Exploring Genius: Miguel Zenon’s Journey in Jazz

“Genius!” It’s an overused term, even by music-critic standards. It used to be applied to works of recognizable brilliance, like Kind of Blue or A Love Supreme; now it’s slapped on anyone or anything the hoi polloi likes. (EXAMPLE: Donald Trump is a “stable genius.” I rest my case.) All that said, thanks to the MacArthur Foundation, genius can now be quantified by the only measuring stick Americans care about: Money.

In 2008, altoist Miguel Zenon received a coveted MacArthur Fellowship (also known as the “Genius Grant”): $500,000 to basically “go do genius things.” At the time, the MacArthur Foundation said of Zenon, “This young musician is at once reestablishing the artistic, cultural, and social tradition of jazz while creating an entirely new jazz language for the 21^st century.” So… No pressure.

At the time, Zenon had three releases on Branford Marsalis’ label Marsalis Music but was probably best known for the music he contributed to the baddest septet this side of the Cookers, the SFJAZZ Collective. By necessity, the Collective has always been a revolving door as far as personnel. Still, Zenon would become one of its longest-serving members, creating stirring originals & marvelous adaptations of artists ranging from Thelonious Monk and Wayne Shorter to Stevie Wonder and Michael Jackson.

Zenon hit the ground running with his new nest egg, creating large-scale compositions as detailed and demanding as anything he’d come up with for the Collective – first on the 2011 Marsalis Music date Alma Adentro: The Puerto Rican Songbook, and then forming his own marque Miel Music to release what I consider to be Miguel’s magnum opus: 2014’s Identities Are Changeable, which combined riveting big-canvass material and interviews with seven other people of Puerto Rican descent, all of them speaking on the same subject: What’s it like to be “a New Yorican” in the 21^st century? Seeing & hearing the cultural connections (and disconnections) brings the listener closer to the emotional zeitgeist Zevon and his friends live every day.

More recently, Zevon has slimmed down his musical toolbox to a quartet featuring some of the most influential players in the genre today:

• Luis Perdomo is one of the most mesmerizing pianists on the menu. Now that Frank Kimbrough’s gone, Perdomo becomes the man with the softest hands in the genre, coaxing indescribable beauty out of his instrument with a single, deft touch. 
• Hans Glawischnig can literally be called “bass player to the stars” when you look at all the recordings he’s been on and the bands he’s participated in. Hans’ playing has the same phat, Steady Eddie quality Niels-Henning Orsted Pederson used to provide Dexter Gordon.
• Henry Cole already has a resume many older drummers would kill to possess. Cole replaced Zenon’s fellow SFJAZZ alum Eric Harland in the group, which are big shoes to fill, but Cole wears them well.

Zenon still has an eye on musical history, releasing dates dedicated to renowned jazz misanthrope Ornette Coleman and legendary Puerto Rican vocalist Ismael Rivera. But the lion’s share of Miguel’s quartet work has been based on wicked-good originals: His latest Miel Music release Musica De Las Americas is inspired by Zenon’s passion for the history & cultures of the American continent. It made all the major Best Of lists of 2022, and I put it at number 1.

There may be bigger or better-known players than Miguel Zenon, but you’d be hard-pressed to find one with the same level of commitment and creative fire. He’s one of the scintillating artists the Skidmore Jazz Institute brings in every summer for master classes and concerts, and you miss him at your peril.

Miguel Zenon will appear as part of the Skidmore Jazz Institute concert series Tuesday, July 5^th, at 8pm @ the Arthur Zankel Music Center, Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs. For information and ticket sales, please go to the Skidmore Jazz Institute web page.