Bio

Melissa Aldana was born in Santiago, Chile in 1988. Her father Marcos Aldana, also a saxophone player, introduced her to jazz at a young age. She played alto saxophone until she heard some recordings of Sonny Rollins, resulting in her switching to tenor sax. She was ‘discovered’ by pianist Danilo Perez while he was touring Chile, and she was invited to perform with him at the Panama Jazz festival. Shortly after, she attended Berklee College of Music in Boston, and studied with such greats as George Garzone, Jerry Bergonzi, Joe Lovano, and Greg Osby. After college, she relocated to New York City, where she released a number of successful records, and won the Thelonious Monk Jazz Competition in 2013. Since then she has successfully led her own groups to critical acclaim. A shortlist of her collaborators are Peter Bernstein, Kevin Hays, Christian McBride, Lage Lund, Pablo Menares, Jochen Rueckert, Jimmy Heath, and Jeff ‘Tain’ Watts.