Miguel Zenon And Vijay Iyer At Newport

Download The Full Miguel Zenon Quartet Concert From Newport

Miguel Zenon's Esta Plena is a study in jazz and plena, the traditional music of Puerto Rico. Each selection represents a location.

Zenon writes in an email, "Villa Cooperativa is a neighborhood in the town of Carolina, where I spent some teenage years. The whole song is dealing with a rhythmic ratio of three against two. The three in this case is represented by a 12/8 Afro groove, and two is represented by a 4/4 Plena groove."

The song goes back and forth, and then puts the two together. Yes, this band can count. It's hard to believe that drummer Eric Doob is a sub who answered a last-minute call to come to Newport.

The closer, "Villa Palmeras," "is a sub-barrio of Santurce," Zenon writes. "The plena style from Santurce is notoriously more aggressive and faster in pace when compared to the other important areas like Ponce and Mayageuz" in Puerto Rico.

Download The Full Vijay Iyer Trio Concert From Newport

I reached Vijay Iyer at the airport, heading for Zagreb, with plans for the flight.

"I'm reading Robin Kelley's book on Monk," Iyer says.

That would be Thelonious Monk: The Life and Times of an American Original by Robin D. G. Kelley.

"It's so inspiring," Iyer says. "I've been thinking about Monk constantly. [The book] digs in deep from page one. The opening two pages, he drops this kind of bomb that's incredible. You start with that."

You can hear how Iyer connects with the axis from Duke Ellington to Monk to Randy Weston. He's notably effective on the Weston end of the piano (the bottom), and there's more to it than hands on the keyboard (as if that weren't essential).

Weston's "overall lifelong project of connection with his African heritage and stressing that through the piano deeply inspired me to pursue something analogous with Indian music," Iyer says.

Credits: Mix in Surround Sound by Antonio Oliart, WGBH Radio, Boston.