Episode 11 John Simon: Improvising in a Jazz Combo; Listening, Responding, Leaving Space, The Art of Accompanying a Vocalist, Moog Synthesizers & the Early Days of Electronic Music.

Meaningful Musical Conversations

Our guest this episode is originally from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He is a pianist, composer, arranger, sound engineer, accompanist, as well as the music director at a church. He moved to Northern California in 1979, and currently lives in Sebastopol, CA.

Our guest also works as producer, musician, and sound engineer at his recording Studio, J Dog Studios in Sebastopol. He has both a Bachelors and Masters degree in Music Composition and composes in the genres, jazz and electronics. You can find clips of his music at the end of the podcast in this order: “A Night in Athabasca” (Electronic piece), followed by “CMYK”, and “Crepuscle with Nellie” - both Jazz piano compositions, and can listen to many other recordings on his website, johnsimon.net by clicking on "listen".

Our guest is also an accomplished soloist and the preferred accompanist for many vocalists and instrumentalists in the Bay Area, as well as the keyboardist for many different rock, dance and jazz groups.

Along with his gifts as a performer and composer, our guest is also a teacher. He taught at Sonoma State for seven years, and at Santa Rosa Junior college for 11. He also teaches piano out of his studio in Sebastopol, where I’ve been the lucky recipient of his knowledge, wisdom, and hilarity!

We are very pleased to welcome our guest, John Simon!

www.johnsimon.net