In 2013, Melissa Aldana became the first female instrumentalist and the first South American to win the Thelonious Monk International Jazz Saxophone Competition. She was 24. Since then, seven albums on Blue Note and a reputation as one of the leading saxophonists in contemporary jazz.
On her latest record, Filin (Blue Note, 2026), she strips back the arrangements and focuses on sound and feel. The source material is Cuban filin music (from the English word “feeling”) – a romantic tradition from 1940s and ’50s Havana that wove together trova, bolero and jazz. Aldana, raised in Santiago with Spanish as her first language, found in this repertoire something missing from American standards: the recognition of the language itself and the different freedom in its phrasing. Arrangements by pianist Gonzalo Rubalcaba, who grew up around the style’s original architects in Havana.
At Fasching, she performs with her quartet: Pablo Held on piano, Pablo Menares on bass and Kush Abadey on drums.
LINEUP
Melissa Aldana, sax
Pablo Held, piano
Pablo Menares, bas
Kush Abadey, drums
