Melissa Aldana – Filin (CL)

Melissa Aldana – Filin (CL)

Friday, 3 July – CD Park
Day pass Park CD: presale (until 30 June): EUR 20, on the day: EUR 24
Festival pass: EUR 115

Melissa Aldana, tenor sax; Pablo Held, piano; Pablo Menares; double bass; Kush Abadey, drums

After winning the prestigious Thelonious Monk International Jazz Saxophone Competition in 2013 – making history as the first woman and the first South American to receive the award – Melissa Aldana’s career skyrocketed. She was given the blessing of none other than Wayne Shorter, who served on the competition jury, while his longtime pianist, Danilo Pérez, had earlier encouraged her to move to the US from her native Chile and enrol at Berklee in Boston. With a studious approach and a strong work ethic, Melissa Aldana quickly emerged as a brilliant saxophonist with a distinctive flair for storytelling – a lesson imparted by Wayne Shorter in his emphasis on “the use of space, the storytelling, how you communicate, how you paint.” This talent finds its fullest expression on Aldana’s penultimate album, Echoes Of The Inner Prophet, where she intuitively surrenders to improvisation, building from it tangible, composed impressions.

Melissa Aldana’s solos on her latest albums have earned her two Grammy nominations. “The sound itself is a tool to express an emotion. Every single note is a whole world. …but then there is this mystical side of sound that… I still don’t know exactly what it is,” says Aldana, who honed her expression by listening to and transcribing the titans of jazz: Sonny Rollins, Wayne Shorter, John Coltrane, Joe Henderson, Lester Young, Charlie Parker, and Don Byas, among others. When researching a particular style, she does not focus solely on technical execution but instead probes the very evolution of music, with the transmission of tradition across generations playing a central role. This is why themes of identity, introspection, and perseverance often run through her creative work – an innovative, contemporary tribute to tradition.

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Melissa Aldana’s eighth album, and her third on the Blue Note label, is titled Filin. The title is not only a slang variation of the word “feeling” but also refers to a musical style that flourished in Cuba in the mid-20th century as “a dialogue between traditional Cuban trova, the bolero and jazz, redefining Cuban musical identity,” explains the revered pianist Gonzalo Rubalcaba, whom Aldana invited for a collaboration alongside bassist Peter Washington and drummer Kush Abadey. The album’s enchanting ballads also feature vocals by Aldana’s dear friend and one of the leading singers of her generation, Cécile McLorin Salvant – who performed at the Ljubljana festival last year. On tour, Held and Menares step in for Rubalcaba and Washington. Melissa Aldana’s appearance at our festival also marks the inaugural collaboration between Jazz Festival Ljubljana and the Jazz at Lincoln Center programme in New York City.