David Binney & Edward Simon
Afinidad
By Luca Conti

For those who had been following closely Dave Binney's and Edward Simon's parallel and often intertwining artistic careers, it was only a question of time before the duo would decide to make a record together. Their musical association is, by now, so well oiled by many collaborations, both in studio and on stage, and their interplay, as any listener of this wonderful CD is soon going to learn, has reached a noteworthy, almost telepathic, level of communication.
Both of them are, in a sense, a living anomaly: highly original musicians working in a contemporary jazz outline where, more often than not, homogenization rules. Both of them have succeeded in sidestepping the pervasive fashion of stylistic pigeonholing that plagues, like a curse, today's jazz world. Edward Simon, for one, looks like he is trying to discard at all costs the tired and worn cliché of your typical Latin-jazz piano player, all montuno rhythms, parallel octaves and elbows on the keyboard. Sure, the Venezuelan origin is easy to be found in his music; and his work with many high priests of Latin jazz such as Manny Oquendo, Charlie Sepulveda, Jerry Gonzalez, Paquito D'Rivera speaks out loudly of his proficiency in that musical language, by which he has been influenced since his youth. But it is also true that Simon has tried hard to set himself free from what might have been a crystal cage, working toward a synthesis of languages that can now protect him from any simplistic critical evaluation. Just listen, for an easy example of all this, to his outstanding solo in Pere, in which Simon strives to put together, freely but also with consistent logic, elements of latin phrasing and snatches of piano à la McCoy Tyner (whose influence on legions of latin piano players would deserve a separate analysis), without ever resorting neither to mere showmanship, nor to an empty display of piano technique. Clear signs of this way of thinking, which tries with good results to put together Bill Evans and Paul Bley, McCoy Tyner and Eddie Palmieri, are not new for the serious listener, who had been discovering Simon's conception since his "La Bikina", a recording made for David Binney's Mythology label, and which appeared in many Ten Best lists of 1998.
On the other hand, David Binney has been showing since the beginning of his career the signs of a complete aesthetic independence, and an iron will to match; just what he needed to escape any ill-fated critical attempt to label his style. From day one you could tell that this guy had strong ideas, even ten years ago, when his OWL Records debut, "Point Game", hit the shelves. People who had never heard of him were pretty much surprised to be confronted by a musician whose language was so very well formed, and whose artistic vision was, for the most part, already in place - even in a recording which aimed, in a sense, only just a little higher than a simple introductory note. Only a few years later this impression was to be confirmed by Binney's second CD, "The Luxury of Guessing", the Audioquest record which, in my opinion, still stands as one of the most accomplished jazz works of the Nineties.
Just like Greg Osby, a musician with whom Binney shares many affinities, our present co-leader has the ability and the determination to travel along parallel, but often complementary, stylistic routes. Here he leads his own groups, mainly of an acoustic nature, which revolve around a fairly regular array of partners; there he takes part in the collective group, Lan Xang, a quartet whose advanced and experimental releases should have gotten more critical attention from the jazz world. Here, again - as if it were not enough - his partnership in the electric band Lost Tribe, a musicians' cult group which has released three well received albums; there, again, his appearances in many outstanding projects such as Uri Caine's two Gustav Mahler tributes or bass player Drew Gress' excellent Soul Note release "Heyday".
A good sign of the strong ties that bind this young community of jazzmen is the fact that all the above projects feature a not so large number of musicians; from the ubiquitous bass player Scott Colley, a true backbone, if any, of a large number of the finest jazz projects of the Nineties and of those to come, to drummer Jeff Hirshfield, from guitar player Adam Rogers to tenor saxophonist Donny McCaslin. But the revolving point is the great affinity between David Binney and Edward Simon, an affinity that never before had found such a fulfilling realization.
Even from this album's title, "Afinidad", emphasis has been put on a communion of purposes; and from its first listening, it is clear that both co-leaders have found particularly satisfying and complementary the concept of playing together. Binney is, no doubt, blessed with a sense of detachment; his saxophone lines do shine in an almost geometric sense, under a cold and sharp light. It's up to Simon to warm up this atmosphere, thanks to a lightness and firmness of touch which - to say the least - is quite extraordinary, and to a lyricism of resounding evocative power. In a sense, Simon's work on this record sounds, to my ears, in a direct line with his work on an almost forgotten Greg Osby session from more than ten years ago, the one which gave light to "Man-Talk for Moderns, vol.X": an album which sank with not many regrets from the critics, then, because of its electroacoustic layout, but which in my opinion held several intriguing ideas we can now better appreciate and put into focus.
The most significant element in "Afinidad" is, however, is to have chosen (or to have been chosen by) Latin music as a common tongue, denominator and meeting ground. Just think about it, and you'll be soon convinced that it couldn't have been otherwise. Both our friends hail from places not so quite and easily associated with jazz. Binney was born in Florida, but grew up in Ventura, a very nice town just outside Los Angeles, on the Pacific Coast. Simon, as we said before, comes from Venezuela, even if his success in the jazz world has been made easier by the intuition of Bobby Watson, astute talent-scout on the line of the cleverest talent scout of them all, Art Blakey.
Ventura, California, city of Erle Stanley Gardner, Perry Mason's creator; and Cardon, Venezuela: two places very far from each other and, what's more, very far from the established capitals of the jazz world. The connecting element, in all this, can only be latin music; whereas Binney was born in Miami, a place thriving with latin culture and folklore, and his growing up in Southern California must have exposed him to additional facets of the latin experience.
It is easy, now, to detect in "Afinidad" the undercurrent stream of latin cultures, both Caribbean and South American ones; both from a popular point of view and from a more "legit" one (such is the case of the two Alberto Ginastera aphorisms, where traces of folklore mix well with suggestions of a Lee Konitz-Lennie Tristano collaboration).
It is easy, then, to appreciate the full mise en scéne of this record, where Ginastera's short pieces work as a pivotal point, toward which the first part of the album goes, with the emotional peak of Aguantando, fully equipped with the human voice,  and from which the second part slowly recedes, just after the intense reading of Mi Querencia. From there, "Afinidad" goes shading off into the quiet, intimate atmosphere of the last tracks, mostly dedicated to the duo Binney - Simon.
It is with regret that we hear the last notes of "Afinidad" fade away, just as it happens at the end of a meal conceived by a great cook, where we could discover, with a sense of surprise, that every small part, or ingredient, was in its right place, fully contributing to the final success.
To each his own, then; and so it seems right to mention, at this late point, the contribution of those who took part in the recording sessions; percussion players Brian Blade and Adam Cruz, vocalist Lucia Pulido and guitarist Adam Rogers. A word more is left for Scott Colley, bass player extraordinaire whose perfect intonation and outstanding versatility are precious in every musical situation, and whose singing bass lines help quite a lot to keep the music clear and bright - a winning atout for every leader, but more so for Binney and Simon, whose music is firmly defined down to the smallest detail and needs clarity of thought and sharpness of contours.
Luca Conti