Two conversations I had in September:
The first was with a much-loved D.C. jazz musician, as we stood together watching tenor and alto saxophonist BJ Simmons play at the Wharf’s Transit Pier during the DC Jazz Festival. “Wow, he sounds great,” the musician said. “I think I first heard him 10 years ago, and he was good then, but man. He’s really grown.”
The second conversation was after I’d seen Simmons again—playing in a quartet led by Tokyo pianist Yukako Yamano at St. Vincent Wine Bar in Park View—with a devotee of the local scene. “I’ve got a recommendation for you,” I said. “BJ Simmons.”
“Who’s that?” the devotee asked.
There it is in a nutshell. The musicians know Simmons, admire him, and appreciate his development. D.C. jazz fans, not so much.
Admittedly, that’s an oversimplification. Simmons has plenty of local fans, and across genres to boot. In fact, many jazz lovers who don’t necessarily know him by name have probably seen and heard him without realizing it. At this year’s U.S. Open, for example, Simmons found himself on a stage with Andre Agassi, blowing his heart out with his hard, smoky, acrobatic tenor sound. A few weeks before that, he was accompanying rapper Rakim at the Anthem as a member of the Illharmonic Orchestra. He’s toured with Harvey Mason, Millie Jackson, and Wale.
“It’s interesting, because there are superstars who know about me,” Simmons says. “But D.C. is interesting: I grew up here, went to Coolidge High School and everything. But I went away to college, and then I came back, then I left again. I’ve moved away from here so many times that people may not recognize me. But I’m in with the gospel scene, I’m in with the hip-hop scene, the go-go scene, the R&B scene.”
Not to mention the music education scene. Simmons has been a teacher for almost two decades, currently working at Stuart-Hobson Middle School in Capitol Hill.
That’s a lot of hats for anyone to wear, though neither an uncommon nor an unnecessary number for a working musician. In his heart of hearts, though, Simmons is a bebop jazz cat. And he hopes that his hit performance at DCJF will be a reboot for that wing of his work.
To that end, Simmons has just re-released his two jazz albums, 2014’s Acronyms and 2020’s We Wear the Mask. It was his band from the latter album—trumpeter Brandon Woody, bassist Herman Burney, and percussionist Jabari Exum, with drummer Tyler Leak sitting in for the album’s late Howard “Kingfish” Franklin—that accompanied Simmons (along with a string quartet) at the festival.
We Wear the Mask, in particular, is a great cross section of Simmons’ versatility. Its offerings include originals that touch on Afrobeat, Latin funk, gospel soul, and jazz that isn’t quite free but is wide open. There are also jazz standards by Joe Henderson, Charles Mingus, and Duke Ellington, and even a brief, sinuous rendition of Samuel Barber’s classical “Adagio for Strings.”
So, how is it that such an accomplished musician isn’t burning up the D.C. jazz scene? Well, to oversimplify again, it’s in part because the local scene is very grassroots-oriented, and Simmons’ path has been through the infrastructure of the music industry.
Simmons has a master’s degree in entertainment business. But that business, struggling everywhere, is even more tenuous in D.C. “There’s no infrastructure here, no pipeline for artists and for putting out music,” he says. Looking for a steady paycheck, in 2016, he went to the entertainment capital: Los Angeles. He gigged, worked as a producer, got commissions for film and TV (including work on the now-defunct Black News Channel).
Then came a call from a very rich entrepreneur in 2018 to go to the Persian Gulf island nation of Bahrain. For six months, Simmons held a residency at a jazz club in the capital city of Manama; the tiny country is the 12th wealthiest in the world, and Simmons found himself forming professional relationships with billionaires and a member of the Bahraini royal family. “I became a partner with them,” he recalls. “And so I was in the club nightlife, booking DJs, strategizing, hosting shows. The restaurant industry there is quite thriving and competitive, and I was able to cut my teeth in that industry.”
After two years of such invaluable, and rare, experience, Simmons came back home to D.C. just in time for COVID to put a damper on everything. He’s been able to re-establish his musical life in the time since, though the city’s high cost of living, compounded by inflation and D.C.’s weak ties to the entertainment industry machine, has been an obstacle. Living in Bahrain, Simmons had a maid and a butler. Back home, he and his wife, an attorney, can’t afford to live in the District.
“The landscape right now is quite shocking to me,” he says.
Despite the financial impediments, Simmons has designs on buying a home in Capitol Hill, and as such has been doubling down on his many musical projects. In addition to his work in R&B, hip-hop, and other styles, he does quite a few private jazz gigs. But he hopes to make an engagement at Blues Alley soon; he’s never played there as a leader, though it’s a long-standing ambition. He’s working on other shows as well.
With any luck, more local jazz fans will soon be as impressed with BJ Simmons, as so many musicians already are.