Miguel Zenón

Saxophonist and composer Miguel Zenón is among a select band of jazz music artists who’ve successfully navigated the often contradictory poles of advancement and custom. A multi-Grammy nominee, he is rolling out a unique tone of voice like a composer and conceptualist, focusing his attempts on perfecting an excellent blend between Latin American folk music and jazz. Furthermore to his several dates like a bandleader, Zenón spent some time working like a sideman with Charlie Haden, David Sánchez, Ray Barretto, the Mingus Big Music group, Michele Rosewoman, Luis Perdomo, Bobby Hutcherson, Fred Hersch, Kenny Werner, Steve Coleman, and Hans Glawischnig, and it has lectured and trained master classes around the world. A indigenous of San Juan, Puerto Rico, Zenón dug Coltrane in senior high school but didn’t obtain serious about a profession in jazz until participating in the Berklee College of Music. While at Berklee, he installed with drummer Bob Moses, who asked him to try out using the Either/Orchestra, offering the saxophonist his initial professional experience. Honours and grants result in Zenón seeking and gaining a master’s level in saxophone functionality in 2001 in the Manhattan College of Music in NEW YORK. EXCITED, Zenón’s debut record being a head, made an appearance in 2002. it fused jazz, Latin, and traditional influences, and gained positive reviews in the home and overseas. In 2003, he and his Tempo Collective quartet had been selected with the Kennedy Center’s Jazz Ambassadors plan to instruct and perform in Western Africa. That same yr, he documented his sophomore work, Ceremonial, that was made by Branford Marsalis and released for the Marsalis Music label in early 2004. Also in 2004, he documented like a founding person in the SFJAZZ Collective. In 2005, he and Brian Lynch co-headlined a day entitled 24/7, and later on in the entire year released the groundbreaking Jibaro, a jazz tribute to “la música jíbara” — a string-based folkloric music well-known within the Puerto Rican countryside — that finished up on many critics’ year-end lists. Throughout 2006 and 2007, Zenón held busy. He documented using the SFJAZZ Collective and was section of their globe tour, and he performed on pianist Edsel Gomez’s debut providing, Cubist Music. The saxophonist got a momentous 2008. His Awake recording was released by Marsalis Music to wide-spread essential acclaim, and he received a MacArthur Basis Honor (aka the “genius give”) along with a fellowship through the John Simon Guggenheim Basis. His Esta Plena recording appeared in ’09 2009. In 2011, Zenón shipped the Grammy-nominated Alma Adentro: The Puerto Rican Songbook, which showcased the music of Puerto Rican composers Bobby Coveró, Tite Curet Alonso, Pedro Flores, Rafael Hernández, and Sylvia Rexach. Also that yr, he founded Caravana Cultural, an application that organizes free-of-charge jazz concerts in rural regions of Puerto Rico. Rayuela, his debut for the Sunnyside label, premiered the following yr. In 2013, Zenón released the first providing from his personal Miel Music label: Oye! Reside in Puerto Rico, which recorded his reunion using the Tempo Collective music group. A year later on, he gained another Grammy nomination, this time around for Greatest Latin Jazz Recording, for Identities Are Changeable. In 2017, the saxophonist released Tipico, a quartet recording along with his longtime operating ensemble offering pianist Luis Perdomo, bassist Hans Glawischnig, and drummer Henry Cole.