About this Artwork

“Jazz: Edward Simonʼs Venezuelan Suite #1-23” is a nearly five-year body of large paintings that Ellen Priest completed from 2006 to 2010.

Pianist/composer Edward Simonʼs music brings Venezuelan song forms and rhythms into jazz in a four-movement piece commissioned by Chamber Music America.  

“Jazz: Edward Simonʼs Venezuelan Suite #16” is based on the Suiteʼs 3rd movement, composed in the style of a Venezuelan waltz.

In February 2007, Edward Simon’s 7-piece jazz Ensemble Venezuela performed the full Suite in the Main Gallery at the Philip and Muriel Berman Museum of Art at Ursinus College in Collegeville, Pennsylvania in the midst of Ellen Priest’s solo exhibition, “Ellen Priest: Jazz Paintings on Paper: Improvisations on the Venezuelan Suite”.

This exhibition included the first ten pieces in her series.