PRISM Quartet and Miguel Zenón – El Eco de Un Tambor

PRISM Quartet joins forces with the Grammy Award-winning composer/saxophonist, MacArthur Fellow, and long-time collaborator Miguel Zenón in a touring program curated by Zenón featuring the world premiere of his newest work, El Eco de Un Tambor (The Echo of the Drum).

Zenón writes, “El Eco de Un Tambor is an extended, multi-movement saxophone quintet that draws on rhythmic traditions from around the globe, focusing specifically on drumming from West Africa and its extension into Afro-Caribbean music. The title is an allusion to both the percussive elements within the piece and to the idea of music as an ancient language that is in constant evolution.”

The program also includes two additional sax quintets by Zenón that he arranged just for PRISM: The Missing Piece (from Heritage/Evolution, Vol. 1) and Camarón. The original versions of both pieces are on Zenon’s highly acclaimed 2008 album, Awake.

Also featured is Forbidden Drive (from Heritage/Evolution, Vol. 2) by PRISM’s resident composer Matthew Levy, Levy’s arrangement of the Sondheim classic Send in the Clowns (upon hearing it, Sondheim himself declared, “I love it”) and Melissa Aldana’s Reflections. Clowns and Reflections both appear on PRISM’s 2024 album, Heritage/Evolution, Vol. 3.

Read Nate Chinen’s in-depth interview of Zenón and Levy on WRTI. 

2024 Recording of Matthew Levy’s arrangement of Send in the Clowns

2014 world premiere of Zenón’s arrangement of his composition, The Missing Piece – World Cafe Live in Philadelphia

Forbidden Drive by Matthew Levy – Cary Hall in the DiMenna Center in New York City on Jan. 18, 2019.

PROGRAM
The Missing Piece by Miguel Zenón
Reflections (selections) by Melissa Aldana
El Eco de Un Tambor (The Echo of the Drum) by Miguel Zenón
Send in the Clowns by Steven Sondheim (Arr. Matthew Levy)
Forbidden Drive by Matthew Levy
Camarón by Miguel Zenón