E-Mail This Article to a Friend Traveling saxman Miguel Zenón taps into a world of jazz BY ED HAZELL

Just when you think you can pin down the music of alto-saxophonist Miguel Zenón, it slips out of your grasp. It isn’t really Latin jazz, though Latin elements make their presence strongly felt. It’s not conventional, either, with its slippery time signatures, an occasional rock beat, and Brazilian, Cuban nueva trova, and gospel elements slipped into the mix. On his latest album, Ceremonial (Marsalis Music/Rounder), as he did at Scullers a week ago Tuesday, Zenón makes a strong case for his elusive fusion as a new kind of 21st-century mainstream jazz. It’s uncompromising but accessible, intelligent and passionate, and fearless in its synthesis of a wide range of influences.

There’s no mere novelty in Zenón’s eclecticism. Everything in his music rises organically out of his life, and that’s why it’s so convincing. Born in an impoverished neighborhood of Santurce, Puerto Rico, he grew up listening to salsa and traditional bomba y plena. Hymns and church music also made a deep impression on the devout Zenón, who originally wanted to be an engineer. After he heard Charlie Parker on the radio, however, music proved too strong a pull. He came to Boston to study jazz at Berklee College of Music and while still a student performed with the Either/Orchestra and Kendrick Oliver’s New Life Orchestra. He later earned a master’s degree at Manhattan School of Music in New York, where he also worked with pianist Danilo Pérez and saxophonist David Sánchez, two of the most forward-thinking artists in Latin jazz, as well as Latin-jazz icon Ray Barretto.

Since striking out on his own, the 27-year-old saxophonist has forged his experiences into a personal style. One of the great pleasures of Ceremonial is the clarity of Zenón’s voice; there are few, if any, of the overt allusions to other players that one usually hears in such a young musician. He plays with a dusky, rounded tone that’s commanding and full but never piercing or harsh. There are touches of the salsa singer’s ingratiating romantic ardor, the soul singer’s sensuality, and the gospel singer’s spiritual power in his sound, all enlivened with the urgency and edge of jazz. These qualities serve him especially well on the hymn "Great Is Thy Faithfulness," and on his original ballad "A Reminder of You."

His soloing is finely crafted and daring at the same time. He pares away extraneous notes. His lines are clean and elegant. But they are also full of quirky accents, unexpected silent gaps, and oddly graceful little stumbles that keep you guessing. His solo on the rock-inflected "Mega" is built out of idiosyncratic phrases that create a sense of linear momentum without resorting to an exhausting flurry of runs. On "440," his phrases bristle and probe restlessly, but every so often an offhand bit of lyricism outflanks the unsettled lines. Even on his knottiest and most oblique compositions, like the album’s title track, where you’re never quite sure what the music will do next, Zenón unifies everything with his sure sense of line and the emotional immediacy of his playing.

At Scullers, his quartet with pianist Luis Perdomo, bassist Ben Street (subbing for the album’s Hans Glawischnig), and drummer Antonio Sánchez proved adept at juggling all the elements in his music. They opened with a Zenón original that refused to settle in one place for long, and the uncertain footing gave them plenty to work with. Cuban singer-songwriter Silvio Rodríguez’s "Leyenda" was beautifully suited to Zenón’s insinuating delivery, and during his solo, he fit together simple phrases into complex patterns. Drummer Sánchez was riveting all night, especially when he got behind pianist Perdomo and pushed him hard with his sizzling cymbal work on "Leyenda," and on the set closer, "Ya." The band members were particularly attuned to one another on "Great Is Thy Faithfulness," following Zenón’s phrasing to create a rhythmically free intensity. The concluding "Ya" was taken at a blistering tempo; it climaxed with a Sánchez solo that build up from a funky snare pattern to include the whole drum kit.

Zenón has a lot going for him as a composer and a soloist. He has avoided the clichés of both Latin and post-bop jazz while navigating a new path through all his influences. That’s no small accomplishment, and it bodes well for his future. Dealing with the weight of jazz history and the vastness of music from around the world can crush lesser talents, but he seems capable of carrying the load.