MIGUEL ZENÓN “Vanguardia Subterránea: Live at the Village Vanguard”

ARTIST

Miguel Zenón

ALBUM TITLE

“Vanguardia Subterránea: Live at the Village Vanguard”

LABEL

Miel Music

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Recorded live over two evenings at one of the holiest sites in jazz, this is the first live album by Zenón’s long-standing quartet, which also celebrates twenty years of activity. As always, the music brims with energy and encapsulates every facet of the saxophonist’s artistic vision, combining elements of identity – his native and personal heritage – with a fiery, forward-looking modernity. Through a deep process of absorbing diverse cultural and musical influences, Zenón forges a fertile synthesis between the great African American canon and the regional traditions of Central and South America. He regards them as fruits of the same roots – and thus experiences them as one continuum.

In this way, the saxophonist seamlessly blends verses, rhythms, metres and dances from across the Americas – especially from his native Puerto Rico, though not exclusively – with the harmonic sophistication of contemporary jazz and an unrelenting groove. Zenón ventures boldly into the frontier territory of the vanguardia subterránea (underground avant-garde), the concept playfully invoked by the title of both the album and its centerpiece composition.

We have written about it many times before, but it bears repeating: Zenón’s music (and that of his formidable group) is a sophisticated exploration of cultural and identity themes – deeply conceptual yet never merely conceptualistic. For this reason, it remains vivid, communicative and rhythmically acrobatic, without ever diluting the complexity that sustains it.

Among the highlights are “Abre Cuto Güiri Mambo” (in Bozal, a primitive Afro-Hispanic pidgin, the phrase means “open your ears and listen to this mambo”) and “Perdóname,” both exemplary of the joyous fusion between jazz improvisation and Latin rhythmic vitality. “Vita,” dedicated to Zenón’s grandmother, reveals his melodic gifts and sensitivity to emotional nuance, while the title track offers a masterful synthesis of all these elements.

Now on his eighteenth album as a leader, Zenón confirms his status as one of the foremost musicians and composers on today’s jazz scene. Once again, Vanguardia Subterránea: Live at the Village Vanguard is an album not to be missed.

– Sandro Cerini

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