Nobel Prizes and different scientific honors are almost routine at MIT, however a Grammy Award is one thing we don’t see yearly. That’s what Miguel Zenón, an assistant professor of music and theater arts, has received: El Arte Del Bolero Vol. 2, which he recorded with the pianist and composer Luis Perdomo, acquired the Grammy for finest Latin jazz album in February.
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“I’m incredibly happy and honored with this Grammy win,” says Zenón, a famend saxophonist. “We’ve been making albums for a long time, so it’s extremely rewarding to earn this recognition.”
“The Latin American Songbook is so vast and varied that it naturally lends itself to limitless explorations,” Zenón wrote within the album’s liner notes. “We purposely looked beyond the Caribbean (exploring composers from México, Venezuela, and Panamá, for example) because we wanted to emphasize the point that these songs deserved to be explored and recognized for what they are, beyond labels, categories, and regionalisms.”
Born and raised in San Juan, Puerto Rico, Zenón has recorded and toured with musicians together with Charlie Haden, Fred Hersch, David Sánchez, Danilo Pérez, Kenny Werner, Bobby Hutcherson, and the SF Jazz Collective. He joined the MIT college in 2023, and his many accolades embody 12 Grammy nominations and a 2008 MacArthur “genius” grant.