First Listen: Miguel Zenon, 'Esta Plena'

Here's the key lyric in saxophonist Miguel Zenon's "Oyelo": "Y tu no me puedes negar / Que mi plena te llega hasta el alma." In English: "And you just can't deny that my plena goes straight to your soul." That proud claim comes from a MacArthur Genius who recently used a Guggenheim fellowship to immerse himself in one specific type of folkloric music from his native Puerto Rico. Miguel Zenon emerged with a new album that fuses the plena with mainland modern jazz in a systematic but captivating way, and for a few more days you can hear it for yourself for free: NPR Music is presenting an Exclusive First Listen on-demand full album stream of Esta Plena. Other jazz musicians you would be rewarded to discover this week: film-noir-obsessive Ran Blake; steampunk big band composer Darcy James Argue; and the modern jazz kingmaker Art Blakey. Happy listening.

—Patrick Jarenwattananon, NPR Music
copy at NPR.org/jazz