BASSIST RON CARTER, WORLD-RENOWNED MUSICIAN AND MOST-RECORDED JAZZ BASSIST OF ALL TIME, SAID IN AN INTERVIEW FOR STEREOPHILE’S MUSICIANS AS AUDIOPHILES1 THAT HE SEES HIMSELF NOT JUST AS A BASSIST BUT ALSO AS A SCIENTIST, FOREVER STRIVING TO UNDERSTAND AND PERFECT THE SOUND OF HIS RECORDINGS. CHILE-BORN SAXOPHONIST MELISSA ALDANA, A STUNNINGLY EXPRESSIVE JAZZ MUSICIAN, SHOWS SIMILAR DEDICATION TO HER ART, STUDIOUSLY INVESTIGATING THE CENTURY-LONG HISTORY OF THE GENRE.
Aldana started saxophone lessons at age 6 under the tutelage of her father, Marcos Aldana. Her technique and musicality progressed steadily, influenced by a pantheon of great alto and tenor saxophonists, Sonny Rollins in particular. She went on to study at Boston’s Berklee College of Music, graduating in 2009. Just four years later, she won the prestigious Thelonious Monk international jazz saxophone competition—the first female musician and the first South American to win that competition. (Marcos Aldana was a semifinalist, in 1991.) The prize: a $25,000 scholarship to the Monk Institute and a recording contract with Concord Jazz. In 2020, she joined the New England Conservatory’s Jazz Studies faculty.
Videos posted to her Instagram feed (melissaaldanasax) hint at the breadth of her mastery: She is heard maneuvering through slow, calm passages and blurringly fast sequences, from high-pitched birdcalls to deep, low rumbles. One also hears an ease of flow, precision, and clarity, and an occasional, unexpected softness.
When I heard her in concert at The Jazz Gallery in New York City, presenting material from her Blue Note release 12 Stars, Aldana and her ensemble—guitarist Mike Moreno, acoustic bassist Pablo Menares, pianist Sullivan Fortner, and drummer Kush Abadey—performed as a single organism, soaring through the graceful, often complex material with frenetic ease.
