For Miguel Zenón and Luis Perdomo, the bolero is more than a musical tradition. It is part of the soundtrack of home, family and memory. On El Arte del Bolero, Vol. 3, the celebrated saxophonist and pianist return to the repertoire they have explored together for years, bringing fresh spontaneity and deeply personal feeling to songs that have traveled across generations and borders.
Due August 28, 2026, on Zenón’s Miel Music label, the album is the third installment in a series that began during the isolation of the pandemic and has since become one of the duo’s most distinctive projects. The album will be released on vinyl, CD and all streaming platforms, with an album release concert scheduled for October 17 at The Jazz Gallery in New York City.
“There is a concept behind it,” Zenón says, “but the performances are very off-the-cuff and involve very few takes. We just go in and play!”
That combination of preparation and spontaneity defines the music. Zenón and Perdomo have performed together in the internationally acclaimed Miguel Zenón Quartet for 27 years, developing an intuitive musical language that allows them to follow a melody wherever it leads. Zenón’s unmistakable alto sound and Perdomo’s richly expressive piano touch give these familiar songs new dimensions without losing their emotional core.
The bolero itself is a genre built around intimacy. Emerging in eastern Cuba in the 1880s, the bittersweet love song soon spread throughout Latin America and became a defining part of 20th-century popular culture. Radio and cinema helped carry its melodies across borders, creating a shared repertoire that remains deeply embedded in the musical memory of the Spanish-speaking world.
For Zenón, who grew up in Santurce, Puerto Rico, and Perdomo, a native of Caracas, Venezuela, that repertoire is personal.
“We're exploring music that's very familiar to us,” Zenón says. “For both Luis and myself, it has a personal connection. It's not like I was around when these songs were first written or recorded. It's more like I remember hearing them at home through my parents or grandparents.”
That sense of inherited memory is central to El Arte del Bolero. Rather than approaching the songs as museum pieces, the duo treats them much as jazz musicians have long treated the Great American Songbook: as material to reinterpret, reshape and make their own.
“We explore it the same way that jazz folks would explore music out of the Great American Songbook,” Zenón says.
The connection between bolero and jazz is particularly natural in their hands. The genre’s sophisticated harmonies and song structures provide an expansive canvas for improvisation, while Zenón and Perdomo bring decades of experience to the process. Their versions retain the songs’ essential character while allowing the musicians to respond instinctively in the moment.
Choosing the repertoire is similarly intuitive. The duo does not need to look far for inspiration. Songs emerge from personal memories and conversations, often sparked by something one musician remembers hearing at home or a favorite recording discovered along the way.
That approach helped shape the original El Arte del Bolero, which was created quickly in response to the need for a livestream concert during the pandemic. Released January 8, 2021, while much of the world remained in isolation, the album introduced listeners to the intimate chemistry of Zenón and Perdomo in a stripped-down setting.
El Arte del Bolero, Vol. 2 followed in 2023 and earned the 2024 Grammy Award for Best Latin Jazz Album. With the arrival of Vol. 3, the project has evolved from a one-time response to an established musical series, giving the two artists another opportunity to explore the repertoire that connects their Caribbean and Latin American backgrounds.
Zenón brings an extraordinary depth of experience to the project. A Puerto Rican alto saxophonist, composer, bandleader, producer and educator, he has released 19 albums as a leader over 25 years and has collaborated with artists and ensembles including Charlie Haden, Fred Hersch, Kenny Werner, David Sánchez, Danilo Pérez, Bobby Hutcherson, the Mingus Big Band and the SFJAZZ Collective. His honors include a GRAMMY Award, Guggenheim Fellowship, MacArthur Fellowship and Doris Duke Artist Award.
Perdomo brings an equally broad musical background. The Grammy-winning Venezuelan pianist has released nine recordings as a leader and appeared on more than 250 albums as a sideman. His collaborators include Ravi Coltrane, Jerry Bergonzi, Tom Harrell, Brian Lynch, Ray Barretto, Henry Threadgill, David Sánchez, The Cookers and the Vanguard Orchestra. A founding member of the Miguel Zenón Quartet, he has also collaborated with Zenón on all three volumes of El Arte del Bolero.
Yet the appeal of the series ultimately rests less on credentials than chemistry. With no rhythm section to mediate their interaction, Zenón and Perdomo operate in an unusually exposed space, responding to each other in real time. The result is music that can feel conversational, intimate and spontaneous while remaining grounded in a shared understanding of melody and harmony.
For El Arte del Bolero, Vol. 3, that chemistry continues to illuminate songs that have already lived many musical lives. Zenón and Perdomo are not simply preserving a tradition. They are listening for what these melodies still have to say—and finding new ways to say it together.
El Arte del Bolero, Vol. 3 was released August 28, 2026, via Miel Music. The album release concert takes place October 17 at The Jazz Gallery in New York City.
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