{"id":11202,"date":"2025-08-28T22:26:50","date_gmt":"2025-08-29T03:26:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/postgenre.org\/staging\/4567\/?p=11202"},"modified":"2025-08-29T19:20:27","modified_gmt":"2025-08-30T00:20:27","slug":"review-miguel-zenon-vanguardia-subterranea","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/postgenre.org\/staging\/4567\/review-miguel-zenon-vanguardia-subterranea\/","title":{"rendered":"Review: Miguel Zenon Quartet\u2019s \u2018Vanguardia Subterr\u00e1nea: Live at the Village Vanguard\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><em>Vanguardia Subterr\u00e1nea<\/em>: <em>Live at the Village Vanguard<\/em> (Miel Music, 2025) is alto saxophonist-composer Miguel Zen\u00f3n\u2019s first live album with his quartet and eighteenth overall. Its eight tracks were recorded over two nights in September 2024 at the hallowed jazz shrine in Greenwich Village. Zenon employs his longstanding quartet of pianist Luis Perdomo, bassist Hans Glawischnig, and drummer Henry Cole. Despite this quartet having played the venue five times, this is the first time it recorded there, in celebration of the quartet&#8217;s twentieth anniversary. This background gives&nbsp; their live album, as expressed by Zen\u00f3n, \u201can energy that\u2018s really different than all our other records.\u201d&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed-youtube wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"lyte-wrapper fourthree\" style=\"width:420px;max-width:100%;margin:5px;\"><div class=\"lyMe\" id=\"WYL_FU1A1GUSPBU\"><div id=\"lyte_FU1A1GUSPBU\" data-src=\"\/\/i.ytimg.com\/vi\/FU1A1GUSPBU\/hqdefault.jpg\" class=\"pL\"><div class=\"tC\"><div class=\"tT\"><\/div><\/div><div class=\"play\"><\/div><div class=\"ctrl\"><div class=\"Lctrl\"><\/div><div class=\"Rctrl\"><\/div><\/div><\/div><noscript><a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/FU1A1GUSPBU\" rel=\"nofollow\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/i.ytimg.com\/vi\/FU1A1GUSPBU\/0.jpg?resize=420%2C295&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"YouTube video thumbnail\" width=\"420\" height=\"295\" \/><br \/>Watch this video on YouTube<\/a><\/noscript><\/div><\/div><div class=\"lL\" style=\"max-width:100%;width:420px;margin:5px;\"><\/div><figcaption><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The album features all-new material, six originals, and creative arrangements of Willie Col\u00f3n and H\u00e9ctor Lavoe\u2019s \u201cEl Dia de Mi Suerte\u201d and Gilberto Santa Rosa\u2019s \u201cPerd\u00f3name.\u201d The opener, \u201cAbre Cuto G\u00fciri Mambo,\u201d is titled after a phrase that in first-generation African Spanish means \u201copen up your ears and hear the mambo.\u201d Zen\u00f3n is well schooled in all forms of Afro-Caribbean music. In this case, that particular phrase is associated with bandleader Arsenio Rodriguez, a pioneer of Havana dance music who made his mark by layering horns over drums. Zen\u00f3n proudly displays his Puerto Rican heritage and salsa upbringing on \u201cEl Dia de Mi Suerte,\u2019 where he truly puts his own New York jazz sheen to the tune with his fluid, expressive alto through a series of start-stop rhythms before yielding to the vibrant Perdomo. The original theme repeats several times in the final few choruses to let the audience distinctly know the music\u2019s origins.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cVita\u201d reveals the saxophonist\u2019s lyrical gifts in a piece that began as a private song for his now ninety-five-year-old grandmother, who has the original score framed in her home. His arrangement for the quartet is infused with a chacarera-style rhythm, with bassist Glawischnig making a potent contribution. \u201cDale la Vuelta,\u201d which translates to \u201cTurn it Around,\u201d comes from a game or an exercise in rhythm counterpoint. The space is divided into two different zones as the quartet shifts back and forth. It deceptively begins as a ballad and then gets rollicking before pausing into the next section, and so it flows. Only the tightest of quartets can navigate this so deftly. They drive this one hard!