For those unaware, drummer, percussionist and composer Marlon Simon has traveled myriad different paths over the course of his nearly four-decade career. There is the personal journey that has led him from a small town in his native Venezuela to pursuing jazz in Philadelphia, New York, and now his current home in Katy, Texas, a small city near Houston.

Then there are the parallel musical paths in which he’s excelled – playing straight-ahead swing with pianist Hilton Ruiz, traditional Afro-Cuban rhythms with the Fort Apache Band and Chucho Valdes, Latin jazz grooves with Dave Valentin, and progressive jazz propulsion with Bobby Watson.

With On Different Paths, his seventh and most ambitious album to date, Simon merges those disparate trajectories into a single new pathway that stretches far off into a hybrid future.

Due out January 26th, 2024 via Truth Revolution Records, On Different Paths is Simon’s fifth outing with his eclectic band The Nagual Spirits and one that vaults forward from the venturesome fusion of pan-Latin jazz and classical influences on its predecessor, 2007’s In Case You Missed It.

1. Searching (2:31)
2. On Different Paths (6:14)
3. Walking (5:46)
4. Above Thoughts (6:08)
5. Straight Ahead (6:43)
6. Pa (7:59)
7. Un Canto Llanero (5:50)
8. Missing Them (6:21)
9. Rumba pa Andy (5:49)
10. Variations on Erika’s Theme (8:26)
11. August 17th (7:13)

The album, funded in part by Simon’s 2022 Guggenheim Fellowship, opens on the paced, yet flourishing Searching and the embracing moods sculpted within the titular On Different Paths and then we get the strident Walking, the languishing Above Thoughts and the joyous hipsway of Straight Ahead.

Along next is the deeply low slung ambiance of Pa and the quietly fervent rhythmical shades that drive Un Canto Llanero and they are in turn backed by the sublime Missing Them, the aptly-titled, uproarious Rumba pa Andy, the album rounding out on the charmingly sweet Variations on Erika’s Theme, closing on the emphatically-hued August 17th.

The album features the percussionist’s acclaimed younger brothers, pianist Edward Simon and trumpeter Michael Simon, along with bassist Boris Kozlov, trumpeter Alex Norris, saxophonist Peter Brainin, and percussionist Roberto Quintero. They’re supplemented on several tracks by bassoonist Monica Ellis and French horn player Kevin Newton, expanding the group into a chamber ensemble.

“I think with this record I’ve finally found the authentic voice for this band,” says Simon. “In the past, although the Nagual Spirits has explored a lot of different territory, I’ve always played strictly authentic Latin jazz with a touch of Venezuelan folkloric rhythms. For On Different Paths, I took elements from a number of countries, rhythms and traditions and blended them into a mixture that’s specific to this band.”

Official Purchase Link

www.marlonsimon.com

Marlon Simon @ Instagram