Miguel Zenon at Chicago Jazz Festival, 2022!

CHICAGO JAZZ FESTIVAL 2022

Festival artwork by Chicago artist, Arthur Wright

MIGUEL ZENON TO EXPOSE WORLDWIDE INFLUENCES, INTERESTS AND EDUCATIONAL ENRICHMENT AT CHICAGO JAZZ FESTIVAL

The Miguel Zenon Quartet, left to right: Drummer Henry Cole, Zenon, pianist Luis Perdomo, and bassist Hans Glawischnig. Thequartet will play at the 2022 Chicago Jazz Festival.

Photo courtesy of Adrien Tillmann

OPENNESS. REVELATION. “OPRESION Y REVOLUCION.” RUMBA! RIGHT ON!

These emotions energized alto saxophonist Miguel Zenon to create Musica de Las Americas, his 14th solo album, which will be released on August 26. Eight days later, on September 3, Zenon and his quartet – pianist Luis Perdomo, bassist Hans Glawischnig, and drummer Henry Cole – will present this new music at the 2022 Chicago Jazz Festival.

During a recent Zoom conversation with the JazzGram from Siena, Italy, Zenon explained how his hunger tostudy history from the Americas and beyond resulted in him creating the album’s eight, Spanish-titled tunes.

“The idea of presenting what I learned honestly is my goal,” he said. “If I can do that, I’m somewhat satisfied.”

“Venas Abiertas” entered Zenon’s conscience in response to Uruguayan journalist Eduardo Galeano’s Las venas abiertas de America Latina, first published in 1971. “The title means ‘The open veins of Latin America,’ and it’s focused on the history and resources of Latin America and how these resources have been taken advantage of by generations,”Zenon said. “He breaks it down into very specific numbers and regions.The book was groundbreaking at its time.”

Zenon’s quartet is augmented on selected songs by Los Pleneros de La Cresta, a percussion and vocal ensemble based in Puerto Rico that specializes in plena. “Plena is traditional music from Puerto Rico,” explained Zenon, who first saw his countrymen in performance a few years ago. “Everything I heard them play was something I had not heard before, but it was all in the tradition of the music.” Los Pleneros de La Cresta is first featured on “Navegando (Las Estrellas Nos Guian).” This title, Zenonstated, means, “Sailing guided by the stars.” These five words, writtenby Zenon, were sung by Emil Martinez, the ensemble’s lead vocalist, whothen provided embellishment through improvisation.

When describing this tune to the ensemble, Zenon revealed how studying certain societies before colonization made music in his mind.

“I wrote the song inspired by the idea that a lot of the societies in North America, Central America, South America, the Caribbean, the Aztecs and Incas travelled these great distances be sea,” he said. “They had knowledge of nature and everything around them that, guided by the stars, they could travel hundreds of miles by canoe. There were many things they did before the encounter with the Europeans. In many ways, they were more advanced in terms of mathematics and knowledge of the cosmos.”

Photo courtesy of Adrien Tillmann

Zenon also allowed Haitian music and his reading about that country’s revolution to create “Imperios.” “I was thinking about the amount of energy and coming together that happened for the revolution to take place,” he said, adding how such unity also fueled “Opresion Y Revolucion.”

On “Bambula,” Zenon heard and envisioned ancient rhythms and dances, which originated from West Africa, and how their power preserved through the Middle Passage, making it possible for their impact to be experienced by multiple countries centuries later. “Wherever there are people from Africa, there is a rhythm that we hear through second line, reggaeton… that has found its way into different configurations of American music,” Zenon said. “I wanted to pay homage to that, as it has been so central to the development of music in this part of the world.

“My idea for Musica de Las Americas,” he continued, “is to present my curiosity, translated into musical form, and present it in a way that connects with the listener.”