Todd Simon, the man whose work not only extends to OSTs but to pretty much any artist in the world who dares to add the word ‘funk’ to their vocabulary (and with being born in ’77 probably the youngest still living person ever to be sampled by the Jay-Zs and Ghostface Killahs of this world). Todd has found a niche providing soulful horn and string sounds for countless projects whether they are on wax, tv, or on the big screen. Styles are the emphasis here! Todd has worked with some of the greatest Jamaican, Hip-Hop, AfroBeat, Soul, and Rock acts out there. Thanks to his own NuFi Studios, Todd has branched out to work with colleagues via email. Send him a track and you'll get plenty o' horns (plus strings if you need 'em) back. Otherwise, he is frequenting Hollywood's finest studios.

After helping brew the funky-breakbeat institution known as Breakestra, Todd went on to tour the world with Macy Gray where he refined his deeper Soul roots. Los Angeles just wasn't enough so Todd relocated himself in NYC where he found himself immersed in the scene with Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings, Antibalas, Tiklah's Roots Combination, Dub Is A Weapon, Sugarman 3 and El Michels Affair. 

Somehow Todd returned to LA and reunited with Breakestra-mate Dane Ubick to help create Connie Price and the Keystones, a cinematic-soul inspired outfit that has gone onto back up Big Daddy Kane, Percee P, Too Short and many other Hip-Hop masters. Through the Keystones links with Stones Throw Records, Todd was asked to help with Madlib's YNQ project: Sound Directions (which resulted in one full length LP and two exciting live performances). 

In 2004, Todd joined forces with the Red Bull Music Academy acting as arranger, conductor, and trumpeter for an exciting event called ArRange. ArRange combined old school arrangers David Matthews (James Brown, CTI, Kudu, etc), Claire and Brent Fischer (Prince, Dizzy Gillespie, MPS, etc.) and Deodato (Bjork, Kool and the Gang, Joao Donato, etc.) with nu skool producer/dj's OHNo, Underground Resistance and Kirk DiGiorgio to rework each other's compositions to be performed with the Northwest Sinfonia at a live performance in Seattle's McCaw Hall. The performance was a successful moment in Todd's life that shaped his future endeavors. The Red Bull Music Academy was so impressed with Todd's worked they asked him to tale part as a studio mentor/lecturer for their 2006 Melbourne Academy with incredible peers Wajeed, Flying Lotus, Cut Chemist, and the Bamboos.

Combining talents of LA's finest, Todd pursued a dream of recording his own Jamaican inspired project The Lions. Through The Lions Todd started a wonderful relationship with Ubiquity Records as in house arranger working with artists such as: DJ Greyboy, Quantic, Clutchy Hopkins, Ohmega Watts, Orgone and Shawn Lee. Combine that with one-off's for ESL's Ocote Soul Sounds and other acts, orchestrating and recording sessions for film composers Stephen Trask (Sexdrive) and Mike Andrews (Stuck On you) , even a little bit of TV work on his own (Take Home Chef) you'll find one busy arranger.

Todd is always looking to expand his talent. Grammy-nominated Sam Sparro visited Todd's NuFi Studios for some funky horns on his debut LP. Todd has also recently worked with TV On The Radio, Stones Throw newcomer Mayer Hawthorne and The Panderers, some of the most talented songwriters you'll find out there. Recently, Todd performed with long time heroes Mulatu Astatke and Arthur Verocai as part of the MOCHILLA/ART DON'T SLEEP/VTECH TIMELESS concert series along with Bennie Maupin, Azar Lawrence, Phil Ranelin, Justo Almario, Ivan 'Mamao' Conti, Charles Owens, Carlos Dafe, Airto Moreira, members of Azymuth and Banda Black Rio, in addition to an all-star cast of LA musicians. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.