The Edward Simon Trio (with Adam Cruz on drums and Reuben Rogers on bass) along with special guest artists, award-winning Mexican vocalist Magos Herrera and percussionist Luis Quintero, present a program celebrating the legacy of Latin American women songwriters such as Violeta Parra (Chile), Marta Valdes (Cuba), Chabuca Granda (Chile), Elizabeth Morris (Argentina) and Joyce (Brazil) with a distinct jazz interpretation.

The Edward Simon Trio hails as one of today’s top jazz piano trios, performing what has been referred to as “expansive and sophisticated jazz” (Matt Collar, AllMusic review).

The trio has been playing together for fifteen years and has performed at some of the top venues and festivals including Jazz Standard, the Village Vanguard, Casa del Jazz, and SFJAZZ. The trio members are some of the most highly regarded musicians on the current jazz scene.

The three musicians making up the Edward Simon Trio share numerous affinities including a profound understanding of form, and the various multi-cultural currents that inform jazz today.

After several years of touring in the U.S., Europe, and Japan, the trio members have formed a strong bond that can be heard in their performances.

1. Feminina
2. Décimas
3. La flor de la canela
4. Gracias a la vida
5. Palabras
6. Dunas
7. Mujer remolino
8. Naked Sky
9. Tierra movida
10. Bulería
11. Hacia dónde

This emotively embracing, heartfelt and soulful new recording opens on the spirited Feminina and the scene-setting rhyme scheme within the atmospheric Décimas and they are followed by the flourishing La flor de la canela (commonly translated as The Cinnamon Flower), then comes one of the most covered Latin American songs in history, the effectively impassioned Gracias a la vida and then we get brought forth the delicately ornate, rhythmic musing within Palabras.

Up next is the melodically-furtive, veritably shimmering Dunas and the elegantly structured, expressively harmonized Mujer remolino, and they are then backed by the English-sung, stirring ballad Naked Sky, the album rounding out on the fluttering wings within Tierra movida, the joyfully composed, fast flamenco rhythms of Bulería, coming to a close on the intangibly evanescent piano ballad Hacia dónde.

I’d like to express my sincere gratitude to all of the musicians for their wonderful playing and specially to Magos for putting so much of herself into this project, Femeninas could not be what it is without your beautiful voice, amazing talent and breadth of knowledge. I’d also like to thank Bonnie Barret and the entire team at Yamaha Artist Services for their support. Special thanks go to all ArtistShare project participants for helping me realize this project. – Edward Simon.

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