Miguel Zenón & Luis Perdomo Duo / support: Lara Rosseel solo 14-02-23

di 14 feb '23

Liefde voor de bolero

Saxofonist Miguel Zenón is een van de meest vooraanstaande jazzgiganten van vandaag. Hij woont dan wel in New York met inmiddels meerdere Grammy-nominaties op zak, maar zijn roots liggen in Puerto Rico. Daar behoren de liederen van zangers als Ismael Rivera, Cheo Feliciano en Andy Montañez tot het gemeengoed.

Samen met zijn duopartner, de Venezolaanse pianist Luis Perdomo, graaft hij in het geliefde repertoire van de Cubaanse Bolero. De populaire Latijns-Amerikaanse ballade heeft heel Zuid-Amerika doorkruist en is in hartje NYC beland.

Lees de brief van Miguel Zenón via 'lees meer'.

Support: Lara Rosseel solo

Hoe klinken groenten en fruit? Je komt het te weten in de solo 'Aardnoot' van artist in residence Lara Rosseel.

Vruchten
fruit en groenten
de binnenkant, de pit, de kiem,
ze brengen allemaal een frequentie voort,
deze vertaal ik op mijn contrabas.
Zo heeft elke vrucht een andere frequentie, een ander baslied.

Een brief van Miguel Zenón

"As an instrumentalist, I spend a lot of my time working on making the saxophone an extension of my creative process. This process is always filtered through interpretation and expressiveness, and more often than not I find myself looking up to some of my favorite singers (people like Ismael Rivera, Cheo Feliciano and Andy Montañez) as sources of inspiration. In their individual voices I can hear a reflection of their unique personalities, all manifested at the highest level through their interpretation of songs. These melodies become vehicles for their creativity—a canvas on which they’ll portray their feelings and states of mind.

But these are not just any songs. These are songs they have heard hundreds of times, familiar pieces of music they know very well, and that is sort of the way I feel about the repertoire on this album. We chose compositions from the Bolero era that we could just play right away, without giving it a second thought: songs from the times of our parents and grandparents that somehow stuck around long enough for us to get to know them and truly love them. They are all as essential to our development as the music of Charlie Parker, John Coltrane or Thelonious Monk, but perhaps even more familiar. When we play these songs, we can hear the lyrics in the back of our minds—something that provides a very deep connection, one that is hard to replicate in any other situation. It really is almost beyond familiar. These songs are part of us.

We recorded this music as a live show, all in one take, without much preparation other than discussing tonalities and some basic elements on form. We were more than pleasantly surprised with the results and decided that they deserved to be shared. There is nothing like making music with someone else, finding a common language we can grab onto and then just going and exploring that together. We hope this comes across here, and that you enjoy the music."

Miguel Zenón