Internationally renowned saxophonist/composer Miguel Zenón
receives 2020 Grammy Nomination
“Best Latin Jazz Album”
for his album Sonero: The Music of Ismael Rivera
receives 2020 Grammy Nomination
“Best Latin Jazz Album”
for his album Sonero: The Music of Ismael Rivera
Renowned saxophonist and composer Miguel Zenón has received a 2020 Grammy nomination in theBest Latin Jazz Album category for his quartet album Sonero: The Music of Ismael Rivera. The album, his twelfth as a leader and his fifth on his Miel Music label, pays tribute to a musician who influenced him from childhood. Familiarly known as Maelo, he’s a popular hero in Puerto Rico today, even more than 30 years after his death. This is Zenón’s eighth Grammy nomination. The Grammy Awards ceremony will take place in Los Angeles on January 26, 2020.
“He wasn’t just one of the guys. For me, he was beyond that” says Zenón about Rivera (1931-1987) who grew up in Santurce, not far from Zenón’s home turf. “He exemplified the highest level of artistry. He was like Bird, Mozart, Einstein, Ali – he was that guy.”
Zenón knows something about musical greatness. He’s one of jazz’s most original thinkers, known for his harmonic complexity, and for being one of the most recognizable alto saxophonists of his generation. His great subject is his homeland of Puerto Rico, and he brings a fresh take on it every time out, combining reverence for cultural tradition with strong compositional chops. No one else’s Puerto Rico – and no one else’s jazz – sounds like Miguel Zenón’s.
Sonero: The Music of Ismael Rivera might be Miguel Zenón’s strongest album yet, and that’s saying a lot. Zenón and his quartet – pianist Luis Perdomo, bassist Hans Glawischnig, and drummer Henry Cole – capture the spirit of Maelo, but through its own distinctive lens. The album has the easily identifiable sound of the fully developed Miguel Zenón Quartet, which has remained with the same membership for fifteen years – an astounding stability in the world of jazz. They play a personalized jazz – their own unique style, collectively created under Zenón’s direction, built on the foundation of their easy musical communication.
4 stars “Marvelous… A consistently brainy improviser, [Zenón] often engages in blistering lines that zigzag as if compositions were sonic schematic diagrams. That brio is certainly present on this recording, but there’s a newfound emotional warmth to his work.” – John Murph, DownBeat
“Mr. Zenón’s alto saxophone sounds as seductive, earthy and nimble as did Rivera’s voice; it suggests, alternatively, grit or pure beauty…Mr. Zenón and his colleagues honor Rivera by doing what great soneros and jazz musicians do with rich repertoire: listen closely and lovingly, and find new ways in.” – Larry Blumenfeld, Wall Street Journal
“If you know Rivera’s repertoire, you’ll recognize certain motifs and chord changes; if not, you’ll savor the ultra-sophisticated work of one of the most accomplished and seasoned small groups in jazz.” – Howard Reich, Chicago Tribune
About Miguel Zenón
A multiple Grammy® nominee and Guggenheim and MacArthur Fellow, Zenón is one of a select group of musicians who have masterfully balanced and blended the often contradictory poles of innovation and tradition. Widely considered one of the most groundbreaking and influential saxophonists of his generation, Zenón has also developed a unique voice as a composer and as a conceptualist, concentrating his efforts on perfecting a fine mix between Latin American folkloric music and jazz. Born and raised in San Juan, Puerto Rico, Zenón has recorded and toured with a wide variety of musicians including Charlie Haden, Fred Hersch, Kenny Werner, Bobby Hutcherson and Steve Coleman and is a founding member of the SFJAZZ Collective.
http://miguelzenon.com
