A rich, concert-length work inspired by the Cultural heritage of Miguel Zenón’s native Puerto Rico
Nominated for a 2019 LATIN GRAMMY Award
Yo Soy La Tradición – Miguel Zenón & Spektral Quartet
Nominated for a 2019 GRAMMY Award
Yo Soy La Tradición – Miguel Zenón & Spektral Quartet
““Like most countries in Latin America, music has a very special place in Puerto Rican everyday life. It oozes out of every street corner, it springs out of every conversation. Even the most basic human interactions seem to have some kind of musical cadence to it. Puerto Rican music is an integral part of who I am, and my ultimate goal as an artist would be to synthesize and express everything it means to me.””
Yo Soy la Tradición is an immersive, concert-length work inspired by the musical heritage of MacArthur and Guggenheim fellow Miguel Zenón’s native Puerto Rico. Premiered in September 2016 at the Hyde Park Jazz Festival to critical acclaim, the work is an eight-movement suite that pairs lush, melodic string writing with complex rhythmic interactions, blurring the lines between jazz, classical, and folk musics. Though it outlines four of Puerto Rico’s musical traditions, Yo Soy la Tradición is much more than a collection of numbers designed to get you moving: it is a heartfelt, insider-tour of a rich cultural landscape.
The album release concert on September 21st, 2018 took place at the Segundo Ruiz Belvis Cultural Center, raising over $4,000 for the Chicago Aid for Puerto Rican Arts Fund.
‘Yo Soy La Tradición’ in the Press
PAST EVENTS
For our second Big Ears appearance in 2022, we are taking the stage with another of our most cherished collaborators, saxophonist/composer Miguel Zenón. We’ll be performing the kinetic, concert-length suite he wrote for the five of us, Yo Soy La Tradición (“I Am the Tradition”).
With an aim identical to Spektral’s mission – honoring the past while celebrating the music of our time – Yo Soy La Tradición looks to the folk traditions of Miguel’s native Puerto Rico as the catalysts for his own flavor of jazz composition. And rather than treating the string quartet as a backing band, he deftly invites all five instruments to the fore, creating dynamic conversations between them.
We feel lucky to have been invited into Miguel’s musical world…and think you will be surprised by what you hear.
During the recording sessions for our new album, Yo Soy La Tradición, our collaborator and composer Miguel Zenón would dart out on breaks to call family and friends in Puerto Rico, which had been devastated by Hurricane Maria just days earlier. So rather than simply host a record release concert this season, we want to send this dynamic new album out into the world, and aid our fellow citizens in need!
We’re always out to make the unfamiliar more familiar, so we are pleased to invite saxophonist and composer Miguel Zenón to our Once More, With Feeling! series at Constellation. We’ll be performing selected movements from Yo Soy La Tradición, which Miguel wrote for the five of us and premiered at the Hyde Park Jazz festival (the review was VERY favorable, and garnered a "Best of 2016" nod from the Chicago Tribune). Celebrating and reshaping the folk traditions of his native Puerto Rico, this piece is a captivating collection of heart-tugging melodies, spirited dances, deep grooves, and devilish virtuosity.
Lets talk more! programming@spektralquartet.com