of musicians surrounded by the sounds and rhythms of Latin and Caribbean music. The talent he showed as a youth led his father to send him to study in the US, where he won scholarships in classical piano at The University of the Arts in Philadelphia under the tutelage of concert pianist Susan Starr and in jazz at the Manhattan School of Music where he studied with Harold Danko. While a student in his teens, Simon performed with Philly guitarist Kevin Eubanks and saxophonist Greg Osby. Settling in New York City in 1989, he performed with many jazz masters, including Herbie Mann, Paquito D'Rivera, Bobby Hutcherson, Bobby Watson, Terence Blanchard, Jerry Gonzalez and The Fort Apache Band, Arturo Sandoval, Many Oquendo and Libre and Don Byron. Simon quickly discovered that if he wanted to use jazz as a medium of expression he needed to immerse himself in this tradition. Membership in Bobby Watsons influential group Horizon (1989-94) and the Terence Blanchard Group (1994-2002) were instrumental to this end during his formative years. The experience of playing with Paquito D'Rivera proved to be pivotal, as it sparked an interest in the music of his native country. Simon made his first recording as a leader in 1994 (Beauty Within, on Audioquest), giving birth to the Edward Simon Trio. That same year he became a Thelonious Monk International Jazz Piano Competition finalist. Since then he has written extensively for the trio, using it as a platform for other projects and developing his unique compositional voice. In 1995 Edward received his first commission and composed Rumba Neurotica for the Relage Ensemble.