All that Latin jazz

Miguel Zenón says he's still playing catch-up in the jazz world, a claim that may strike fans of the acclaimed young alto saxophonist and composer as an unlikely state of affairs. A glance at his resume suggests the 26-year-old Zenón is, on the contrary, ahead of the game.

A native of Puerto Rico, Zenón attended Berklee College of Music and received his master's degree from the Manhattan School of Music. At 21, he joined the David Sanchez Sextet and soon after recorded his debut CD, "Looking Forward," a fresh, forceful fusion of Latin forms and jazz harmonies that was No. 1 on The New York Times's alternative list of 2002's best albums. The following year Branford Marsalis signed Zenón to his boutique label, Boston-based Marsalis Music.

Zenón's second album, "Ceremonial," was released in January to wide praise, and he spent the spring and summer alternating dates with his own band, touring with the SF Jazz Collective, a new all-star octet led by Joshua Redman, and gigs with the likes of Charlie Haden and other A-list bandleaders.

On Sunday, Zenón will appear at the Tanglewood Jazz Festival with the full roster of Marsalis Music: Harry Connick Jr., the Doug Wamble Quartet, and the Branford Marsalis Quartet.

Stellar CV aside, Zenón says, "I wasn't raised with jazz. There's not really a jazz culture in Puerto Rico. I did a lot of dance gigs. I had music lessons but there were no jazz teachers. I knew a few scales and a couple of solos, and some of the kids at Berklee were so advanced. When I came to Boston, it was a real shock."

Zenón almost didn't make it to Boston. In fact, he came very close to choosing a career in engineering.

And the truth is he really wanted to play the piano. But opportunity knocked in the form of an old man, a former marching band musician, who offered free lessons to kids living in the San Juan housing project where Zenón and his sister were raised by his mother and grandmother.

"He let us pick instruments, and I wanted to pick piano, but you can't play piano in a marching band. So I picked saxophone. I was hooked on music from the beginning, the rhythms, the reading, everything. In seventh grade I applied to San Juan's arts school, Escuela Libre de Musica, thinking I'd start on piano, but I got there late and they already had too many kids playing piano."

" In the 11th grade, Zenón -- who sheepishly confesses he spent his teen years listening to a lot of rock and heavy metal -- heard jazz for the first time, on a university radio station. He began taping the radio broadcasts and buying records -- Charlie Parker, Tito Puente. He learned harmony by ear. Zenón applied and was accepted at Berklee, but his family was unable to come up with the tuition.

It seemed fate had made the decision for Zenón, who had been torn between pursuing a career in music and continuing his engineering studies. The following year, however, in the spring of 1995, Berklee sent a group of faculty to Puerto Rico to conduct a week of workshops and award its first scholarships to budding musicians on the island. Zenón received one of the awards.

"He was one of the most diligent, respectful, and nicest students I've seen in my 35 years here," says Larry Monroe, associate vice president of international programs at Berklee (and himself a sax player), who was among the faculty that selected Zenón from a group of 150 participants in the Puerto Rico workshop. "He practiced endlessly, and he just exploded. This is one of the more directed young musicians I've ever encountered."

In Boston, Zenón hooked up with drummer Bob Moses and started playing with the Either/Orchestra. He met Danilo Perez, who made introductions to other established musicians. After moving to New York in 1998, Zenón began sitting in on live dates and recording sessions with fellow Puerto Rican saxophonist David Sanchez. Zenón's skills as a player and composer weren't lost on Sanchez's producer, Branford Marsalis, who was about to launch his own label.

"I listen for musical intelligence," Marsalis says. "Lots of jazz musicians spend their lives studying and then trying to make music out of academics. Miguel just grabbed the music. He was able to take something intellectual and make it sound organic and natural."

Zenón feels grateful to be signed to a label run by a like-minded musician, where he's given the sort of artistic support and creative latitude many of his peers in jazz are without these days. His set at Tanglewood will include some of the material from "Ceremonial" and a portion of a recent project called "Jibaro Journeys: Music From the Mountains of Puerto Rico," which merges new jazz harmonies with music of the back-country troubadours of his native island.

"I don't really feel like my music sounds like what people call Latin jazz, which is usually influenced by Cuban music and is danceable," Zenón says. "I'm trying to represent the worlds of jazz and Latin music equally."
Joan Anderman can be reached at anderman@globe.com