Venezuela
Latin American Songbook
Vol. 2
Edward Simon Trio
The music of Latin America has long been among the world's most beloved — and Venezuela, with its startling depth of rhythmic and melodic tradition, has always occupied a singular place within that landscape. Venezuela: Latin American Songbook Vol. 2 is both a homecoming and a deepening: a return to the musical terrain that has shaped Edward Simon's artistic identity for three decades, and a commitment to engaging that terrain at its fullest.
Reuniting with his long-standing trio — Reuben Rogers on bass and Adam Cruz on drums — Simon presents six compositions arranged and produced with characteristic intelligence and care. Venezuelan multi-instrumentalist Jackeline Rago joins as a special guest, contributing cuatro and maracas and lending the album an unmistakable authenticity.
Recorded on January 28–29, 2025 at Tin Roof Studio in Sonoma, California, the album does not approach tradition as a museum piece or a stylistic exercise. Jazz and Venezuelan forms are not fused here — they are revealed as already inseparable. The album unfolds like a long story told by someone who knows exactly where it is going.
Simon lets jazz improvisation and Venezuelan song sit side by side, close enough to rub against one another without either losing its shape.
This album does not behave like a jazz record so much as it unfolds like a work of modern classical music, shaped and animated by the rhythmic and melodic pulse of Latin America.
Venezuela: Latin American Songbook Vol. 2 isn't about hybridization — it's about continuity. Jazz and Latin American forms aren't fused here; they're already inseparable.
Intimate, unhurried, and deeply grounded — jazz trio music that breathes with the cadence of memory. The trio creates a contemporary soundscape that brings new life to these wonderful Latin American classics.
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