Credits:

Melissa Aldana

Description:

2019 Grammy-nominated saxophonist/composer Melissa Aldana releases her first leader album on Blue Note Records! The 33-year-old tenor saxophonist from Santiago, Chile and based in Brooklyn is a remarkable artist who has received international acclaim for her visionary work as a bandleader and deep interpretation of language and vocabulary. This work is produced by guitarist Lage Lund and performed by a quintet with Sullivan Fortner on keyboards, Pablo Menares on bass, and Kush Abadey on drums! The themes addressed in this album are the concepts of parenting, family forgiveness, acceptance, and self-love. This is a really important album for me," says Aldana. 'I felt I had a lot to say because of what I went through during 2020. It was a personal process that brought me closer to myself and my imperfections, and I found that it is the same process in music. And I found that it was the same with music.Accepting everything you hear, everything you play, even if it's wrong, means more than being perfect. "The album features seven original songs written by Aldana and arranged or co-written by Raj, including the dynamic opening track, " Falling," which he describes as "a song I wrote when I felt like everything in my life was falling apart. The song is an immediate sense of Lund's bold harmonic and textural presence, and Fortner's spontaneity is tied to her solos at every turn. Just prior to the lockdown, Aldana experienced personal struggles and the end of a relationship. Alone in Harlem, she told herself that the many distractions of dealing with complex emotional reactions kept her busy for years. 'But then the pandemic hit and she hit rock bottom. She needed to make a change and turned inward. 'I feel more connected to my music because of that personal process,' she says.Inspired by the arc and nuances of the Tarot, "12 Stars" features a series of tributes to the challenges and triumphant moments in Aldana's New York life. Aldana says, "I've always been very interested in the symbols and traditional narratives of the Tarot. Therefore, I saw Lockdown as an opportunity to learn more about myself in the process of studying the Tarot, which focuses on the personal journey. I started writing music about each of the cards as I studied them. I also discovered that the process described in the Tarot is a process that we all deal with in some way throughout our journey here on earth," he says. In numerology and tarot, the Empress is a symbol of creation, and the title of the album was named after the 12 stars that adorn her crown.