Will Layman– Tenor saxophonist Melissa Aldana won the Thelonious Monk International Jazz Competition in 2013 (focused that year on the saxophone) at the age of 24. She had graduated from the Berklee College of Music four years earlier, and as a teenager in Santiago, Chile she had already earned an invitation from pianist Danilo Perez to perform at the Panama Jazz Festival. Which is to say, she did not come out of nowhere. Indeed, in 1991, her dad, Marcos Aldana, had been a semi-finalist in the Monk competition (with first place going to Joshua Redman, second nabbed by Eric Alexander, and third shared by Chris Potter and Tim Warfield—whoa!).
However, as the first South American and the first woman to win the competition (and, still, the only woman to win in a category other than vocalist), Aldana experienced some push back in the community. “Who is this little girl?” was the tone in some circles. And even when Aldana recorded in a trio format without piano or guitar, matched with the incredible drummer Francisco Mela, there was some doubt.
But there can’t be much doubt anymore, with Aldana not only playing with power and confidence as a leader of her own bands but also reacting with class as she was placed in a tricky position. In her wake, reviewers and writers (myself included) have paid more attention to saxophonists such as Caroline Davis, Roxy Coss, Tia Fuller, Anna Weber, and Maria Grand. Visions is her first recording of its kind: with a larger band and a more conceptual in approach, refracting her art through her view of painter Frido Kahlo, who shares Aldana’s heritage as a Latina and her position as a woman in a male-dominated art world. It’s also Aldana’s most subtle and wonderful recording, using four brilliant young musicians (all men, if you’re keeping score) to round her music: rising star Joel Ross on vibes, Sam Harris on piano, bassist Pablo Menares, and drummer Tommy Crane. She composed all the tunes but two.