Miguel Zenon – Esta Plena [CD] Miguel Zenon – Awake Miguel Zenon – Jibaro Miguel Zenon – Ceremonial
MySpace URL: www.myspace.com/miguelzenon
Miguel Zenón is pleased to announce the release of Esta Plena his new studio album on Marsalis Music. The new work is now available digitally and will be released in a physical format on October 20, 2009. Last year, Zenón was a recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship, also called the “genius grant,” in recognition for “drawing from a variety of jazz idioms and the music of his native Puerto Rico to create complex, accessible sounds that overflow with emotion.” Remarkably, in 2008, he also received a Guggenheim Fellowship for musical composition, making Zenón the first jazz musician to receive both awards in the same calendar year.
Esta Plena, a product of his Guggenheim Fellowship, reinterprets plena, a traditional Afro-Caribbean music from Puerto Rico, with the sensibility and techniques of modern jazz. Initially, what drove these projects was a personal desire to know more about my own culture,” he says. “After I left Puerto Rico, I immersed myself in jazz for a very long time so I wasn’t really dealing with Puerto Rican music. I had been exposed to it growing up, but it wasn’t until I began writing my own music that I really started to pay close attention to it. That’s when I decided to explore this music and find out more about my roots.” “What distinguishes Miguel,” explains label-founder and fellow saxophonist, Branford Marsalis, “is his ability to successfully integrate musical elements from his own culture into the jazz form without compromising either. What he plays, it’s not your standard ‘latin jazz’, but something different.”
Comprising 10 original tracks, half instrumental and half featuring lyrics by Zenón, Esta Plena features Zenón’s long-standing regular quartet – Luis Perdomo on acoustic piano, Hans Glawischnig on bass, and Henry Cole on drums – augmented by Héctor "Tito" Matos, Obanilú Allende, and Juan Gutiérrez on vocals and panderos (hand-held single-head drums). The result is earthy and sophisticated -- street music for the 21st century.
Born and raised in the Santurce section of San Juan, Puerto Rico, Miguel Zenón began playing music at the age of ten. He attended the Escuela Libre de Música, San Juan’s arts high school, eventually earning a scholarship to Berklee College of Music. While in Boston, he played with Danilo Pérez, Bob Moses, and the Either/Orchestra before moving to New York City in 1998 where he attended the Manhattan School of Music and has since worked with artists and groups such as the David Sánchez Sextet, the Mingus Big Band, Steve Coleman, Charlie Haden, the SFJAZZ Collective and others. His first recording as a leader was Looking Forward (2002, Fresh Sound New Talent). He debuted on Marsalis Music in 2004 with Ceremonial, followed by Jibaro, in 2005 and, most recently, Awake released in 2008.
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I am so happy and proud of Miguel Zeno's effort in creating something uniquely and distinguishably esquisite as "Esta Plena" My favorite tunes are: Villa Palmeras, Residencial LLorens, Villa Coope y Esta Plena. While we can certainly say there's a movement in PR music towards the reaffirmation of our roots by creating music highlighting the autochthonous Bomba, Plena and the many variants of our "campesino" music, Zenon's productions extend the boundaries of this movement to its outer limits by combining all its components and his newly created elements, to produce a totally new feeling of smooth transition between the native and foreign, in this instance Jazz. Fusion here, means Zenon's music. Congratulations on your production and contribution to the greater movement of our music together with those that precede this efffort in perpetuating our culture and nation.
Ciao,Miguel Thank you for the add and the friendship. you are very good, I like your stupendous music a lot, compliments ..really. you are one of my prefeitis, I feel great admiration for you, be really one whom is worth rather a lot! I hope to listen soon to you, in italy .. talk to you soon, and all of my best wishes to always listen to your good music all the best.. from italy.. and good life.. every day neal
Thank you so very much for the lesson while I was in NYC. It was very inspiring for me. I really hope to get back to NYC for another lesson with you sometime in the not-too-distant-future.
Can't wait to pick up your new CD this fall. Best wishes for all of your touring, etc.
Ciao,Miguel,Thank you for the add and the friendship. you are very good, I like your stupendous music a lot, compliments ..really. you are one of my prefeitis, I feel great admiration for you, you are a great really... all the best.. from italy..and good week end neal
Yeah I got an Upgrade!!!!! excuse me sir, we called you to tell you we had to move you back to the middle seat... dong ding dong ding... (Hulk Theme) ja,ja,ja,ja,ja
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