Miguel Zenon - Tipico (2017)

Saxophonist Miguel Zenón has distinguished himself by combining Latin traditions -- especially from his native Puerto Rico -- with adroit, forward-thinking jazz. It's a distinctive approach that has garnered him numerous accolades, multiple Grammy nominations, and several fellowships, including a 2008 Guggenheim. His tenth album as a leader, 2017's Tipico, is no exception to this upward creative trajectory and finds Zenón delivering one of his most sophisticated collections yet of kinetic, genre-bending post-bop. Joining Zenón on Tipico is his longtime working ensemble featuring pianist Luis Perdomo, bassist Hans Glawischnig, and drummer Henry Cole. Together, they play with the lithe, preternatural sense of a complex bio-organism -- like a symbiotic creature able to transmute ideas through skin, pushing and pulling each of its members in any given direction. While that sounds chaotic, there is a balance of wild fluidity and controlled intensity in the group's performances. It's a style that brings to mind the post-John Coltrane aesthetic of artists like the late Michael Brecker and Branford Marsalis. Perhaps not surprisingly, several of Zenón's previous efforts were released on Marsalis' own Marsalis Music label. Tipico is Zenón's third album, released on his Miel Music imprint, and fittingly finds him growing ever more confident in his own voice. In fact, it's his vocal-like sax sound and trained athletic skill on his instrument that immediately grab your attention on Tipico. Cuts like the frenetic "Academia," the roiling "Ciclo," and the bug-like "Entre Las Raices" showcase Zenón's penchant for propulsive Latin rhythms embedded into sprawling, harmonic shapes, often accented by spiraling lead lines that gyroscope with a mathematical joy. Elsewhere, as on the moody "Cantor" and the classically tinged "Corteza," Zenón, achieves an at-times soulful breathiness and bright acidity, bending himself into the melody with a balladeer's yearning coo. Ultimately, it's that voice, and Zenón's ability to so immediately convey who he is within this group, that make Tipico such an engaging listen.