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Miguel Zenón Quartet: Vanguardia Subterránea: Live at The Village Vanguard
by Mark Corroto
The perfect sports analogy for saxophonist and composer Miguel Zenón might just be baseball legend Roberto Clemente. Both were born in Puerto Rico, and both are revered as masters of their respective crafts. Clemente was a perennial All-Star, a World Series MVP, a Gold Glove winner and a National League batting champion. Zenón, for his part, has been honored with a Guggenheim Fellowship, a MacArthur “genius" grant and a Doris Duke Artist Award. He is frequently recognized as alto saxophonist ...
Continue ReadingMiguel Zenon: Vanguardia Subterránea: Live at The Village Vanguard
by Doug Collette
Suffused with shadows as is the cover photo of Vanguardia Subterranea, it is a perfectly appropriate match for the title of the Miguel Zenon Quartet's first live album. Released in celebration of the ensemble's 20th anniversary, both the image and the music favorably hearken to the displays of healthy improvisational jazz behind graphic designs for vintage albums on the Blue Note and Prestige labels in the 1950s and 1960s. Recorded over two nights in September of 2024 at ...
Continue ReadingMiguel Zenon: Golden City
by Dan McClenaghan
The alto saxophone rose to jazz prominence in the 1940s, under the influence of Charlie Parker and the birth of bebop. Important players such as Art Pepper, Lee Konitz and Ornette Coleman took the horn in their own directions, crafting distinctive alto saxophone voices. Moving ahead to the new millennium, no alto saxophonist has entered the tradition with more style and panache than Miguel Zenon. His Alma Aldentro: The Puerto Rican Songbook (Marsalis Music, 2011), Tipico (Miel Music, 2017) and ...
Continue ReadingMiguel Zenon: Musica De Las Americas
by Dan McClenaghan
Alto saxophonist Miguel Zenon has made a career out of exploring his Puerto Rican roots, with albums like Alma Adentro: The Puerto Rican Songbook (Marsalis Music, 2011), Tipico (Miel Music, 2017) and Yo Soy La Tradicion (Miel Music, 2018). With Musica De Las Americas he broadens his vision to celebrate the history of the American continents, north and south, as well as the multiplicity of America's Atlantic Ocean islands, to delve into the history of this expanse of lands--before and ...
Continue ReadingMiguel Zenón: Law Years: The Music of Ornette Coleman
by John Chacona
How do you hear Ornette Coleman's music? As an unlikely but logical extension of bebop vocabulary? As “free" chaos untethered from harmony? As a tributary of the great stream of Texas saxophonists? As jazz's purest melodism? The music of Coleman, who would have turned 91 years on March 9 2021, was all of those things and many more. Why shouldn't a body of work that presents so many points of entry be as ubiquitous on record as that ...
Continue ReadingMiguel Zenon: Sonero: The Music of Ismael Rivera
by Mark Corroto
It is not possible to listen to Sonero: The Music of Ismael Rivera by alto saxophonist Miguel Zenón without triggering thoughts of another altoist, Charlie Parker. Like Parker, Zenón has that quicksilver processing of thought and expression, but more relevant is that both artists can render any style of music into the jazz idiom. Where Parker dealt with Latin music in a macro sense, Zenón gets down to a micro level. It's only natural for the San Juan born, Guggenheim ...
Continue ReadingMiguel Zenon: Yo Soy La Tradicion
by Jerome Wilson
Alto saxophonist Miguel Zenon has undertaken several projects over the years exploring the folk music traditions of Puerto Rico, but he takes that to a new level with this work featuring the string playing of Chicago's Spektral Quartet. The interplay of saxophone and strings here sometimes recalls the lush conversations of the classic Stan Getz / Eddie Sauter project, Focus (Verve, 1961) or Charlie Parker's recordings with strings, but this feels more like an equal musical partnership. The quartet interacts ...
Continue ReadingMiguel Zenon: Yo Soy La Tradicion
by Mark Corroto
As a rule, it is best to encounter a piece of music with an appreciation of its provenance. For jazz listeners, even though the act of listening is an exercise in discovery, roots are rarely an issue. That is, until an artist delivers something novel. Such is the case with Yo Soy La Tradicion by saxophonist Miguel Zenón. The Guggenheim and MacArthur Foundation Fellowships recipient was commissioned in 2016 by the Hyde Park Jazz Festival to compose a suite for ...
Continue ReadingMiguel Zenon: Yo Soy La Tradicion
by Dan McClenaghan
With You Soy La Tradicion, alto saxophonist Miguel Zenon digs deep into his Puerto Rican roots with an exploration of his take on the “jazz with strings" genre. This is his eleventh CD release as a leader. He dabbled in the approach with Awake (Marsalis Music, 2008), adding a string quartet to his jazz quartet on a handful of the disc's tunes. Yo Soy La Tradition is a purer string/horn experience--just Zenon's golden-toned alto sax joining forces with the Spektral ...
Continue ReadingMiguel Zenon: Tipico
by Mark Corroto
The saying “like butta" comes to mind when listening to the alto of saxophonist Miguel Zenón. His tone has the consistency of velvety cream, with nary a sour note. Hearing him in the context of his long-standing quartet, we get something like the voguish bulletproof coffee, which consists of butter, whipped into your favorite cup of joe. Such is Tipico, a graceful outing with a caffeinated blast.This stimulant is made possible because Zenón's quartet of pianist Luis Perdomo, ...
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