Miguel Zenón
Miguel A. Zenón ( born December 30, 1976 in San Juan, Puerto Rico) is a Puerto Rican jazz musician (alto saxophone, flute), composer and bandleader.
Life and work
Miguel Zenón grew up in Puerto Rico, played in elementary school first recorder and then studied saxophone at the Escuela Libre de Musica in San Juan. He later received a scholarship as part of the Berklee program in Puerto Rico for the Berklee College of Music in Boston and began his music career in the 1990s with Bob Moses and in the Boston big band Either / Orchestra. Miguel Zenón moved in 1998, encouraged by Danilo Pérez to New York to continue his studies at the Manhattan School of Music and in 2001 to acquire the master. Zenon then worked in the bands of Ray Barretto and David Sánchez, also with Guillermo Klein's Los Gauchos formation, Sebastian Weiss and Charlie Haden's Liberation Music in Orchestra and the Mingus Big Band. Since its founding in 2004, he has been a member of the SFJAZZ Collective.
Zenón in 2001 founded his own band, which consisted of the pianist Luis Perdomo, bassist Hans Glawischnig and drummer Antonio Sanchez; Sanchez was replaced by Henry Cole in 2005. In 2002, the debut album of the quartet, Looking Forward appeared on the label Fresh Sounds / New Talent. The following year he recorded the album Ceremonial on the ' newly founded by Branford Marsalis Marsalis Music label, where his next albums appeared. In 2004 he composed Jibaro, a tribute to the rural folk music of his native Puerto Rico; during the recording of Zeno quartet was supplemented by a string quartet and brass; the album was nominated for a Grammy Alma Adentro was recorded in a large-scale arrangement. Together with Laurent Coq he set chapter of the novel Hopscotch by Julio Cortázar; the 2012 published quartet album ( with Dan Weiss and Dana Leong ) was introduced in 2013 in Europe.
Zenón worked also works as a music teacher in programs of the New School in New York, the Canadian Banff Centre and the Marsalis Jams Program.
Prizes and awards
Zenón received the 2004 to 2006 Rising Star Alto Saxophone Award Downbeat critics polls, the 2006 Best New Artist award, the reader poll in Jazz Times and 2008 Guggenheim Fellowship. 2008 he was a MacArthur Fellow.
Disco Graphical Notes
- Looking Forward ( Fresh Sound, 2001)
- Ceremonial ( Marsalis Music, 2004)
- Awake ( Marsalis Music, 2008), with Ben Gerstein
- Esta Plena ( Marsalis Music, 2009)
- Alma Adentro: The Puerto Rican Songbook ( Marsalis Music, 2011)
- Miguel Zenón & The Rhythm Collective: Oye! Live In Puerto Rico ( Miel Music in 2013, with Tony Escapa, Aldemar Valentin, Reynaldo de Jesus)