Miguel Zenón News

Linking Jazz to Boleros and Ballads

Publication: New York Times
Author: Ben Ratliff
Date: August 29, 2011

Miguel Zenón
“Alma Adentro: The Puerto Rican Songbook”
(Marsalis Music)

The alto saxophonist Miguel Zenón is identifiable by his tone, which is floaty and bright and ornate; sometimes he sounds as if he’s playing a ballad even when the tempo races. But he’s also become identifiable by the quality of ideas, his particular kind of intellectual ambition.

Since his first album 10 years ago he’s become something like a perfect student, the perpetually self-challenging kind. Mr. Zenón, born and raised in Puerto Rico and living in New York — and a 2008 MacArthur Foundation award winner — could make an endless stream of contemporary jazz if he wanted to, rhythmically complicated, perfectly new, perfectly cloistered. Read more »

Miguel Zenón ‘Alma Adentro: The Puerto Rican Songbook’

Publication: Boston Globe
Author: Bill Beuttler
Date: August 29, 2011

Having devoted previous albums to modern jazz interpretations of the jibaro and plena folk-music forms of his native Puerto Rico, the brilliant alto saxophonist Miguel Zenón is now doing the same for the island’s popular music. On “Alma Adentro: The Puerto Rican Songbook,’’ Zenón’s longstanding quartet - including pianist Luis Perdomo, bassist Hans Glawischnig, and drummer Henry Cole, augmented by a 10-piece wind ensemble - offers boldly virtuosic reworkings of two tunes apiece from five of Puerto Rico’s most beloved songwriters. Read more »

Newport Jazz 2011: Miguel Zenón's Puerto Rican Songbook, Live In Concert

Publication: NPR.org
Author: Patrick Jarenwattananon
Date: August 8, 2011

Lately, the alto saxophonist Miguel Zenón has been listening to some of his parents’ favorite music. That is, he’s adapted a handful of classic popular songs from his native Puerto Rico for his jazz quartet. And on his forthcoming album Alma Adentro, he even contracted his friend Guillermo Klein to write backing arrangements for a 10-piece woodwind section. Lush and verdant — like the tropical isle which inspired them — the charts see a rare public performance at Newport’s central Quad Stage.

Visit NPR.org to stream Miguel’s set!

Read more »

Miguel Zenón is organizing free jazz performances in Puerto Rico

Caravana Cultural is a project born out of a personal desire to present music at its purest form. Our main objective is to bring music directly to the people, setting aside any financial or business related interest. Just Music, Plain and Simple. By focusing on Jazz Music, we intend to eliminate any social or political stigma that could be tied to this style of music, while also taking this music to places where the public has had little or no exposure to it. Read more »

Esta Plena Receives Latin Grammy Nomination!

Miguel Zenón’s most recent album, Esta Plena, has been nominated for a 2010 Latin Grammy in the category of Jazz!! To learn more about the Latin Grammy awards and to see the other nominees, please click here. To pick up your copy of Miguel’s album, please visit our store page. Congratulations, Miguel!