SALON 58 PRESENTS Miguel Zenón & Luis Perdomo: El Arte Del Bolero

Salon 58 has the rare privilege of presenting a live performance of El Arte Del Bolero - a Grammy®-winning album by critically-acclaimed saxophonist Miguel Zenón and pianist Luís Perdomo. Within the intimate setting of Salon 58 their music will transform from a regular performance into a shared conversation - a heartfelt dialogue rooted in songs passed down through generations. Zenón and Perdomo – from Puerto Rico and Venezuela, respectively – recorded two volumes of El Arte del Bolero as a platform to explore the traditional Cuban bolero, the quintessential Latin American love song of their parents and grandparents, from a jazz perspective and in a duoal format.

Don't miss the chance to embark on a journey through the timeless melodies of the Latin-American songbook - grab your tickets now!

PROGRAM

El Arte Del Bolero is a deeply affectionate tribute to the foundational songs of the Bolero era. Recorded live in a single, conversational take, Miguel Zenón and Luis Perdomo breathe improvisational life into familiar classics popularized by figures like Benny Moré, Cheo Feliciano, and La Lupe. Rather than treating these pieces merely as instrumental covers, Zenón channels the expressive phrasing of legendary vocalists, using his saxophone as a canvas to convey the profound emotion, nostalgia, and heartbreak inherent in the lyrics. It is an exploration of repertoire so essential it has become a part of the musicians' DNA, offering a masterclass in empathy, listening, and spontaneous musical storytelling.

"As an instrumentalist, I (Miguel Zenón) 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."

Evening Schedule

• Doors open with welcome drinks & snacks: 7:30pm
• Music starts: 8:00pm
• Post-concert mingle: 9:00 - 10:00pm

Miguel Zenón - alto saxophone

Grammy Winner, Doris Duke Artist and Guggenheim and MacArthur Fellow Miguel Zenón represents a select group of musicians who have masterfully balanced and blended the often-contradictory poles of innovation and tradition. Widely considered one of the most groundbreaking and influential saxophonists and composers of his generation, he has also developed a unique voice as a conceptualist, concentrating his efforts on perfecting a fine mix between jazz and his many musical influences.

Born and raised in San Juan, Puerto Rico, Zenón has released eighteen recordings as a leader, including his latest, the Grammy-nominated Vanguardia Subterránea: Live at The Village Vanguard (2025) and the Grammy-winning album El Arte Del Bolero Vol. 2 (2023). He has worked with luminaries such as The SFJAZZ Collective, Charlie Haden, Fred Hersch, Kenny Werner, David Sánchez, Danilo Perez, The Village Vanguard Orchestra, Kurt Elling, Joey Calderazzo, Steve Coleman, Ray Barreto, Andy Montañez, Jerry Gonzalez & The Fort Apache Band, The Mingus Big Band and Bobby Hutcherson.

In April 2008 he received a fellowship from the prestigious John Simon Guggenheim Foundation. Later that year he was one of 25 distinguished individuals chosen to receive the coveted MacArthur Fellowship, also known as the “Genius Grant.” In 2011 he founded Caravana Cultural, a program which presents free-of-charge Jazz concerts in rural areas of Puerto Rico. In 2022 he received an Honorary Doctorate from La Universidad del Sagrado Corazón in San Juan, Puerto Rico, the highest honor bestowed by the institution. In 2024 he received a Doris Duke Artist Award from the Doris Duke Foundation.

Zenón has been featured in publications such as The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Los Angeles Times, The Boston Globe and The Chicago Tribune. In addition, he topped both the Jazz Artist of the Year and Alto Saxophonist of the Year categories in the 2014 JazzTimes Critics Poll and was selected as Alto Saxophonist of the Year by the Jazz Journalists Association in 2015, 2018, 2019 and 2020 (when he was also recognized as Arranger of the Year). In 2023 he was recognized by the same organization as the Composer of the Year.

As a composer he has been commissioned by SFJAZZ, NYO Jazz, The New York State Council on the Arts, Chamber Music America, Logan Center for The Arts, The Hyde Park Jazz Festival, The John Simon Guggenheim Foundation, MIT, Spektral Quartet, Miller Theater, The Hewlett Foundation, Peak Performances, PRISM Quartet, Kinetic Ensemble and many of his peers. Zenón has given hundreds of lectures and master classes at institutions all over the world and is an Associate Professor in the Music & Theater Arts Department at MIT.

Zenón lives in New York City with his wife Elga and their daughter. https://miguelzenon.com/

Luis Perdomo - piano

“A rather amazing improviser, the pianist is making a name for himself by feverishly assaulting the progressive edge of mainstream jazz.” — Village Voice

“Mr. Perdomo plays with deep sonority, rhythmic aplomb and an ear for useful dissonance.” – New York Times
There are moments in music when an artist illuminates the scene with imagination, virtuosity and above all, an undying dedication to swing.

