Jazz Articles about Miguel Zenon

About Miguel Zenon

Album Review

Like a nimble jet aircraft, Miguel Zenón's Esta Plena leaps into flight from its very first notes. The album arrives not long after Awake (Marsalis Music, 2008), Zenón's jazz quartet/string quartet outing of 2008, but it follows more logically on the heels of 2005's Jíbaro (Marsalis Music), a jazz meditation on the rural music of Zenón's native Puerto Rico. Esta Plena, different but related, finds the alto saxophonist melding authentic plena music with the forward-thinking jazz aesthetic he's developed as ...

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Album Review

Miguel Zenon: Esta Plena

Read "Esta Plena" reviewed by Mark F. Turner

by Mark F. Turner
November 9, 2009

From the fruits of winning both a MacArthur ("genius grant") and Guggenheim Fellowship in 2008, alto saxophonist Miguel Zenón, expands his clear vision of modern jazz and Puerto Rican folk music in Esta Plena. With an incisive voice, his involvement with the SFJAZZ Collective, Guillermo Klein's Y Los Gauchos and Charlie Haden's Liberation Music Orchestra is well documented, but his own recordings are what truly reflect his unique heritage and identity. Where Zenón's Jibaro (Marsalis Music, 2005) ...

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Album Review

Miguel Zenon: Awake

by Tom Greenland
June 8, 2008

From its very first notes (played by a string quartet), Awake is identifiably Miguel Zenon: lyrical, spiritual and original. For his fourth date as a leader Zenon reunites his go-to posse--Luis Perdomo (piano) and Hans Glawischnig (bass)--but with a key change in the drum chair, Henry Cole replacing Antonio Sanchez. The strings are artfully employed on the opener as a contrapuntal foil for Zenon's featherlight interweavings and on “Lamamilla" as a trilling texture evoking birdcalls; Tony Malaby, ...

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Album Review

Miguel Zenon: Awake

by Mark F. Turner
April 7, 2008

Alto saxophonist Miguel Zenon delivers his most thought provoking recording to date with Awake , showing his growth as a performer and conceptualist. Whether performing with Charlie Haden's Liberation Music Orchestra, The SFJazz Collective, or leading his own groups, Zenon's piercing tonality and fierce playing is always identifiable. Not a trivial task, when considering a wealth of strong young altoists that includes Rudresh Mahanthappa, Loren Stillman and Steve Lehman. Zenon brought fresh interpretations of native Puerto Rican rural ...

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Live Review

Miguel Zenon Quartet at the Jazz Showcase

by Paul Olson
September 9, 2005

Miguel Zenón QuartetJazz Showcase, ChicagoSeptember 6, 2005Altoist Miguel Zenón's recordings do a pretty good job of demonstating his fusion of Latin music--especially the rural música jibara of his native Puerto Rico--with the instrumentation and harmonic language of jazz. Looking Forward (2001, Fresh Sound New Talent), Ceremonial (2004, Marsalis Music) and the new Jibaro (also on the Marsalis label) are all winning, memorable CDs with compositions and a group sound that are immediately recognizable.That said, Zenón's ...

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Album Review

Miguel Zenon: Jibaro

Read "Jibaro" reviewed by Brian P. Lonergan

by Brian P. Lonergan
August 16, 2005

Jibaro consists of ten original compositions by the young Puerto Rican alto saxophonist Miguel Zenón. The session's inspiration comes from the music of jibaros--Puerto Rican peasants--but there's nothing simplistic about the material Zenón has penned for his quartet, which includes pianist Luis Perdomo, bassist Hans Glawischnig, and drummer Antonio Sánchez. The forms of Zenón's compositions tend to be complex, and it's not apparent at first listen how they link directly to the original music. The style of Jibaro, ...

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Album Review

Miguel Zenon: Jibaro

by John Kelman
June 17, 2005

With the relatively concurrent release of Wayne Shorter's new live recording, Beyond the Sound Barrier, and alto saxophonist Miguel Zenon's Jibaro, there are bound to be comparisons. Like Shorter, Zenon is a deep thinker, capable of taking the simplest Puerto Rican folk melodies--the basis of Jibaro--and placing them into more harmonically and rhythmically complex contexts. Also like Shorter, Zenon's cerebral music requires an intense focus that makes considerable demands on both the musicians who play it and the listeners who ...