SIMON SAMMUT AND OMAR VASQUEZ - 2 BASSISTS - 2 COUNTRY COLLABORATIONS

​Simon Sammut from Malta and Omar Vázquez from Mexico, have managed to combine their ideas and interact through them, generating a sonorous diversity of electric, acoustic basses, fretless and upright bass; in addition to other instruments as a drums, piano, guitar, trumpet, flute, voice and flamenco cajon.
Simon Sammut
Simon started his initial studies at a young age and reached advanced levels of music education. After some lessons with his father Joseph, who himself was an established bass player during his young days, Simon continued to study bass playing and soon established himself as a popular bass player.

He quickly moved from playing rock to blues, soul, funk and jazz. Later on he began to play the upright bass. As a performer, he has played with leading musicians and covering a wide span of musical activities. As he is a fluent reader and a versatile musician with an eclectic taste, he is quite active in various events of importance and has for quite some time now played with various, musicians, bands and orchestras including the Malta
Philharmonic Orchestra.

Besides his work as a performer, Simon is equally at home in the roles of composer, arranger, producer and music teacher. In 2011, Simon produced and released his solo album entitled BaSSic Attitude. In this album Simon collaborated with multiinstrumentalist Alexander Kuzmin. In 2017 Simon released his second album entitled Crossing with twelve compositions and complimentary paintings revolving around the common theme
of ‘crossing’. In this project Simon collaborated with the artist Anthony Catania.

Omar Vázquez
Professional bassist with more than 20 years of experience, with performances at Jazz festivals, cultural forums and theaters in the interior of the Mexican Republic and international organizations, such as Cuba, Nicaragua, Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras.

In addition to his studies towards musical development Omar has studied a master’s degree in art pedagogy and developed a methodology for electric bass: Introduction to decoding partichelas. He is a professional collaborator in different projects of independent music, with live performances and recordings of various genres, ranging from rock, pop, funk, blues, jazz, even traditional Mexican music.

Omar is currently working on an album as a soloist. Alternate Dimensions, which will include seven of Omar’s compositions. The tracks of the album are developed and combined in a natural way, with a focus towards relaxation and introspection. In this album Omar uses the electric bass as a harmonic and melodic instrument; accompanied by voices in unison and rhythms with percussion.
Simon Sammut from Malta and Omar Vázquez from Mexico, have managed to combine their ideas and interact through them, generating a sonorous diversity of electric, acoustic basses, fretless and upright bass; in addition to other instruments as a drums, piano, guitar, trumpet, flute, voice and flamenco cajon.

The project was founded in 2018 with the aim of merging ideas and interacting virtually for the realization of the music of both members. Simon and Omar got to know each other in 2017 through social networks and through their affinity for the electric bass and music composition. They started working together through the recording of audio and video of a composition for two basses. This was the beginning of a working relationship and friendship between the two musicians.

Despite the distance between one country and another, they decided to collaborate further and work on a collection of compositions of both, generating eight themes, which reflect the musical tastes, sounds and feelings of the two artists. They are currently in the process of finalizing their first album together as a duet called “Gravity” which involves musicians from Malta and Mexico. The album covers different sonorities and styles like jazz fusion, funk, latin, world music among others. In order to take advantage of the excellent relationship which has developed between the two artists and the other musicians from the respective countries the eight compositions shall be performed live for the first time in Cuernavaca Morelos, Mexico on 12th and 13th April 2019. The travel component of the project is partially funded by the Arts Council Malta.

Simon Sammut will be joined by Melchior Busuttil from Malta to perform in Mexico together with Omar Vázquez and five other musicians from Mexico. Apart from the live performance, this initiative will also provide an opportunity to showcase artists and work from Malta to an international audience and create the right conditions for networking between the artists from both countries to take place. Simon Sammut with the assistance of Melchior Busuttil will deliver a master class at the Centro Morelense de las Artes which will focus on musical production methods and recording concepts with particular emphasis on the use of the electric bass.

PLAYERS AND INSTRUMENTS:
Mexico Musicians
Citlalli Toledo/Voice
Osiel Barrios/Guitar
David Caspeta/Drums and cajón flamenco
Cipriano Izquierdo/Flute
Emilio Palacios /Flute

Malta Musicians
Kris Spiteri Piano/keyboards
Melchior Busuttil/Drums
Kevin Abela/Trumpet
Jonathan Ellul/Guitar

TRACKS AND TIMES: 
1. Dystopia 4.36
2. Mar 3.13
3. Gravity 4.55
4. Equinoccio 5.42
5. Horatius 3.49
6. Mediterraneo 5.50
7. Salida Del Sol 6.06
8. Akmal 4.10