Edward Simon’s Quarter-Century

courtesy of Braithwaite & Katz Communications

This coming Friday Ridgeway Records will release Edward Simon’s latest album 25 Years. This is a retrospective anthology of tracks from thirteen albums that Simon recorded between 1995 and 2018, marking a quarter-century of achievements as pianist, composer, and bandleader. As is usually the case, Amazon.com has created a Web page for those wishing to pre-order this new release.

Simon has become a significant figure here in San Francisco through his affiliation with both SFJAZZ and San Francisco Performances (SFP). His most recent affiliation with SFP involved preparing a series of Salon concerts, which began this past January. Unfortunately, the last of the four planned concerts, scheduled for April 15, had to be cancelled due to COVID lockdown conditions. By way of compensation, he contributed a video performance as the fourth and last of the SFP Sanctuary Series of concerts. Next month he will prepare another video performance, this time for the Piano Break series presented by the Ross McKee Foundation.

While Simon is best known for his many imaginative approaches to jazz, he has devoted much of his SFP time to exploring compositions by the twentieth-century Catalan composer, Federico Mompou. This side of his development cannot be found on the 25 Years anthology, but there is still impressive diversity in both style and instrumentation that cuts across the seventeen tracks on these two CDs. Furthermore, an impressive number of colleagues and partners are represented across those tracks.

Personally, I was glad to encounter two tracks from the Océanos album that included the vocal work on Luciana Souza, another artist whose presence in San Francisco owes much to SFP. There is also a track from a live SFJAZZ album on which Simon is joined by Miguel Zenón on alto saxophone, Sean Jones on trumpet, Obed Calvaire on drums, and many others. Indeed, the entire album involves a dialog between recent original compositions (one by Simon) and three “past masters,” Thelonious Monk, Ornette Coleman, and Stevie Wonder.

From a purely selfish point of view, I have to confess that I came late to my awareness of Simon and his work. As a result the only album I have discussed in the past has been Sorrows and Triumphs, four of whose tracks featured the quintet of the Imani Winds. (One of those tracks, “Uninvited Thoughts,” is included in 25 Years.) Working my way through this retrospective collection is likely to make me a better informed listener at my next opportunity to experience one of Simon’s performances.