&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"100%\" height=\"120\" style=\"position: relative; display: block; width: 100%; height: 120px;\" src=\"\/\/bandcamp.com\/EmbeddedPlayer\/v=2\/album=2976536898\/size=large\/bgcol=ffffff\/linkcol=0687f5\/tracklist=false\/artwork=small\/\" allowtransparency=\"true\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cCoordenadas\u201d is a unique brainchild of Zen\u00f3n. He looked up the geographical coordinates for the Village Vanguard and the birthplaces of each band member: he and Cole from towns in Puerto Rico, Perdomo from Caracas, Venezuela, and Glawischnig from Graz, Austria. He then encoded the numerical coordinates into pitches, massaged the results, and allowed each musician to solo as if they were at home. The album\u2019s title track is a melodic poem based on a continuous straight-up groove but infused with a different rhythm element that initially sounds out of place but ultimately locks in. The audience&#8217;s reaction to this one rattles those walls. There\u2019s no judicious choice other than to tamp it down next, which they do with \u201cBendici\u00f3n,\u201d a lyrical standout for Zen\u00f3n\u2019s mother and other elders, as the term is customary in Latin countries. Perdomo is all over the keys in his rambling, percussive solo, delivering a master class in both rhythm and dynamics.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The great improvising salsa singer Gilberto Santa Rosa had a huge hit with Jorge Luis Piloto\u2019s \u201cPerd\u00f3name.\u201d <em>Vanguardia Subterr\u00e1nea<\/em>\u2019s rendition references Santa Rosa\u2019s most famous version, the live performance at Carnegie Hall in 1995. It\u2019s another uncanny move that is a testament to Zen\u00f3n\u2019s vision; playing a song with lyrics purely instrumentally, with hefty doses of improvisation, the salsa motif revealing itself at several points throughout.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Miguel Zen\u00f3n has long been recognized among the most technically skilled and expressive of players. No further proof is needed at this point in his storied career. But <em>Vanguardia Subterr\u00e1nea<\/em> boasts a vibrant energy that enhances his catalog. Not only that, you\u2019ll rarely hear a quartet as tight as this one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><em>\u2018Vanguardia Subterr\u00e1nea<\/em><\/strong>\u2019 <strong><em>is out now. It can be purchased <a href=\"https:\/\/miguelzenon.bandcamp.com\/album\/vanguardia-subterr-nea-live-at-the-village-vanguard\">on Bandcamp<\/a>. <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Photo credit: Sylvain Gripoix<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Vanguardia Subterr\u00e1nea: Live at the Village Vanguard (Miel Music, 2025) is alto saxophonist-composer Miguel Zen\u00f3n\u2019s first live album with his quartet and eighteenth overall. Its eight tracks were recorded over two nights in September 2024 at the hallowed jazz shrine in Greenwich Village. Zenon employs his longstanding quartet of pianist Luis Perdomo, bassist Hans Glawischnig, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":11201,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"iawp_total_views":94,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2],"tags":[1309,1308,1310,636],"class_list":["post-11202","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-reviews","tag-miel-music","tag-miguel-zenon","tag-vanguardia-subterranea","tag-village-vanguard"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/postgenre.org\/staging\/4567\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/img_1191.jpg?fit=750%2C500&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/peRkRR-2UG","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":6681,"url":"https:\/\/postgenre.org\/staging\/4567\/music-box-davis-vanguard\/","url_meta":{"origin":11202,"position":0},"title":"Five Music Boxes: A Conversation with Kris Davis on &#8216;Diatom Ribbons Live at the Village Vanguard&#8217;","author":"Rob Shepherd","date":"September 5, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"In Brian Kiwanuka\u2019s excellent review of Kris Davis\u2019 latest Diatom Ribbons album, he outlines how the music presented fits within the context of the pianist\u2019s output to date. 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