Melissa Aldana
1988-* tenor saxophonist
Melissa Aldana is a tenor saxophonist, born in 1988 in Santiago, Chile.
She began playing the alto saxophone at the age of six and later switched to the tenor saxophone after hearing the music of Sonny Rollins.
In her early teenage years, she played in Santiago's jazz clubs and made connections, such as with pianist Danilo Pérez, who helped her perform at concerts outside of Chile and led her to study at the Berklee College of Music.
After completing her studies at Berklee in 2009, she released her first album, "Free Fall" in 2010, followed by her second album, "Second Cycle“ in 2012. After these releases, she won the prestigious "Thelonious Monk International Jazz Saxophone Competition" in 2013. Since then, four more albums have been produced, including her latest: "Echoes of The Inner Prophet".
Melissa Aldana's music combines traditional jazz elements with modern influences and personal experiences, giving her a unique voice in jazz. With several albums and performances at renowned festivals, she has established herself as one of the leading saxophonists of her generation.
Shirley Horn
1934-2005 pianist, singer
„Time is redefined in Horn's presence. Toots paused. Somebody's small child in the hotel suite stopped fidgeting. It was like "slow" was infectious. We waited for slow room service with unusual patience. We were all six of us in Horn's time zone. I stopped thinking about the hot lunch awaiting me at home.“ (-Toots Thielemans)
Shirley Horn, born in 1934 in Washington, D.C., initially studied classical piano at Howard University. Her influences included Debussy, Rachmaninoff, Erroll Garner, Oscar Peterson, Ahmad Jamal, and Miles Davis. Davis, an early fan of her debut album Embers and Ashes (1960), invited her to New York, where she opened for him at the Village Vanguard. Soon after, she performed in major concert halls across the U.S., recorded with Quincy Jones, and spent several years in Europe before stepping back to focus on her family in Washington. In the 1980s, she returned to the studio. Her breakthrough performance at the 1981 North Sea Jazz Festival in the Netherlands revitalized her career, allowing her to tour with her trio and record new albums. Starting in 1987, she released music under Verve, establishing herself even more as a world-class jazz artist. Six of her 20+ albums were nominated for a Grammy. In 1990, she collaborated with Davis again on You Won’t Forget Me. Here’s to Life (1992) became the best-selling jazz album of the year, and I Remember Miles (1998) won the Grammy for Best Jazz Vocal Performance.
"Shirley Horn is the only one who can make me cry with her singing and piano playing“ — Miles Davis "She has a simplistically complex way of comping and voicing chord changes that sets up the sound of the blues dripping out of her voice.“ — Billy Hart
„I have learned that all you give is all you get, so give it all you got.“ — Shirley Horn