LUIS PERDOMO, born in Caracas, Venezuela in 1971, is one of the great jazz pianists of the Americas. An integral part of the quartet led by Puerto Rican alto saxophonist Miguel Zenon, with bassist Hans Glawischnig and drummer Henry Cole, he features powerfully on the quartet’s new album, Musica de Las Americas.

I asked him about his musical life and the insurgent sounds of the album.

He grew up in a family who loved music. His mother was a nurse, his father an employee of the US firm Proctor & Gamble (the health products multinational).

Several of his uncles were professional musicians, and it was his father, playing by ear, who first taught him songs on the piano when he was seven.

“When I was 12 or 13 I got interested in Latin jazz. My dad was always listening to Dizzy Gillespie, Bud Powell, Oscar Peterson and Ray Bryant. Then I heard a quintet on a local jazz TV show playing something that sounded like salsa but with something else in there — improvisation.

“My first piano teacher was the Austria-born Gerry Weil who taught me to keep my mind open to all types of music. I began playing professionally at 12, but my first jazz gig was at 15.

“Then I moved to New York City in 1993, on a scholarship to study at the Manhattan School of Music. My main teacher was the brilliant Harold Danko, but I took lessons too with Jackie Byard and studied classical piano with Martha Pestalozzi. I was also fortunate enough to study with Sir Roland Hanna at Queens College.”
 
The Musica de Los Americas album explores and celebrates the revolutionary tradition and roots of Latin American and Caribbean music.

I asked Perdomo why he thought music was so central to that tradition. “I feel that the music has aspects of the struggle of the African people. Sometimes people from the same tribe or even the same family got purposely scattered throughout the Americas and the Caribbean, as to avoid riots and to break them down spiritually. Music kept a sense of hope and connection amongst these peoples.”

I asked him what it was like playing beside the utmost freedom and creativity of Zenon’s saxophone. “First there is that warm sound. Sometimes I find myself measuring other alto players’ tone like: This guy sounds bright, this guy sounds darker, this guy has more of a mid-range — but then I realise the barometer is Miguel’s sound.

“The same thing happens to me with tenor players. I hear their tone in relationship to Ravi Coltrane’s (son of saxophonist John Coltrane), with whom I played for several years. Then with Miguel there is that rhythmic precision and clarity of execution which is something that I share and how I hear my own playing.”

I asked him how he related to great Afro-Cuban pianists like Chucho Valdes and Gonzalo Rubalcaba. “I got to meet them, hang out and listen to them back in Venezuela when I was very young. I was always in awe of their playing. But music critics like to generalise and stereotype Latin musicians and think that they’re all going to play Afro-Cuban music.

“I am a jazz musician who happened to be born in Venezuela — that's the way I think about myself musically, even though that in itself is very narrow-minded. I’m on a musical path that is much broader than what people assume when they say Latin or Cuban.

“As a pianist I draw from Cecil Taylor to Glenn Gould, from Fats Waller to Kenny Kirkland, from Cesar Camargo Mariano to Papo Lucca. All are equal to me. So when I hear: ‘Luis Perdomo? You sound like a Cuban player!’ I just roll my eyes and keep going.”

I asked him about the Quartet’s power of unity. “We all share the same love for rhythm and groove,” he declared, “in all forms: Brazilian, African, Caribbean — you name it! That’s definitely one of the ‘glues’ of the Quartet. With each a master of our instrument in terms of sound, technique and tone production.

“We’re also very good friends who like to goof and joke around, that also helps with the on-stage chemistry. But the prime unifying force is Miguel’s brilliant and methodical writing. After 22 years he definitely writes for us and to bring out the best of each of us.”

Perdomo says he likes all the tracks on the album. “Each has a different thing that I like. Some have a very heavy groove, some were extremely challenging technically, which I enjoy.

“For me, the most memorable tracks are Opresion y Revolucion, drawing from the Haitian voodoo tradition and featuring master percussionist Paoli Mejias, and the album finale Antillano, with the rampaging congas of Daniel Diaz.”

From Caracas to Grenada, from Bolivar to Bishop and Castro and Che, from L’Ouverture to Sandino, there is a beautiful rebelliousness in the sounds of this throbbing, pulsating album with Zenon’s singing horn and Perdomo’s drum-like piano in full accord with Glawischnig and Cole. Get hold of it!
    
Musica De Las Americas by the Miguel Zenon Quartet has been released by Miel Music.