Puerto Rican heritage meets 21st century jazz

Posted on Tuesday, May 31

Miguel Zenón at the Jazz Showcase: Puerto Rican heritage meets 21st century jazz
by Don Macica
Chicago-based writer and Marketing Director

Saxophonist Miguel Zenón has spent the last several years exploring and reinterpreting the musical idioms of his native Puerto Rico, starting with 2005’s Jibaro and continuing with Esta Plena in 2008. Both were folkloric in their sourcing, searching out the African connections between Caribbean music (specifically Puerto Rican bomba y plena) and American jazz, yet treating the results with a thoroughly modernist approach. It’s not surprising that these projects turned out fruitful. After all, New Orleans, the birthplace of jazz, is often thought of by its residents as not in the deep south of the United States, but rather as the northernmost city of the Caribbean.

Zenón brought the most recent phase of this ongoing project to the Jazz Showcase this weekend. This time, the folkloric traditions were supplanted by the compositions of what he referred to as ‘the great Puerto Rican songbook’, evoking Cole Porter, Irving Berlin, and the Gershwins. Songwriters such as Rafael Hernandez, Pedro Flores, and Bobby Capo are held in high esteem on the island, and proved fertile ground for interpretation by Zenón and his astoundingly talented quartet.

A lengthy medley of three songs by Sylvia Rexach (including Alma Adentro, the title of his CD to be released later this year) started simply, reflecting the bolero style in which Rexach often wrote, but soon progressed into complex rhythms, marvelous piano runs, and Zenón’s intense yet joyful alto work. Free improvisation reigned in the middle section before returning to calmer territory.

The first set played out in this fashion, great playing interspersed with Zenon’s spoken enthusiasm as he described the songs, singers, and their cultural significance, including a nod to his father’s love of the salsa singer Ismael Rivera, then playing an exquisite version of his Bobby Capo penned hit song Incomprendido. Anyone who left at its conclusion certainly witnessed a great show.

It was in the second set, though, when things really caught fire. Zenón introduced the set with a taste of his next project, an original composition titled Identities, informed by the experience of Puerto Ricans on the mainland. The playing of this brand new material seemed to open something up in the band, as everything else that followed was elevated to a level only approached in the first set.

Zenón is a joy to watch as well as hear. He uses his legs to hold the time signature in focus, bending slightly at the knees, rocking to the rhythm while his alto takes off on its explorations. Pedro Flores’ gorgeous bolero Amor, though languid in its romance, was treated to extremely focused playing, especially from pianist Luis Perdomo and bassist Hans Glawischnig. On Rafael Hernandez’ Silencio, the rhythms and arrangement once again became increasingly complex, with drummer Eric Doob paying very close attention to his sheet music, nailing the stops and starts as the intensity built.

Next up was a reflective duet between Glawischnig and Zenón that led to another impassioned performance from Zenón, evoking (to these ears, anyway) an unabashed Nuyorican take on Harlem Nocturne. The evening’s final performance was a showcase for Doob’s propulsive drum dynamics, impossibly kicking the intensity of the entire band up yet another notch. The typically attentive and enthusiastic Showcase audience wanted more, but I suspect the band had already given everything they had.