Michael Simon & Asian Connection - East West & Beyond (2024) [Hi-Res]

East, West & Beyond was recorded in the fall of 2019 in Taipei, Taiwan. There, Michael toured nationwide with local musicians and performed at the prestigious Taichung Jazz Festival. The band is known as Asian Connection and is a collaboration between established musicians from the Netherlands, Taiwan, Japan, Malaysia and Indonesia. They last played in the Netherlands in 2018 at the Tong Tong Fair, Podium Grounds and the Red Light Jazz Festival. The band reappeared at the Red Light Jazz Festival 2024. They played music from the new album. East, West & Beyond was made possible with a successful crowdfunding campaign on Voordekunst.

Recognized by the prestigious online magazine Latin Jazz Network as ‘a shape shifting musician and instrumentalist’. Throughout his career, trumpeter-composer Michael Simon has consistently broadened the range of jazz. Coming from a renowned and musical Venezuelan/Dutch Antillean family, and based in the Netherlands since 1993. Michael is known as a member of Fra Fra Sound and the Rob Mostert Hammond Group.

Michael started an important collaboration in 2010 with Malaysia’s leading Jazz Club No Black Tie’s owner and music curator, Evelyn Hii. It was there where his albums: ‘Destiny’s Will’ and ‘Asian Connection’ were recorded in front of an audience. His interest in Eastern philosophy and meditation made him drawn to the Southeast Asian region. Michael’s contact with Asian music had a major impact on his own music, defined a new path for his artistry and resulted in a cultural transcendence in an exchange between the West and the Far East. This phenomenon was widely discussed in his album ‘Asian Connection’ and is now amplified in his new album entitled ‘East, West & Beyond’.

Produced by Michael Simon and Minyen Hsieh

Michael Simon: trumpet and flugelhorn
Minyen Hsieh: tenor and soprano saxophones, flute
Hauyi Tsai: pipa
Sri Hanuraga: piano
Ikeda Kinya: bass
Tzu Yu Huang: drums