Jazz star Miguel Zenón, blues great Robert Cray coming to Buskirk-Chumley Theater next week
Bloomington's Buskirk-Chumley Theater will be hosting two musical greats over the next few days: noted jazz composer and saxophonist Miguel Zenón and blues guitarist and singer Robert Cray, a five-time Grammy winner.
Zenón transforms modern jazz
"I play around with rhythmic dimensions," Miguel Zenón once told NPR in explaining the jazz compositions that have earned him Guggenheim and MacArthur fellowships, along with multiple Grammy nominations.
You can try one of his rhythms by tapping three beats with your left hand, while in the same amount of time, tapping two with your right.
The Miguel Zenón Quartet will entertain Monday night at the Buskirk-Chumley Theater, and tickets are only $10.
Some say jazz is exclusively American music, since it was born here. Zenón, a composer and saxophonist, disagrees.
Things to do:Bingo and 'Name that Tune' walk into a bar: Music bingo is born
"Something that’s happened in the last 20-30 years," he says on YouTube, "is jazz has become, like, a global phenomenon. ... You’ve got guys from Puerto Rico and Cuba and Africa and Asia and Europe, and they’re coming into jazz from zero."
Born in Puerto Rico, Zenón is an important name in jazz, but he didn't grow up with the genre. His brother and sister lived in New York, however, so he often visited that jazz hub. "There’s such a big Puerto Rican community in New York, so you really feel it there."
As time changes, so does jazz; its definition blurs. And the genre will likely continue to change.
Zenón is one of the musicians who can balance old and new. Known as one of the most impactful saxophonists of his generation, he also composes. His forte is blending Latin American folkloric music and jazz.
Zenón has released 12 recordings as a leader. As a sideman he has worked with jazz greats such as The SFJAZZ Collective (San Francisco), Charlie Haden and Fred Hersch.
As a composer he has received commissions from SFJAZZ, and NYO Jazz (Carnegie Hall), The New York State Council for the Arts and many others. He is a permanent faculty member at The New England Conservatory, The Manhattan School of Music and serves as the current artist-in-residence for the Zucherman Institute at Columbia University.
In 2011 he founded Caravana Cultural, a program that provides free jazz concerts in rural areas of Puerto Rico. These communities enjoy superior-quality jazz, as Zenón invites well-known musicians from New York to perform. He also, however, makes sure that young local Puerto Rican musicians get involved. Since February 2011, he has presented a concert every four to six months.
In April 2008 Zenón received a fellowship from the esteemed John Simon Guggenheim Foundation. Later that year he was one of only 25 people chosen to receive the coveted MacArthur Fellowship, also known as the “Genius Grant.”
Local music news:Blue Man Group, newgrass, throat singers, among upcoming Bloomington entertainment options
"Miguel's music combines disparate influences," said Indiana University's Jacobs School of Music's Tom Walsh, chair of the department of jazz studies and professor of music (saxophone).
"Miguel's compositions define some of the new trends in jazz over the last 20 years. It's not that using odd meters or folk music is new to jazz." Walsh said. "It's the way that he uses these musical elements that is ground breaking."
If you go
WHAT: Miguel Zenón Quartet with Miguel Zenón on alto sax, Luis Perdomo on piano, Hans Glawischnig on bass and Henry Cole on drums.
WHEN: 8 p.m. Monday.
WHERE: Buskirk-Chumley Theater, 114 E. Kirkwood Ave.
TICKETS: $10, at the BCT Box Office or online at bctboxoffice.org.
MORE: Doors open at 7 p.m., unassigned seating. The show will last about two hours. Wearing a mask indoors is strongly encouraged. Vaccine verification or negative COVID-19 test results within 48 hours required to enter the venue. For more on Zenón visit www.miguelzenon.com.
Cray one of blues' greats
Robert Cray's blues, American roots, R&B and soul, have won him five Grammy awards, 20 sought-after studio albums and a roomful of live albums. A member of the Blues Hall of Fame (2011), he performs both original and cover songs. A guitarist and vocalist, he received the Americana Music Lifetime Achievement Award for Performance in 2017.
One of the last blues-king greats — next to Eric Clapton, Buddy Guy, Jimmy Vaughan and Robben Ford — Cray has released more than 25 albums as a solo artist or with the The Robert Cray Band. According to reviewer Marcel Innocentini on bluesrockreview.com, "The smooth voice and cleanness of Cray’s guitar tone are unmistakable and have become his registered trademark."
We can absorb his polished, soulful elegance Tuesday at the Buskirk-Chumley Theater.
Cray played a guitar solo on John Lee Hooker's album "Boom Boom" and plays another solo on Hooker's album The Healer. The Robert Cray Band backs Hooker on the title track of his 1992 album "Mr. Luck." Cray's band also appears on two songs on B.B. King's 1993 album "Blues Summit," in which there's a duo with King and Cray, written by Cray and Dennis Walker.
More:Bloomington's IU Soul Revue celebrates 50-year history of bridging divides
An example of Cray's talent shows in the song “Burying Ground,” from the group Sensational Nightingales (1956). Sundays during Cray's childhood meant his parents were listening to gospel records. Although Cray had heard the Sensational Nightingales all his life — and even though one particular Nightingale was his "hero" (Julius Cheeks), Cray never imitated Cheeks' famous roar. Rather, Cray developed his own melancholy gentleness for the repeated “way over yonder," as he sings about a hearse. His controlled grief, and perhaps anger, mold the lyrics:
"It kept on rollin'/ Till it rolled my father/
It kept on rollin' ah, yes it did/ Till it rolled my father ... Way over there/
In the new burying ground"
In another style, one of Cray's biggest hits, "I Shiver"(1993), highlights his sophisticated choices of which guitar notes to use, and how.
If you go
WHAT: Robert Cray.
WHEN: 8 p.m. Tuesday.
WHERE: Buskirk-Chumley Theater, 114 E. Kirkwood Ave.
TICKETS: Orchestra pit: $60, orchestra/lower balcony: $50, upper balcony: $45, at the BCT Box Office or online at bctboxoffice.org.
MORE: Doors open at 7 p.m. for this reserved seating event. The estimated length of the show is 100 minutes. Wearing a mask indoors is strongly encouraged. Vaccine verification or negative COVID-19 test results within 48 hours required to enter the venue.