Acoustic pianist Jon Simon has carved out a musical niche with his repertoire of Jewish music, mixing traditional melodies and well-known folk songs. A few years ago, he even recorded an album of solo piano tunes from the Beatles. But Simon’s ninth CD finds the artist in a mood that suits him best-creating music he calls “jazz to lift you higher.” The musicianship is top-notch, as top session performers like bassist Roberto Vally, drummer Dave Beyer, saxophonist and flutist Mike Nelson and guitarist and B3 keys man Troy Dexter are along for the ride.
As befits a CD that is meant to inspire, the melodies are rich and mostly on the mellow side. There’s some Latin on “Fiesta del Sol” and some R&B with “On Top of the World,” but the best pieces here are “With the Wind” and “The Journey” as Jon Williams’ emotive vocalese give them a taste of Metheny-esque grandeur. Nothing too meaty-just nice.
Related Posts
Sonny Terry/Brownie McGhee: Backwater Blues
Start Your Free Trial to Continue Reading
Become a JazzTimes member to explore our complete archive of interviews, profiles, columns, and reviews written by music’s best journalists and critics.
Jonathan Butler: The Simple Life
Jonathan Butler’s optimistic music belies a dirt-poor childhood growing up in a South Africa segregated by apartheid. Live in South Africa, a new CD and DVD package, presents a sense of the resulting inner turmoil, mixed with dogged resolve, that paved the way to his status as an icon in his country and successful musician outside of it. Looking back, the 46-year-old Butler says today, the driving forces that led to his overcoming apartheid-the formal policy of racial separation and economic discrimination finally dismantled in 1993-were family, faith and abundant talent.
“When we were kids, our parents never talked about the ANC [African National Congress] or Nelson Mandela,” he says. Butler was raised as the youngest child in a large family. They lived in a house patched together by corrugated tin and cardboard, in the “coloreds only” township of Athlone near Cape Town. “They never talked about struggles so we never knew what was happening.”
Start Your Free Trial to Continue Reading
Become a JazzTimes member to explore our complete archive of interviews, profiles, columns, and reviews written by music’s best journalists and critics.
Harry Connick, Jr.: Direct Hits
Two decades after his commercial breakthrough, Harry Connick Jr. taps legendary producer Clive Davis for an album of crooner roots and beloved tunes
Scott LaFaro
Previously unavailable recordings and a new bio illuminate the legend of bassist Scott LaFaro