Last night I went to see sax player Melissa Aldana at the Toronto Jazz Festival. She is 30 years old from Santiago, Chile. Her father Marcos Aldana is also a sax player. As a teen she played local clubs. And then she studied at Berklee in Boston with George Garzone and Greg Osby among others. She first recorded in 2010 on Osby's Inner Circle label. I first heard of her in 2014 when she released Melissa Aldana & Crash Trio on Concord. Her latest album Visions was released Feb. 2019 on Motema Music. It is a tribute to legendary artist Frida Kahlo. She wrote most of the songs and she produced with husband Jure Puki. He's a sax player from Finland. She doesn't have a trio anymore. It's now a quartet. Her bassist is still Pablo Menares who has been with Melissa since playing clubs in Chile. The pianist is Sam Harris who has played with trumpeter Ambrose Akinmusire. And drummer Kush Abadey is also a second generation musician. He has played with trumpeter Wallace Roney. Though I wasn't crazy about some of Harris' solos, he was fine within the context of the band. Melissa sounded great and she is still very young so I think she has a great future ahead of her. I think jazz is still a tough business for women instrumentalists. And if you don't believe me, I suggest you check out the doc Girls In The Band which you can stream for free on Kanopy with a library card. You might learn something. I am planning to go to one more free concert Sunday afternoon.
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