Simon Char

Simon Char was born and raised in Barranquilla, a city located in the north coast of Colombia. He graduated from Berklee College of music in Boston Massachussetts with majors in Piano and Contemporary Writting. Simon started playing classical piano at the age of seven, as a result of this in his teenage years he was constantely performing with bands of different genres. When he graduated from high school Simon decided to futher his education in music and moved to Boston, and that's where everything started proffesionaly for him. After completing his degree at Berklee college of music and networking with other fellow musicians he started to work contantely with several bands and projects in town, as well as performances and clinics all over the states. Simon also directed his own latin jazz band Palenke in which he arranged, composed and performed in all the jazz venius in the Boston area. He also had the great opportunity to study with a living legend Charlie Banacos who really made a difference in his carreer and musical life. Simon has being invated to perform in many music festivals including the Barranquijazz international festival that takes place in Colombia, and which has been very reknown all over the jazz world and music magazines. Simon was invated twice as a featured artist with his own band to the Barranquijazz where he shared the stage with legends such as Jesus Chucho Valdez, Michel Camilo, Giovanni Idalgo, Dave Kikoski, Bob Berg among others. Simon moved to Miami, Florida in order to reunite himself with his latin musical roots and work not only in the jazz scene, but in the popular music world as well. Simon has worked with well known groups and Grammy Award winners. Recorded piano for the first and only Tito Nieves's live DVD, worked with Grupo Niche, Servando y Florentino, Obie Bermudez, recorded on Manny Manuel's latest CD, Andres Cepeda, Christian Daniel (Emilio Estefan) these are to mention a few. He currently performes, produces and constantely keeps a very busy schedule in recording sessions for the various artists in Miami Florida and international as well. See more of Simon at (www.simonchar.com)