Saxophonist & Composer Jonathan Suazo Returns with RICANO VOL. 2: FRUTO DE MI CORAZÓN out May 8 on Miel Music
Award-winning Puerto Rican saxophonist, composer, and educator Jonathan Suazo announces the May 8 release of RICANO VOL. 2: FRUTO DE MI CORAZÓN on Miel Music, the imprint led by acclaimed saxophonist Miguel Zenón. The album arrives as the next chapter in a project that began in 2017, when Suazo coined the word “Ricano” ( a fusion of Puertorriqueño and Dominicano) to describe both a composition and an identity.
Where Ricano Vol. 1 introduced this cross-cultural framework to the world, the second volume deepens it. The subtitle, Fruto de mi Corazón (“Fruit of My Heart”) speaks to everything that has shaped Suazo over the past three years: faith tested and renewed, love formalized, and fatherhood arrived. Recorded in mid-October 2025 at Wellspring Audio, with Joshua Lu behind the board, the album captures a man in the middle of extraordinary personal transformation. Suazo’s wife, Fabiola Méndez, was weeks away from giving birth to their daughter Cecilia when the sessions took place.
Giovanni Russonello of The New York Times called the first Ricano a “richly built, effusively played Latin jazz, written from the heart and packed with complexity, always seeking the next level of altitude.” That description holds for this follow-up — though the emotional terrain has shifted. The earlier album was an act of cultural excavation. Ricano Vol. 2 is a document of lived experience, with all the weight and warmth that implies.
The album features his core quartet: Francisco Alcalá on drums, Ian Ashby on upright bass, and Zaccai Curtis on piano, with Suazo on alto saxophone and leading every arrangement. The record also features a wide circle of collaborators and guests, including percussionists Kike Serrano and Otoniel Nicolás, vocalist and cuatrista Fabiola Méndez, vocalist Tanicha Lopez, pianists Benito Gonzalez and Edmar Colón, drummer Lee Fish, vocalist Jeremy Bosch, guitarist Dariel Peniazek, and percussionist Paoli Mejías.
Musically, the album continues the cross-cultural conversation that defined its predecessor – Puerto Rican and Dominican traditions channeled through a jazz framework, but with an expanded sonic range, settled into a more intimate quartet-centered approach. The compositions were road-tested over months of live performance before being recorded, allowing the music to breathe and mature in front of audiences. The result is a collection that moves fluidly between intensity and tenderness, complexity and clarity. Rhythms like the Plena, bomba sicá, pambiche, salve, and cuembé anchor the compositions, while the improvisations draw on the language of jazz greats like John Coltrane, Cannonball Adderley, and Kenny Garrett. Key collaborations add depth and dimension throughout: Paoli Mejías appears on congas for “Llamado,” a piece inspired by Suazo’s formative time with the Paoli Quintet; Fabiola Méndez lends her voice and electric cuatro to “Mi Música Bella” plus “La Magia”, and is joined by Tanicha Lopez on vocals in several other tracks, including the album’s emotional centerpiece “Redención”, and the extended vocal version of “La Magia” which features vocalist Jeremy Bosch who delivers a cinematic, emotionally precise performance on this extended closer where Dominican and Puerto Rican percussion traditions — played by Otoniel Nicolás and Kike Serrano — converge in powerful rhythmic conversation. The album’s arc takes the listener from nostalgic tributes to cultural memory through moments of struggle, love, and ultimately redemption, culminating in “Cecilia,” a salve-based composition named for Suazo’s newborn daughter.
Jonathan Suazo was named one of the Top Ten Emerging Jazz Artists by the Recording Academy in 2023, and his debut album Ricano was recognized by The New York Times as one of the Best Jazz Albums of 2023. He holds a Master of Music from the Berklee Global Jazz Institute and has received grants from Chamber Music America and South Arts, among other honors. Where the first Ricano asked questions about heritage and belonging, Ricano Vol. 2 offers answers — not in words, but in the lived honesty of the music itself. It’s an album that reflects growth, family, culture, and faith, all distilled into a sound that feels both timeless and urgently present.
RICANO VOL. 2: FRUTO DE MI CORAZÓN is out May 8, 2026 on Miel Music.
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Tracklisting
- Mi Música Bella
- Calle Hija del Caribe
- Llamado
- Si No Fuera Por Tu Amor
- Llueve To’ Los Días
- Interlude
- Candela
- Rona Blues
- Redención
- Cecilia
- La Magia (instrumental version)
- La Magia (vocal version)
PERSONNEL
Core Quartet: Jonathan Suazo – Alto Saxophone, Composition, Arrangements Francisco Alcalá – Drums Ian Ashby – Upright Bass Zaccai Curtis – Piano, Keyboard
Additional Musicians: Benito Gonzalez – Piano Edmar Colón – Piano Lee Fish – Drums Luis Rodriguez – Electric Bass
Guest Artists: Kike Serrano – Percussion Otoniel Nicolás – Percussion Paoli Mejías – Congas Fabiola Méndez – Electric Cuatro, Voice, Background Vocals Tanicha Lopez – Background Vocals Jeremy Bosch – Voice Dariel Peniazek – Electric & Acoustic Guitars
PRODUCTION CREDITS
Label: Miel Music – Miguel Zenón Recording Engineer: Joshua Lu Recording Studio: Wellspring Audio Mixing Engineer: Danilo Pichardo Mastering Engineer: Michele Papa