Ever since he came to New York in 1993 from Venezuela, Perdomo has emerged as one of the most in-demand sidemen – as evidenced by his celebrated work with a wide array of jazz and Latin stars – from Ravi Coltrane to Ray Barretto, and by his six critically- acclaimed recordings as a leader. The release of his magnificent new, Hot Tone label debut CD, 22, features bassist Mimi Jones’ supple, deep basslines and drummer Rudy Royston’s quicksilver rhythms, in a trio he christened The Controlling Ear Unit. “I wanted to create an environment where a sensitive player could make his own musical choices, without fear of the consequences,” Perdomo says. “The word ‘unit’ is appropriate because although the current group is a trio, it doesn’t really have to be restrained to that. It could have a different format, depending on what the music calls for.”

On 22, save for his elegant rendition of the Bees Gees’ classic ballad “How Deep is Your Love,” Perdomo delivers a stunning set of original compositions, mostly inspired by his adopted and native hometowns, and that mysterious number.

“2015 marks my twenty-second year living in New York City, and I left my hometown when I was twenty-two years old,” he says. “I remembered the exact moment when I moved, and the feelings I had had at the time...especially during the last two days in Caracas and the first two days in New York City. There again, I saw the two and two formula, and realized that there was a little recurring theme there. So I began scoring all of those memories and trying to convey them through music: translating some dates that were very significant to me into notes.”

Perdomo’s lyrical and logical pianism embodies Bud Powell’s bop-at-the-speed-of- swing, Oscar Peterson’s technical brilliance, and Ahmad Jamal’s melodic genius. And his numbers-into-notes compositional technique, which he learned from Richard DeRosa, an instructor from his Alma Mater, the Manhattan School of Music, forms the basis of two songs: “Cota Mil” a funky, labyrinthine, Patanemo-grooved number named after a prominent highway north of Caracas, which derives its compositional motifs from the dates of the Venezuelan Battle of Independence in 1821 and the Batalla de la Juventud/Battle of the Youth in 1814. The martial, “Days Gone Days Ahead,” was inspired by the day Perdomo got his US Student Visa on 8/13/93.

The rest of the CD’s tracks showcase the infinite variety of Perdomo’s musicality. “Love Tone Poem” is a wistful, 5/4-metered ballad dedicated to Jones, and “Two Sides of a Goodbye” is a funereal, avant-garde work that conjures up Perdomo’s melancholy when he left his family at the airport in Venezuela. In contrast, “Old City” is an uptempo sound portrait of an the un-gentrified Manhattan of the early nineties, where jazz clubs like Bradley’s, The Village Gate, Fat Tuesday’s and Sweet Basil’s reigned supreme. Perdomo’s evocative sound on the Fender Rhodes is also featured on the bouncy backbeat of “A Different Kind of Reality,” the contrapuntal “Light Slips In,” “Brand New Grays,” and the funkified “Looking Through You.”

Two tracks, “Weilheim (to Gerry Weil)” a reverent mid-tempo piece dedicated to Perdomo’s first teacher, the Austrian-born jazz pianist/educator Gerry Weil, and “Aaychdee (to Harold Danko)” – named after jazz Danko’s publishing company,” are Perdomo’s sonic shout-outs to his former piano teachers. “The biggest lesson I received from Gerry Weil in Venezuela, was to keep my mind open to all types of music,” he says. “With Harold (who was his instructor at MSM), that was the first time I actually heard jazz from an American point-of-view. That was a total revelation to me.”

Born in 1971 in Caracas, Perdomo, from the age of 12, was playing on Venezuelan TV and radio stations, but he eventually realized that he would have to travel to New York City to fulfill his musical destiny. “Being in a more competitive and challenging environment was a big change that I welcomed,” he says.

In 1993, Perdomo relocated to New York and enrolled with a full scholarship to the Manhattan School of Music, where he studied with Harold Danko and classical pianist Martha Pestalozzi, and earned his earned his BA Degree in 1997. Perdomo later studied with pianist extraordinaire, Sir Roland Hanna at Queens College, and received his Masters Degree in 2000. "Studying with Sir Roland Hanna ...“I began to look at jazz and classical music in a new and more in-depth way and my playing evolved accordingly,” he says. Perdomo has appeared on over two hundred records, and has become a first-class sideman to artists like Dave Douglas, David Sanchez, Tom Harrell, Steve Turre, Ben Wolfe, Ray Barretto, Brian Lynch, David Gilmore, Conrad Herwig, Ignacio Berroa, Ralph Irizarry and Timbalaye and other great musicians. He was a member of Ravi Coltrane’s Quartet for ten years, and is a founding member of the Miguel Zenon Quartet. Perdomo recorded on three Grammy-nominated CD’s: Coltrane’s Influx, and Zenon’s Esta Plena, and Alma Adentro: The Puerto Rican Songbook.

Perdomo’s recordings as a leader include: Focus Point (2005), Awareness (2006), Pathways (2008), the critically-acclaimed Universal Mind (2012), with Jack DeJohnnette and Drew Gress, The Infancia Project (2012) and Links (2013).

Which brings us to 22: an amazing recording that shows how far Luis Perdomo has come and forecasts where he is going. https://luisperdomojazz.com/