Although 46-year-old alto saxophonist Miguel Zenón has lived in New York for 20 years, he has always remained close to his native Puerto Rico. When in 2008 he not only received the highly endowed Guggenheim grant, but also the “Genius Grant” from the MacArthur Foundation, the most valuable music prize in the world at $500,000 distributed over four years, he invested most of the money in a corresponding project: with his “Carvana cultural” – also supported by the SFJazz collective in San Francisco, of which he is also a member – he carted big jazz stars with concerts, courses and workshops to the rural areas of Puerto Rico for eight years.
Musically, too, he never denied his origins and, above all, played his very own modern Latin jazz in his quartet. Since it was founded in 2001, his bassist there has been Luis Perdomo, who comes from Venezuela. So you know each other well enough to be in the underpass only to be celebrated in the rare and demanding duo “El Arte del Bolero” in this line-up.
Miguel Zenón / Luis Perdomo Duo, Sat., Feb. 18, 8.30 p.m., Unterfahrt, Einsteinstr. 42, phone 448 27 94