Melissa Aldana

Melissa Aldana is a Chilean tenor saxophone player from Santiago, Chile, who works in jazz and post-bop. She is associated with Monterey Jazz Festival on Tour and ARTEMIS.

Early life and training

Aldana begins playing saxophone at the age of six, taught by her father, Marcos Aldana, who is also a professional saxophonist. She starts on alto saxophone and is influenced early on by Charlie Parker, Cannonball Adderley and Michael Brecker. After hearing Sonny Rollins, she switches to tenor saxophone, and her first tenor instrument is a Selmer Mark VI that belongs to her grandfather. She starts performing in jazz clubs in Santiago in her early teens.

Education and move to the United States

In 2005, after meeting pianist Danilo Pérez while he is touring in Chile, she is invited to perform at the Panama Jazz Festival and to attend auditions at music schools in the United States. These introductions lead her to Berklee College of Music in Boston, where her teachers include Joe Lovano, George Garzone, Frank Tiberi, Greg Osby, Hal Crook, Bill Pierce and Ralph Peterson. She graduates from Berklee in 2009 and then moves to New York City to study with George Coleman.

Recording career

Aldana records her first album, Free Fall, for Greg Osby’s Inner Circle Music imprint, and it is released in 2010. Her second album, Second Cycle, follows in 2012. Her first jazz quartet recording, Visions, connects her work with the legacy of Latina artists and is inspired by Frida Kahlo. On that record, she draws a parallel between Kahlo’s experience as a woman artist in a male-dominated field and her own position as a female saxophonist working in jazz.

Awards and recognition

In 2013, she wins the Thelonious Monk International Jazz Saxophone Competition, becoming the first female musician and the first South American musician to do so. Her father reaches the semi-finals of the same competition in 1991. The prize includes a $25,000 scholarship and a recording contract with Concord Jazz. The Washington Post describes her win as signalling a new sense of possibility and direction in jazz.