March 8, 2024
Melissa Aldana tells “A Story” on the alluring new single from the acclaimed saxophonist’s forthcoming album Echoes Of The Inner Prophet out April 5, the follow-up to her GRAMMY-nominated Blue Note debut 12 Stars.
Watch a live video of Aldana’s band performing “A Story” at ‘musig im pflegidach’ in Muri, Switzerland.
A musical voyage to explore the depth of the spiritual journey, Aldana’s new album reflects her “personal journey, with an especially introspective point of view. The inner prophet is my own self, now older, who has the knowledge and the intuition and the truth about what my path should be.”
At the same time, this deeply intimate, searching project is a celebration of collaboration and community. It documents the evolution of her quintet — Lage Lund, guitar and effects; Fabian Almazan, piano and effects; Pablo Menares, bass; Kush Abadey, drums — capturing the collective insight they’ve garnered after extensive touring and travel, and arguing for their place among the most incisive working groups in jazz today. It also furthers Aldana’s uniquely symbiotic kinship with Lund, who serves as her arranger and co-producer, and with whom she shares the rarest “trust and openness.”
The title track of Echoes Of The Inner Prophet pays homage to Wayne Shorter, the late modern-jazz pioneer (and Blue Note cornerstone) who sat on the judges’ panel at the Thelonious Monk International Jazz Saxophone Competition that Aldana won in 2013. At the time, she’d been based in New York for a few years after relocating from her native Chile by way of Berklee, which she attended on a full scholarship at the encouragement of Shorter’s pianist, Danilo Pérez. The Monk victory kick-started her ascent and rapidly made her one of jazz’s most respected and important new voices.
Though the impact of Sonny Rollins on Aldana’s playing is well documented, it is Shorter’s aura that looms largest throughout Echoes Of The Inner Prophet, particularly in the way Aldana’s writing and improvising offer constant surprises while maintaining a highly listenable allure. Her interest in Shorter’s music, while lifelong, has grown over the past few years — a reflection of the themes of maturation and never-ending discovery that Aldana explores throughout the new album. “As I’ve grown older,” she says, “I think I can relate to his music and his playing in a way that maybe I couldn’t when I was younger.” For Aldana, that means absorbing Shorter’s lessons on the “use of space, the storytelling, how you communicate, how you paint. When I think about Wayne, I think about colors.”
Echoes Of The Inner Prophet is available for pre-order on Blue Note Store exclusive color vinyl, black vinyl, CD, and download. The credits are as follows:
Side A
- Echoes Of The Inner Prophet For Wayne Shorter (Melissa Aldana)
- Unconscious Whispers (Aldana)
- A Story (Aldana)
- The Solitary Seeker (Aldana)
Side B
- Ritual (Pablo Menares)
- A Purpose (Aldana)
- Cone of Silence For James Farber (Aldana)
- I Know You Know (Lage Lund)
Melissa Aldana: tenor saxophone
Lage Lund: guitar & effects
Fabian Almazan: piano & effects
Pablo Menares: bass
Kush Abadey: drums
Produced by Melissa Aldana & Lage Lund
