Edward Simon Trio John Pattucci and Brian Blade Mar. 1-4 at the Iridium Jazz Club

March 1-4 EDWARD SIMON TRIO
FEAT. JOHN PATTUCCI AND BRIAN BLADE

“Mr. Simon's touch, light and warm, allows for his music to drift calmly, taking its where it has to go" --The New York Times

It's often said and written that jazz is based on improvisation. This is a half-truth. While improvisation is indeed a vital component of the music, it is improvisation in the group context--democratic improvisation--that truly defines the art form. And in the history of the idiom, the trio: piano, bass, and drum, is the music's most dominant format where that type of group improvisational interaction receives its purest and most powerful expression. In jazz there have been many spectacular trios: Oscar Peterson with Ray Brown and Ed Thigpen, Ahmad Jamal with Israel Crosby and Vernel Fournier, and of course Bill Evans with Scot LaFaro and Paul Motian.

Now pianist/composer Edward Simon, an artist with an encyclopedic artistic range that encompasses jazz, Latin and classical forms, is poised to join that legendary list of terrific triads with his CAM JAZZ debut, Unicity, his eighth CD as a leader, with bassist John Patitucci and drummer Brian Blade, 2/4's of the Wayne Shorter Quartet.

As Simon tells Ted Panken in the CD's liner notes, “Something happened on that date that stuck with me forever ... [o]ur chemistry was extraordinary, and I promised myself that at some point I would a make a record with this trio." Unicity is that promise fulfilled.