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Jazz Articles about Miguel Zenon
Miguel Zenon: Identities Are Changeable
by Mark F. Turner
It would simply be enough to just hear Miguel Zenón's saxophone; its fluid, darting, humming bird-like maneuvers, soulful and piercing. Yet as one of the most distinctive altos in jazz, the Grammy nominated and Guggenheim and MacArthur Fellow is also a gifted composer who continues to deliver insights into his culture as vividly expressed in 2011's Alma Adentro: The Puerto Rican Songbook and 2009's Esta Plena, both released on Marsalis Music. His ninth recording as a leader, ...
Continue ReadingMiguel Zenon Quartet at 36th Annual Chicago Jazz Festival
by Hrayr Attarian
Miguel Zenon Quartet Millenium Park, Jay Pritzker Pavilion 36th Annual Chicago Jazz Festival Chicago, IL August 31st 2014 The last evening of the festival was pleasantly warm and mild and the millennium park, around the Jay Pritzker Pavilion band shell was packed with people. The Frank Gehry designed signature stainless steel headdress with its custom designed sound system to replicate impeccable indoor acoustics has been the new home of the festival for the past ...
Continue ReadingMiguel Zenon: Oye!!! - Live In Puerto Rico
by AAJ Italy Staff
Il sassofonista portoricano ha formato il Rhythm Collective un decennio fa per partecipare a un tour in Africa occidentale promosso dal Dipartimento di Stato americano e dal Kennedy Center. Quell'esperienza è stata talmente significativa per i componenti del gruppo - tutti portoricani - che ha continuato a vivere, alimentato dai presupposti iniziali che prevedevano di esaltare l'aspetto ritmico/percussivo. La formazione non prevede infatti alcuno strumento armonico e consente quindi ampia libertà all'improvvisazione melodica di Zenon e, in qualche caso, del ...
Continue ReadingMiguel Zenon: Celebrating the Music of La Isla
by Steve Bryant
For the last decade, saxophonist Miguel Zenón has distinguished himself as one of the most innovative and creative musicians in the modern jazz idiom. The Puerto Rican-born altoist accomplished this feat by reaching back to the musical and cultural traditions of his island. On groundbreaking recordings such as Jibaro (Marsalis Music, 2005) and Esta Plena (Marsalis Music, 2009), Zenón paid musical homage to the rich rhythms of Bomba and Plena. Alma Adentro (Marsalis Music, 2011) was a heartfelt tribute to ...
Continue ReadingMiguel Zenon & The Rhythm Collective: Oye!!! Live In Puerto Rico
by Dan Bilawsky
Puerto Rican pride oozes from every album under alto saxophonist Miguel Zenón's name. Most recently, he explored plena music in a jazz context on the winning Esta Plena (Marsalis Music, 2009), and put a new spin on songs from the Puerto Rican Songbook with Alma Adentro (Marsalis Music, 2011). While those projects differ greatly, with rough-and-tumble antics on the former and an air of refinement on the latter, they're both built on sturdy conceptual platforms that are supported by Puerto ...
Continue ReadingDavid Gilmore: Numerology: Live At Jazz Standard
by Dan Bilawsky
Numbers and music are inextricably linked together. Numbers exist within every musical impulse and control the very nature of music through their connective ratios and relationships. This concept is explored to the fullest, without coming off as inaccessible “math music," on guitarist David Gilmore's Numerology: Live At Jazz Standard. Gilmore--not to be confused with Pink Floyd's guitar-wielding David Gilmour--has made a name for himself as a Berklee-based educator and go-to sideman, appearing on recordings with saxophonist Wayne ...
Continue ReadingMiguel Zenon: Alma adentro: The Puerto Rican Songbook
by AAJ Italy Staff
Alma adentro è l'album della definitiva consacrazione dell'altosassofonista portoricano Miguel Zenon, nella duplice veste di arrangiatore e bandeader. Una inedita combinazione timbrica tra colori classici e jazzistici porta a livelli di assoluta eccellenza una musica di grande fascino. È un progetto che supera le rigide barriere delle convenzioni contemporanee per proporre qualcosa di diverso rispetto all'anima esuberante della musica centroamericana. La musica tradizionale di Porto Rico viene prima riattualizzata secondo l'ottica del jazz, poi (ri)considerata alla luce di sinuose sonorità ...
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