Melissa Aldana Quartet

The first female and the first South American musician to win the Thelonious Monk International Jazz Saxophone Competition, Chilean saxophonist Melissa Aldana intended for the alto to be her axe, but an encounter with the music of the legendary Sonny Rollins led to a switch to tenor. Since then, she’s been crafting a legend of her own. The Chicago Tribune says, “Aldana stands as an irrepressibly creative phrase-maker, sidestepping cliché at almost every turn.”