Miguel Zenón


Miguel Zenón is a Puerto Rican alto saxophonist, composer, band leader, music producer, and educator. He is a multiple Grammy Award nominee, and the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship and a MacArthur Fellowship. Zenón has released many albums as a band leader and appeared on over 70 recordings as a sideman.

Early life

Born in San Juan, Puerto Rico, Zenón was raised in Residencial Luis Llorens Torres, the largest housing project in the Island. Although he didn't grow up in a family of musicians, he was nevertheless exposed to various styles of music from a very early age. At age 10 he received his first lessons on music theory and solfeggio from Ernesto Vigoreaux, an elderly gentleman who traveled from the adjacent neighborhood of Villa Palmeras to Llorens Torres every day in order to work with disadvantaged youth in the community. Zenón would eventually be admitted to Escuela Libre de Música, a performing arts middle school and high school where he was trained for six years on classical saxophone by Angel Marrero. On the 11th grade he was exposed to jazz music by some of his friends at the school and became very interested in the concept of improvisation and on the music of jazz saxophonist Charlie Parker. Although he had always shown interest in the natural sciences, he declined an engineering scholarship from the Recinto Universitario de Mayagüez and decided to pursue a career in music. After a year and a half worth of efforts to gather enough funds in scholarships and financial aid, Zenón moved to Boston in the spring of 1996 to begin his studies at Berklee College of Music.

Education and session work

At Berklee, Zenón's classmates included Antonio Sánchez, Anat Cohen, Avishai Cohen, Jaleel Shaw, and Jeremy Pelt. During his time in Boston, he was heavily influenced by Bill Pierce, Ed Tomassi, and Hal Crook. It was also during this time that he met Panamanian pianist Danilo Pérez, who would become a mentor and collaborator. After graduating from Berklee in 1996, Zenón attended Manhattan School of Music, where he studied with Dick Oatts, Nils Vigeland and Ludmila Ulehla and received a master's degree in Performance in 2001 before settling in New York City. As a sideman, he has worked with SFJAZZ Collective, Charlie Haden, Fred Hersch, Kenny Werner, Guillermo Klein & Los Guachos, David Sánchez, Danilo Pérez, The Vanguard Jazz Orchestra, Kurt Elling, The Mingus Big Band, Ray Barreto, Jerry González & The Fort Apache Band, Jeff Ballard Trio, Miles Okazaki, Dan Weiss, Dan Tepfer, Bobby Hutcherson, Steve Coleman, Andy Montañez, Brian Lynch, Antonio Sánchez, Paoli Mejías, David Gilmore, and Jason Lindner.

As leader

The Miguel Zenón Quartet

In 1999 Zenón started getting together with Mexican drummer Antonio Sánchez, Austrian bassist Hans Glawischnig and Venezuelan pianist Luis Perdomo. They would meet for informal rehearsal sessions at Glawischnig's apartment in New York's Upper West Side and play through some of Zenón's early compositions. The group, which would eventually become the Miguel Zenón Quartet, soon started performing at various venues in the city, such as the C Note and The Jazz Gallery. In 2005 Sanchez began working regularly with The Pat Metheny Group, and was replaced in the Quartet by Puerto Rican drummer Henry Cole, for what has become the longest running version of the ensemble.

Recordings as leader

Zenón has given hundreds of lectures and master classes and has taught all over the world at institutions which include: The Banff Centre, Berklee College of Music, Siena Jazz, Conservatorium Van Amsterdam, Musik Akademie Basel, Conservatoire de Paris, University of Manitoba, Manhattan School of Music, Conservatory of Music of Puerto Rico, Columbia University, Princeton University, Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts, San Francisco Conservatory of Music, Universidad Veracruzana, UMass- Amherst and The Brubeck Institute. He is also a permanent faculty member at New England Conservatory of Music in Boston and Manhattan School of Music in New York City. He's also the current Jazz Artist-in-Residence at the Zucherman Institute at Columbia University.As a composer he has been commissioned by SFJAZZ, The New York State Council for the Arts, Chamber Music America, The John Simon Guggenheim Foundation, Hyde Park Jazz Festival, The Logan Center for the Arts, Jazz Reach, Peak Performances, PRISM Quartet,Carnegie Hall,MIT and many of his peers. In 2019, he performed at the 41st annual Jazz Fest in Chicago.

Caravana Cultural

In 2011 Zenón founded Caravana Cultural, an initiative that organizes free jazz concerts in rural areas of Puerto Rico. Each concert focuses on the music of a distinguished jazz figure and is preceded by presentation that touches on the basic elements of jazz and improvisation. The concert also incorporates young musicians from the community who join the band on the last piece of the presentation. Caravana Cultural, which is funded and produced by Zenón, looks to make a "cultural investment" in the island using jazz as a vehicle while simultaneously expanding the audience.

Awards and honors

He has been featured in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Los Angeles Times, The Chicago Tribune, Bloomberg Pursuits, Jazz Times, Jazziz, Boston Globe, Billboard, Jazz Inside, Newsday, and Details. He also topped both the Jazz Artist of the Year and Alto Saxophonist of the Year categories on the 2014 Jazz Times Critics Poll and was selected as the 2015, 2018, 2019 and 2020 Alto Saxophonist of the Year by the Jazz Journalist Association. Zenón is an eight-time Grammy nominee and a four-time Latin Grammy nominee. In 2008 he received a fellowship from the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation and later that year also received a fellowship from the MacArthur Foundation.

Discography

As leader

With Bobby Avey
With Jeff Ballard
With Ray Barreto
With Edmar Castañeda
With
With Henry Cole
With Stephan Crump
With Adam Cruz
With Alexis Cuadrado
With Fernando García
With David Gilmore
With Hans Glawischnig
With Edsel Gomez
With Charlie Haden
With Guillermo Klein
With Julien Labro
With Jason Lindner
With Brian Lynch
With The Mingus Big Band
With Paoli Mejias
With Stu Mindeman
With Andy Montañez
With Miles Okazaki
With Luis Perdomo
With PRISM Quartet
With Antonio Sánchez
With David Sánchez
With SFJAZZ Collective
With Anthony Tidd
With Kenny Werner
With Dan Weiss
With Jonathan Suazo