Singer-songwriter Matt Simons is a gifted keyboard player with a penetrating, soulful voice. He is making his debut at the North Sea Jazz Festival this year, but the New Yorker already has a sold-out Dutch tour to his name. Early this year the popular Dutch soap opera Goede Tijden, Slechte Tijden picked up his song With You and it was soon a hit. With the album Pieces, Simons proves that he is not a one-hit wonder. The album is full of beautifully crafted songs that are catchy and melodious, and the lyrics have meaning. In the melancholy number Gone, for example, Simons sings about the moment someone in a bad relationship realizes that he has to leave: "I'm so tired of being wrong, I'm gone." Simons' heroes include Stevie Wonder and Brian Wilson - coincidentally also gifted songwriters - but he has now found his own style, somewhere between pop, soul and jazz.
