ARTIST: Miguel Zenon
TITLE: Esta Plena
LABEL: Marsalis Music
GENRE: Jazz
BITRATE: 198kbps avg
PLAYTIME: 1h 12min total
RELEASE DATE: 2009-00-00
RIP DATE: 2010-01-04
Track List:
1. Villa Palmeras 7:06
2. Esta Plena 7:49
3. Oyelo 6:17
4. Residencial Llorens Torres 4:54
5. Pandero Y Pagode 8:26
6. Calle Calma 4:39
7. Villa Coope 9:00
8. Que Sera De Puerto Rico? 8:03
9. Progreso 9:19
10.Despedida 6:49
Marsalis Music is pleased to announce the release of Esta Plena a new studio
album by alto saxophonist and composer Miguel Zen≤n. Last year, Zen≤n was a
recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship, also called the genius grant. Remarkably,
in 2008, he also received a Guggenheim Fellowship for musical composition,
making Zen≤n the fi rst jazz musician to receive both awards in the same
calendar year. Esta Plena, a product of his Guggenheim Fellowship, reinterprets
plena, a traditional Afro-Caribbean music from Puerto Rico, with the sensibility
and techniques of modern jazz. Initially, what drove these projects was a
personal desire to know more about my own culture, he says. After I left Puerto
Rico, I immersed myself in jazz for a very long time so I wasn t really dealing
with Puerto Rican music. I had been exposed to it growing up, but it wasn t
until I began writing my own music that I really started to pay close attention
to it. That s when I decided to explore this music and fi nd out more about my
roots. Esta Plena features Zen≤n s long-standing quartet Luis Perdomo on
acoustic piano, Hans Glawischnig on bass, and Henry Cole on drums, spectacularly
augmented with HΘctor Tito Matos, Obanil· Allende, and Juan GutiΘrrez on vocals
and panderos (hand-held single-head drums).