7 JULY is now confirmed as the UK/Ireland release date of Melissa Aldana & Crash Trio, tenor saxophonist Aldana’s new piano-less album, the Sonny Rollins-influenced player joined by Chilean bassist Pablo Menares and Cuban drummer Francisco Mela, the latter known for his work with Joe Lovano and McCoy Tyner.
Santiago-born Aldana won the highly prestigious Thelonious Monk International Jazz Saxophone Competition held in Washington DC last autumn and this Concord release was part of the prize. The album includes original compositions written by the trio members plus Thelonious Monk’s ‘Ask Me Now’, and Harry Warren's ‘You’re My Everything.’
Mentored by George Coleman and Greg Osby after studies at Berklee in Boston, Aldana’s albums to date are Free Fall and Second Cycle, both issued on Osby’s Inner Circle Music label.
Melissa Aldana, above