For instance, The Jazz Times called 'Jibaro,' Zenon's breakthrough 2005 album, 'profound yet joyful.' The New York Times called the same music 'strong and light,' adding that we have 'rarely seen a jazz composer step forward with a project so impressively organized, intellectually powerful and well played from the start.' In 2009, when Zenon won a prestigious MacArthur Fellowship, the MacArthur Foundation called Zenon's work 'elegant and innovative,' with 'a high degree of daring and sophistication.' In 2012, The New York Times reviewed another Zenon work, 'Puerto Rico Nacio en Mi: Tales From the Diaspora,' by calling the music 'deeply hybridized and original, complex but clear.' As you may have noticed, these notices all contain multiple descriptive terms. That's because Zenon's work is many things at once: jazz, combined with other musical genres; technically rigorous, and supple; novel, yet steeped in tradition. Indeed, Zenon has always seen jazz as being multifaceted. 'What I...
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