Skeleton in a saxophone

This weekend, Lansing-area jazz lovers will have a welcome chance to catch up with a longtime local favorite, saxophonist Diego Rivera.

There’s a lot to catch up on.

Inspired by a new home, a new job and close proximity to his family roots in the American Southwest and Mexico, Rivera is on fire, as a teacher, musician and composer.

“It’s combustion,” Rivera said. “It’s a chemical change, man.”

As a homecoming offering, he will lead a stellar quintet at UrbanBeat Saturday to unveil “Ofrenda,” a recently composed suite commissioned by Chamber Music America.

Music writer Tony Zambito declared the world premiere of “Ofrenda” on Feb. 4 at Buffalo, New York’s AKG Art Museum “breathtaking,” “passionate” and “historic.”

“It was important that I brought the suite to Michigan,” Rivera said. “It’s still home. I was there for the first 44 years of my life.”

In 2022, after 20 years at Michigan State University Jazz Studies, Rivera left Michigan to become director of Jazz Studies at the University of Texas at Austin’s Butler School of Music.

Rivera has a growing list of recordings behind him, including six albums as a leader, but he talks as if it’s all a prelude to finely blended, highly personal music like “Ofrenda.”

“I feel like I’m finding my compositional voice,” he said. “My work in jazz gave me tools and the ability and the language, but the fuel for my creative voice comes from my own culture.”

“Ofrenda” weaves traditional music from Mexico with straight-up jazz as only Rivera can. To bring this rich tapestry to life, Rivera will reunite with bassist Rodney Whitaker and pianist Xavier Davis of the MSU Professors of Jazz, with guest artists Pete Rodriguez on trumpet and MSU grad Michael Reed on drums.

Rodriguez, who is also on the faculty at Austin, is a multi-talented trumpeter, singer and percussionist, the son of Puerto Rican salsa singer Pete “El Conde” Rodriguez.

Rivera hit it off with Rodriguez as soon as he settled in. The two of them made beautiful music together on Rivera’s newly released album, “With Just a Word.”

“He is really a dynamic trumpet player and conguero,” Rivera said. “I’m really looking forward to introducing him to mid-Michigan.”

The prestigious commission from Chamber Music America’s New Jazz Works program came in 2022 — not the most convenient time for Rivera.

“I was in my driveway, packing up the last of my belongings in Lansing, when I got the email that I was approved,” he recalled.

Suddenly, while going through some big life changes, he also had to come up with a major piece of music. What to write?

Once he and his family settled in at Austin, the answer was in plain sight.

“My mother is from San Antonio, and much of my father’s side is around here,” Rivera said. “Just being around Mexican-American culture, which has always been a strong presence in my music, I was reminded of many deep cultural traditions, like seeing ofrendas everywhere.”

Ofrendas are the offerings placed on a home altar to honor departed loved ones on the Day of the Dead.

“The ofrenda is based on what the person was like when they were with us — their favorite food, their clothes, trinkets and things,” Rivera said.

No two ofrendas are alike.

“They’re so personal,” he said. “There’s no template for these things, but there are shared feelings we have. That’s a lot like music. There are guidelines, traditions, but the music itself is so very personal. That’s where I got the idea.”

The opening movement, “Volver” (“Return”), evokes the spirits of the dead coming back to life. The following section, “Fotografía,” evokes the emotions stirred by photographs of deceased loved ones.

“It’s a bittersweet feeling,” Rivera said. “When we premiered it, one-third of the audience was in tears.”

The suite explores many moods and practices associated with ofrendas, including votive candles, pan de muerto (bread of the dead) and papel picado (elaborate paper decorations perforated with cut-out details). To animate the finale, “El Esqueleto,” or “The Skeleton,” Rivera drew from Latin musical forms such as bolero and son jarocho, a traditional genre of music from Vera Cruz, Mexico, with a “very distinctive rhythm.”

“On the Day of the Dead, the skeleton wears the clothes the person used to wear, dances the same dance, eats the food,” Rivera said.

Working on the suite, Rivera came up with his own take on the meaning of the ofrenda.

“The spirits have a subliminal message to us, to enjoy the experiences we have,” he said. “Life is a pretty good thing. There’s food, there’s dancing, there’s music.”

Life is pretty good for Rivera right now. He loves living in Austin, and his two young daughters made new friends right away.

“They have a busier calendar than I have,” he joked.

Professionally, Rivera was blown away by his welcome at the university’s Butler School.

“Sometimes I sit in my office and think, ‘Did I really do this? Did I really become a jazz studies director?’” he admitted. “But the students have, by far, been the best part of the transition. I can feel their acceptance of me, their confidence in me to give them a wonderful experience.”

At Austin, Rivera is carrying on the same tradition he upheld for 20 years at MSU. The first guest artist he invited to Austin was Whitaker, his old MSU Jazz Studies boss.

“It was very important for my students to know who inspired the philosophies I’m trying to instill down here,” Rivera said. “I’ve seen jazz education, mentorship, at its best, and I know that it builds to something bigger — a community, a family.”

Rivera and Whitaker stay in touch frequently. They played together in Japan last summer with MSU trombonist Michael Dease and at a jazz festival in Austin.

“I bother him constantly,” Rivera said. “Whenever I ask him, ‘How should I do this?’ it usually ends with him saying, ‘You already did that, remember?’”