Miguel Zenón News

Publication: A Blog Supreme/NPR Jazz
Author: Patrick Jarenwattananon
Date: December 2, 2011

As an avid jazz media consumer based on the East Coast, I’ve come to find the annual announcement of Grammy nominations worth a bit of detached amusement. The results, at least where jazz is concerned, rarely align well with my perceptions of emerging critical consensus, but it’s fun enough to handicap the field presented for you. Meanwhile, some jazz musicians are getting awards with some prestige to them, and the vast majority of other jazz musicians remain happily unconcerned with Grammy Awards and the sector of the recording industry responsible for them. So no harm is really done.

Publication: Durham Herald-Sun
Author: Cliff Bellamy
Date: December 1, 2011

DURHAM – Two locally connected recording labels – Merge Records and saxophonist Branford Marsalis’ label Marsalis Music – were nominated for Grammy Awards on Wednesday.

The Montreal-based band Arcade Fire earned Durham-based Merge Records its first Grammy Award when they took home Album of the Year in February for “The Suburbs.” Another Arcade Fire recording project earned the label a nomination this week. The Merge recording “The Suburbs – Deluxe Edition (Scenes from the Suburbs),” with art direction by Vincent Morissett, was nominated for Best Recording Package.

Saxophonist Miguel Zenón has been nominated for Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album for “Alma Adentro: The Puerto Rican Songbook,” on the Marsalis Music label. Zenón was also nominated in 2009 for Best Improvised Jazz Solo and Best Latin Jazz Album for his Marsalis Music recording “Esta Plena.” Read more »

Publication: Ottawa Citizen Jazzblog
Author: Peter Hum
Date: December 1, 2011

I am glad to see that Gerald Clayton, Miguel Zenón and John Hollenbeck were nominated — New blood! New blood! — but otherwise, it seems to me that in previous years, the people who chose the jazz nominees were more astute and progressive.

To read Peter Hum’s commentary regarding the Jazz Grammy nominations and see a full list of the nominations, visit his blog post here.