Michael Simon 'Destiny's Will' featuring Jasmine Chen at No Black Tie

This album was recorded live in February 2015 at NBT and will take you on a journey to the far east using Jazz as the vehicle. The repertoire consists of Chinese and Malaysian pieces, arranged by Michael Simon.

“Destiny’s Will” is the first live recording and third album of Michael Simon released in October 2015. This album is co-produced by Michael and ‘No Black Tie’, a premier jazz club in Malaysia and was recorded with well known musicians from Malaysia including the veteran pianist, Michael Veerapen and the young and talented drummer, John Ashley Thomas.

“Destiny’s Will” , the title song of this album, is an original composition by Michael. Most have commented that it is a very catchy song that you can’t get out of your head and can’t help falling in love with over and over again. Before Michael could record the song himself, Roberto Quintero, a very famous Latin Jazz Percussionist based in the US had asked Michael’s permission to include the song in his album not too long ago. Till to date, artists from various genres including those in the pop culture are still asking Michael to play the song whenever they work with him....

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This album was recorded live in February 2015 at NBT and will take you on a journey to the far east using Jazz as the vehicle. The repertoire consists of Chinese and Malaysian pieces, arranged by Michael Simon.

“Destiny’s Will” is the first live recording and third album of Michael Simon released in October 2015. This album is co-produced by Michael and ‘No Black Tie’, a premier jazz club in Malaysia and was recorded with well known musicians from Malaysia including the veteran pianist, Michael Veerapen and the young and talented drummer, John Ashley Thomas.

“Destiny’s Will” , the title song of this album, is an original composition by Michael. Most have commented that it is a very catchy song that you can’t get out of your head and can’t help falling in love with over and over again. Before Michael could record the song himself, Roberto Quintero, a very famous Latin Jazz Percussionist based in the US had asked Michael’s permission to include the song in his album not too long ago. Till to date, artists from various genres including those in the pop culture are still asking Michael to play the song whenever they work with him.

Since Michael set foot on Malaysian soil a couple of years ago, his heart was instantaneously gripped by the classical Malay music and so he went on to record Getaran Jiwa by the late Tan Sri P. Ramlee and Jauh Jauh by the late Jimmy Boyle. Michael also included some popular music from China, namely “Your Man” （你的他）, “Does He Know or Not” (知道不知道）and “The Guessing Song” (猜调) as recommended by his special guest on this album, Jasmine Chen. While Michael admits that he may not have fully understood the lyrics of these songs and may never will, he could relate to the essence of the music put forth by the creators of these songs and has given these songs The Elements that they asked of him. What better way to pay tribute to these great musicians who have made huge contributions to the music scenes of Malaysia and China this way!

This album may be classified by many as a Jazz album. However, it is actually the birth of a new shape of music which blurs the boundaries of the music categories created by the current music world!

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