Miguel Zenon: Golden City

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 Yo Soy El Tradicion (Miel Music, 2018) are Latin-tinged landmarks of Zenon's artistry.

Golden City, commissioned by SFJAZZ and the Hewlett Foundation, celebrates San Francisco, a subject into which Zenon dug deeply, exploring the city's history from its pre-European Native American communities through the Mexican settlements to the Gold Rush, the Chinese immigration days and beyond, to the town's ongoing gentrification and the influence of high-tech and its "Sanctuary City" status, resulting in a sweeping, thematic 11-piece suite.

Thematically and instrumentally challenging and complex, featuring a nonet heavy on the low-end brass (trombones, tuba, trumpet), Golden City is a triumph. The horn arrangements—backing the alto sax, piano (Matt Mitchell), guitar (Miles Okazaki), bass/drums rhythm section, augmented by Daniel Diaz' Latin percussion—bring Gil Evans to mind, and Herbie Hancock's minor masterpiece Speak Like A Child (Blue Note, 1968).

Opening with melancholy, wistful "Sacred Land," Zenon's saxophone cries for San Francisco's original Native American people before it shifts into a bustling, life-affirming groove. The implacable "Rush" speaks to the ultimate downfall of those native peoples, in the form of the Gold Rush that brought the European onslaught into the Golden City. The horns intermingle, and squabble in dark tones. "Acts Of Exclusion," referring to the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, came about via Zenon's research into the Bay Area's Chinese American community. The saxophonist seems to conjure Charlie Parker with a tart turn that gives way to Okazaki's stinging guitar solo. "9066" speaks to FDR's executive order that forced thousands of Japanese-Americans into concentration camps. It features Chris Tordini's muscular and foreboding bass solo in front of Mitchell's deft piano work. Then Zenon blows elegiac in front of an orchestral brass backing.

"Sanctuary City" celebrates San Francisco's decision to welcome the wanderers, who often roam and relocate for political and persecution reasons. Sanctuary for the less fortunate rubs up against resistance with a significant percentage of America's voters. Most San Franciscans probably do not care about resistance of the hateful kind.

Golden City, an erudite examination of the layers of history of San Francisco, peels away some of the history book public relations sophistry that often covers the worts and injustices of the evolution of American society. The album is Miguel Zenon at his creative peak. A riveting listening experience. And, man, those horns...