“This young musician and composer is at once reestablishing the artistic, cultural, and social tradition of jazz while creating an entirely new jazz language for the 21st century.”  --MacArthur Foundation, 2008.  

Miguel Zenon

Dubbed “one of the strongest saxophonists in New York” by the New York Times, Puerto Rico native Miguel Zenón has toured the nation with the SF Jazz Collective, David Sanchez, Charlie Haden, and his own quartet. Awarded a MacArthur “genius” grant in 2008, Zenon will appear October 8-11 at the Jazz Showcase in Chicago, and then for one night only at the Dakota Jazz Club in downtown Minneapolis on October 14th. Accompanying Zenón on recordings and tours are his long-time quartet cohorts, pianist Luis Perdomo, bassist Hans Glawaischnig, and drummer Henry Cole, and vocalist/percussionist Hector Tito Matos. 

Miguel Zenon Quartet

In his young career, the 33-year-old alto sensation has performed and/or recorded with such artists and groups as David Sanchez, Danilo Perez, William Cepeda's Afrorican Jazz, The Village Vanguard Orchestra, The Guillermo Klein Big Band, The Mingus Big Band, The David Murray Big Band, Charlie Haden, Branford Marsalis, Ray Barretto, and Edward Simon, among others. In the spring of 2004 he was selected to help form “The SFJAZZ Collective,” a project created by the San Francisco Jazz Festival under the leadership of Joshua Redman, and continuing now under the direction of Joe Lovano. Currently he appears with the E.J Strickland Quintet, Sam Yahel Trio, Lage Lund Group, SF Jazz Collective, and his own quartet and Esta Plena Septet. 

Luis Perdomo©Andrea Canter

In addition to his 2008 MacArthur grant, Miguel Zenon received the prestigious Guggenheim Fellowship earlier that year to support a project examining the Plena music of Puerto Rico. The result is Esta Plena, to be officially released on October 20th.

Born in Caracas, Venezuela, Luis Perdomo began his professional career at age 12, playing on Venezuelan radio and television. He moved to New York to study at the Manhattan School of Music, later becoming a student of Sir Roland Hanna when he pursued graduate studies at Queens College. In addition to leading his own group and playing with the Miguel Zenón Quartet, Perdomo plays with John Patitucci, Ravi Coltrane, Brian Lynch, Claudia Acuña, Ray Barretto’s New World Spirits, and Ralph Irizarry’s Timbalaye. In his own trio, he typically collaborates with such jazz stars as Jeff "Tain" Watts, James Genus, Hans Glawischnig, and Jeff Ballard. Perdomo released his first recording as leader in 2004, Focus Point (RKM Records). Noted Ben Ratliffe (New York Times), “Luis Perdomo plays serious, analytical music, wrapped in complexities of rhythm…”

Hans Glawischnig©Peter Gannushkin

Drummer Henry Cole studied classical percussion in his native San Juan, Puerto Rico, discovering jazz while attending the Berklee College of Music in Boston. Back in Puerto Rico, he became one of the island’s most in-demand percussionists. He moved to New York in 2003, and has been keeping busy playing with modern leaders of Latin jazz, including Paquito D’Riviera, David Sanchez, Luis Perdomo, and of course Miguel Zenón.

Henry Cole courtesy of Victor Firth Co.

Miguel Zenon and his Esta Plena Quintet perform at the Jazz Showcase in Chicago on October 8-11, two sets at 8 and 10:00 pm (and Sunday matinee at 4 pm), www.jazzshowcase.com;  on October 14th at the Dakota Jazz Club in downtown Minneapolis, sets at 7 and 9:30 pm, www.dakotacooks.com  

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