Based in the San Francisco Bay Area, as a member of the all-star SFJAZZ Collective, pianist Edward Simon has been a Guggenheim Fellow along with being awarded multiple composition grants  as part of the Chamber Music America’s New Jazz Works initiative. Simon,  a Yamaha artist, has recorded 16 albums as a leader or co-leader; his  latest is 25 Years, released via Ridgeway Records in October  2020. This follows Simon’s 2016 album Latin American Songbook, with the  four-and-a-half-star DownBeat review praising its “grand and  sophisticated” sound. Latin American Songbook also won Simon an NAACP  Image Award for Outstanding Jazz Album. The New York Times has praised  Simon’s “light, warm touch” as a pianist, while Jazz Journal  International singled out “his deep emotional statements” as a composer  and improviser.