Carlos Simon descends from three generations of preachers. His great-grandfather was ordained in 1924; his grandfather and father both followed at the pulpit. Carlos grew up in Atlanta, where family life revolved around the weekly rhythm of his father's church: Monday night was Bible study, Thursday night was choir rehearsal, Saturday was for cleaning the church and mowing the grass. By the time he was 10, Carlos was playing the piano for Sunday services.
That deep-in-the-DNA gospel was the foundation for his musical life, as a keyboardist and music director for artists like Angie Stone and Jennifer Holliday, and as a composer whose work for both concert stage and film uses a distinctive blend of gospel, jazz and unabashedly romantic influences.
It's a fascinating thing to watch a composer develop an authentic voice in real time, and I've had the pleasure of knowing Carlos long enough to witness his process of locking into a sound that is uniquely his. As he explains in this conversation, his musical language has its roots in the songs and stories of his ancestors – echoes from the past that resonate with his experience in the present. In earlier works like Generations, from 2015, he used old tapes of his great-grandfather and grandfather's sermons. Over time, the ancestral voices have become an organic, embedded presence in his work – music that's being heard on major stages in America and around the world, establishing him as a defining voice of this generation.
And now there's a new piece that may be his most personal statement to date. Carlos says that his Good News Mass, a monumental new commission premiering next month with the Los Angeles Philharmonic under conductor Gustavo Dudamel, is unlike anything he's done before. As we navigate questions of American community and experience, Carlos Simon brings a heartfelt tribute to history, to family and faith – a multi-generational, autobiographical celebration of service, hope, resilience and the power of joy.
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