Melissa Aldana

Melissa Aldana is an adept jazz tenor saxophonist known for her fluid harmonic lines and strong sense for the acoustic post-bop tradition. Discovered by pianist Danilo Pérez while still a teenager, Aldana debuted with Free Fall in 2010. She then earned wider acclaim by winning the 2013 Thelonious Monk International Jazz Saxophone Competition. Busy as a leader and sideman, she has recorded with Terri Lyne Carrington and Cécile McLorin Salvant and issued her own albums including 2014′s Melissa Aldana & Crash Trio and 2016′s Back Home. Aldana earned Grammy nominations for both 2019′s Visions and 2022′s 12 Stars, the latter of which was also her Blue Note debut. In 2024, she drew upon her passion for the work of Wayne Shorter on Echoes of the Inner Prophet. Born in Santiago, Chile in 1988, Aldana is the daughter of the renowned tenor saxophonist Marcos Aldana. Her father was also an instructor, and from the age of six, she insistently began to request that he teach her how to play. After she mastered the two notes he gave her to play, he got her an alto and her formal studies began. His primary method for her was transcription of solos from cassettes; the first artist she learned to play from was Charlie Parker. Though she learned from all the great alto masters, it was upon hearing Sonny Rollins that her musical course changed direction irrevocably and she requested to be given a tenor instead. She received a Selmer Mark VI from her grandfather Enrique (who had taught her father to play) and has used it ever since. At the age of 16, Aldana was already headlining jazz clubs all over Santiago. When she learned that Panamanian pianist Danilo Pérez was coming to Chile as part of the Wayne Shorter Quartet, she was determined to meet him — his wife had been a student of her father’s. That meeting proved fateful. After hearing her, he invited her to play the Panamanian Jazz Festival. She was not only well-received, but Pérez brought her to the United States and arranged auditions for her at the Berklee College of Music and the New England Conservatory. Though accepted by both schools, she won a scholarship to Berklee. There she studied under Joe Lovano, Greg Osby, Bill Pierce, and Ralph Peterson, to name a few. Upon graduation, she relocated to New York and was mentored further by George Coleman. She also woodshedded in clubs, sitting in and learning from other musicians. Her first date as a leader, Free Fall, was issued by Osby’s Inner Circle Music label in 2010. In support, she played not only clubs in New York but a host of European jazz festivals. Her sophomore effort, Second Cycle, was released in 2012. She formed the Crash Trio later that year — she had known Menares from the Chilean scene years before. The group quickly established a rapport and became a go-to straight-ahead unit known for both originals and standards. At the age of 24, in September 2013, Aldana won the Thelonious Monk International Jazz Saxophone Competition. The jurors were Jane Ira Bloom, Branford Marsalis, Jimmy Heath, Shorter, and Bobby Watson. She was the first female instrumentalist ever to win the competition. Part of her prize was a recording contract with Concord Jazz; the label issued Melissa Aldana & Crash Trio in mid-2014. The album earned wide critical notice, and she was invited to play some of the most prestigious jazz festivals in the world, including the Playboy Jazz, Monterey, Umbria, Marciac, Pori, and Molde stages. She also played prestigious clubs including the Blue Note, Jazz Standard, Smalls, and the Regatta Bar. Aldana performed with Jimmy Heath at the 2014 NEA Jazz Masters Award Ceremony. In 2015, Wynton Marsalis invited her to Jazz at Lincoln Center. Aldana’s second Crash Trio album, Back Home, was issued by Wommusic in March 2016, with drummer Jochen Rueckert replacing Mela. The quintet date Visions arrived in 2019 and found Aldana drawing inspiration from the work of painter Frida Kahlo. The album garnered widespread acclaim, including a Grammy nomination for Best Improvised Solo for the song “Elsewhere.” In 2022, she made her Blue Note debut with 12 Stars, featuring her quintet with guitarist Lage Lund, pianist Sullivan Fortner, drummer Kush Abadey, and bassist Pablo Menares. Included on the album was the song “Falling,” for which Aldana picked up her second Grammy nomination for Best Improvised Solo. Lund was also on board for 2024′s Echoes of the Inner Prophet, which he co-produced alongside Aldana. The album found the saxophonist paying homage to her many mentors, including Wayne Shorter for whom the title track was dedicated. ~ Matt Collar & Thom Jurek