Marlon Simon

Hailing from Venezuela, percussionist Marlon Simon has built a reputation as both a composer and educator with deep command of Afro-Caribbean rhythms. His work merges Latin, jazz, and additional global idioms. During the 1990s he first gained notice through collaborations with Chucho Valdés and Bobby Watson while also directing his Nagual Spirits ensemble on the albums The Music of Marlon Simon in 1999, Rumba a la Patato in 2000, and In Case You Missed It in 2006. Named a Guggenheim Fellow in 2023, Simon has sustained his explorations by combining Latin, jazz, and French Celtic elements inside the French Venezuelan Project, which yielded the 2024 release Different Paths.

Simon entered the world in 1961 in Punta Cardón, Falcón State, Venezuela, raised in a scholarly home where his father, Hadsy Simon, worked as a philosopher, guitarist, and singer. At fifteen his father presented him with timbales, which he largely mastered on his own by studying recordings from South American dance bands. By eighteen he was performing in the area with his own ensemble. A friend then drew him toward jazz, an idiom that soon became central. In 1987 he relocated to the United States to pursue drum studies at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, where he received support from the Philadelphia Music Foundation. Two years afterward he settled in New York and completed his bachelor’s degree in jazz at the New School. While still enrolled he secured engagements alongside numerous Latin and jazz figures, among them Jerry González, Hilton Ruiz, Chucho Valdés, Bobby Watson, and Charles Fambrough. He simultaneously assembled the Nagual Spirits, issuing his solo debut The Music of Marlon Simon in 1999.

Although performance remains his primary pursuit, Simon has maintained an active teaching practice. Recognized for his command of Latin and Afro-Caribbean rhythmic practices, he has conducted workshops and masterclasses at Temple University, Penn State University, Rutgers University, the New Jersey ABC conference for public school teachers, the University of the Arts, and Perkins Center for the Arts. In 2000 the New Jersey State Council on the Arts designated him a distinguished teaching artist, and the next year he was granted the New Jersey Governor’s Arts and Education Award. Throughout this period he continued directing the Nagual Spirits, producing Rumba a la Patato in 2000, which included his brothers pianist Edward Simon and trumpeter Michael Simon along with trumpeter Brian Lynch, tenor saxophonist Peter Brainin, alto saxophonist Bobby Watson, pianist Luis Perdomo, bassist Andy González, and percussionist Roberto Quintero, followed by Live in La Paz, Bolivia in 2005 and In Case You Missed It in 2006.

Simon has performed internationally, twice serving in 2003 as an Ambassador for Excellence in Artistry representing the United States in concerts abroad with the Nagual Spirits. He also forged a sustained artistic partnership with musicians in Paris, captured on the 2008 album French Latin Jazz Project: Afro Cuban & Live. That project led in 2011 to Venezuelan French Project, which highlighted his interest in blending Venezuelan, French, and Celtic traditions. In 2023 he received the Guggenheim Fellowship in jazz composition, and the following year he issued Different Paths, his fifth recording with the Nagual Spirits.