Miguel Zenón has precious little left to prove. At 48, the alto saxophonist and composer has already run the gamut of prestigious grants — MacArthur “genius,” Guggenheim fellowship, Doris Duke Artist, among many others. He’s amassed a shelf full of academic laurels and critics’ awards, and earned the abiding love and gratitude of his fellow Puerto Ricans for exposing the world to their folkloric music through the prism of jazz. Last year, he even added a Grammy to the list.
But the Miguel Zenón Quartet remains criminally underrated, too often in the leader’s long shadow even as they give collective voice to his vivid conceptual genius — be it updating the song forms of jibara and plena, reworking the Great Puerto Rican Songbook, imagining…

You need to be logged in to view the rest of the content. Please . Not a Member? Join Us

« »