esta plena

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!

Miguel is on tour this fall, so be sure to check the Events page on MarsalisMusic.com to see if he will be coming to a town near you!!

Date: 11.01.2009
Publication: Jazz Times
Author: Fernando Gonzalez

Smart and tough, the music on saxophonist Miguel Zenón’s Esta Plena (Marsalis) often evokes the sounds of his neighborhood back in Puerto Rico. But Esta Plena is not about nostalgia- it’s about a certain wisdom.
Read more »

Date: 10.30.2009
Publication: World Music Central
Author: Angel Romero

If Marsalis Music signs you, it means you are above average in the world of American jazz. Puerto Rican saxophonist Miguel Zenón proved his worth at a young age. Last year Zenón was granted both a MacArthur and a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2008 and he has already recorded four albums for the reputable Marsalis Music. The latest release is Esta Plena. As the name implies, this recording is dedicated to one of the great musical traditions of Puerto Rico, the plena, reinterpreted with the approach of 21st century jazz.
Read more »

Date: 10.14.2009
Publication: NPR.org
Author: Josh Jackson

Saxophonist Miguel Zenón’s career has taken a relentlessly upward trajectory over the past decade. He’s a 2008 winner of the prestigious Guggenheim and MacArthur fellowships, as well as a founding member of the SF Jazz Collective. All the while, Zenón has investigated his Puerto Rican roots with a quiet resolve. On his new recording, Esta Plena, he’s distilled his musical history into a clear conception: a cultural exchange between jazz and the folkloric form known as plena.
Read more »

Date: 10.10.2009
Publication: Chicago Tribune
Author: Howard Reich

Since its inception, jazz has been an international music, drawing deeply on influences from the Caribbean, Africa and Europe.

But its global voice never has been more pronounced than in the past 20 years, thanks to the stylistic breakthroughs of Panamanian pianist Danilo Perez, Puerto Rican saxophonist David Sanchez, Chilean vocalist Claudia Acuña and many more.
Read more »

Date: 10.09.2009
Publication: Chicago Tribune
Author: Howard Reich

The music of Puerto Rico has played in Miguel Zenón’s imagination since his childhood in San Juan, where he was born.

But it wasn’t until a few years ago that he began to examine his musical heritage in depth, with remarkable results (and we refer not only to the prestigious MacArthur Fellowship, or “genius grant,” he was awarded in 2008).
Read more »

Date: 10.04.2009
Publication: About.com
Author: Jacob Teichroew

Miguel Zenón’s Esta Plena is a continuation of the saxophonist’s previous work, complete with exuberant melodies and voluble phrases that float above knotty rhythmic terrain. The core group, featuring pianist Luis Perdomo, bassist Hans Glawischnig, and drummer Henry Cole, is the same heard on Zenón’s last album, Awake, although Esta Plena is fitted around traditional Puerto Rican plena music.
Read more »

Date: 09.14.2009
Publication: All About Jazz
Author: General Release

Saxophonist/Composer Miguel Zenón will be bringing his Esta Plena Quintet to the Jazz Showcase in Chicago, Ill. from October 8th thru 11th, 2009 in celebration of his new Marsalis Music release “Esta Plena.”

“This young musician and composer is at once reestablishing the artistic, cultural, and social tradition of jazz while creating an entirely new jazz language for the 21st century.”-MacArthur Foundation,2008.
Read more »