The much-anticipated El Arte del Bolero, Volume 3 arrives August 28, 2026 on Miguel Zenón’s Miel Music label, extending a duo odyssey with pianist Luis Perdomo that has already won hearts, critics, and a Grammy. Available on vinyl, CD, and all streaming platforms, the new album deepens a project that reimagines beloved Latin repertoire with the directness and daring of jazz at its most intimate.
Volumes 1 and 2 established the blueprint: two virtuosos—Zenón with his distinctive, singing alto tone and Perdomo with his luminous touch—meeting inside timeless songs and letting feeling lead. The concept is clear but the execution is spontaneous: few takes, no fuss, all presence. As Zenón has put it, they just go in and play. That approach helped El Arte del Bolero, Vol. 2 take home the 2024 Grammy for Best Latin Jazz Album, a nod to the power of stand-and-deliver eloquence.
What they’re exploring is the bolero: a bittersweet, slow-dance song form born in eastern Cuba in the 1880s that blossomed across the Americas in the 20th century. Radio carried it everywhere; Mexican and other film industries in the 1930s and ’40s minted hemispheric stars and stamped these melodies into collective memory. Bolero became a pan-Latin lingua franca—intimate yet grand, harmonically rich yet instantly singable.
For Zenón (from Santurce, Puerto Rico) and Perdomo (from Caracas, Venezuela), the connection is personal. They grew up with the harmonies, melodies, and heart-on-sleeve lyrics at home via parents and grandparents. That shared cultural grounding makes their duo feel less like repertory and more like remembering—reviving durable songs while assembling a living Latin American Songbook of their own. They approach it the way jazz musicians dig into the Great American Songbook, and the link is audible: many bolero composers absorbed jazz influence, traceable in cadences and structures that welcome improvisation.
The repertoire choices come from lived experience rather than archival hunts. One of them recalls a tune heard at home; the other brings a cherished version; together they follow where the song points. It’s a personalized curation that brings out soul and nuance without ornament for ornament’s sake.
Their history together undergirds the ease. Zenón—a MacArthur and Guggenheim Fellow, Grammy winner, tireless international bandleader with 19 albums over 25 years—has led the Miguel Zenón Quartet with Perdomo for 27 years. Perdomo, a Grammy-winning pianist with nine leader records and more than 250 sideman credits, is equally steeped in modern harmony and lyric touch. In duo, they listen like old friends and risk like new collaborators.
The series itself has organic roots. The first El Arte del Bolero came together quickly for a pandemic livestream and was released January 8, 2021, when much of the world was still isolated. Volume 2 arrived in 2023 and earned its Grammy the following year. With Volume 3, it’s official: this is a continuing love letter to songs that never stop giving.
Zenón’s broader footprint includes collaborations with the SFJAZZ Collective, Charlie Haden, Fred Hersch, Danilo Pérez, the Mingus Big Band, and commissions from institutions ranging from Chamber Music America to MIT and PRISM Quartet. He’s also an Associate Professor in MIT’s Music & Theater Arts Section and holds an honorary doctorate from Universidad del Sagrado Corazón. Perdomo’s resume spans Ravi Coltrane, Tom Harrell, Henry Threadgill, The Cookers, and The Vanguard Orchestra; he’s taught at Queens College, Berklee, The New School, and is Associate Professor of Jazz Piano at Oberlin Conservatory, as well as faculty for UMass Amherst’s Jazz in July.
If the first two volumes felt like discovery and affirmation, Volume 3 promises deepening: the comfort of masters in their element, the spark of first-take freshness, the glow of melodies that carry family histories. For listeners who fell in love with the series, expect more of what matters most—clarity, warmth, and songs that breathe.
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