Saxophonist Melissa Aldana rocked the Savoy

Jazz

Melissa Aldana and the Umo Helsinki Jazz Orchestra led by Ed Partyka at the Savoy Theater on Friday 11 October.

It was a mere coincidence that saxophonist and composer Melissa Aldana had just chosen a white sleeveless shirt and red straight trousers as his performance outfit for the Savoy Theatre?

Maybe it wasn’t, because white and red are the main colors on the flag of the Republic of Chile, the country of his birth. And as two horizontal bars in this same order, white above and red below.

On the other hand, the only thing missing from her performance outfit was blue, unless you count the turquoise blue fingernails. The upper left corner of the Chilean flag is colored by a blue square referring to the sky and the Pacific Ocean, with a single white star in the center – like the Spanish name of the flag The Lone Star highlight.

But at the Savoy Theater there was no need to be reminded of the star’s presence at any point. She was Melissa Aldana (b. 1988), now living in New York, the central composer and central soloist of Umo’s orchestral concert.

As the evening progressed, it was also emphasized that Umo’s chief conductor Ed Partykan The concert he led was not a one-off or even a sudden attempt.

in Finland Aldana, who was a residency guest for almost two weeks, had performed the same program with Umo in Jyväskylä and Lahti and knew the arrangements of most of his compositions from years ago. Six of the nine had made the German HR-Bigband a long time leader Jim McNeelyand they had already premiered in November 2021.

Of course, one professional arranger guaranteed that the track was of uniform quality, but in this long run – two hour sets – in the end it was also a little surprising, matching the characteristic quality of Aldana’s compositions. And is there a particular reason that all the songs last pretty much exactly ten minutes, repeating the same “drama”?

Here relatively more moving were the latest arrangements made specifically for Umo’s concerts.

However, it could also be due to the fact that both pianist-composers, an Englishman Nikki Iles and Danish Kathrine Windfeld had received the unusual songs from Aldana’s latest and best album (Echoes Of The Inner Prophet, 2024) from the best end. Both are also backed by a small story, one of which involves a saxophonist to Wayne Shorter and another recorder James Farberiin.

And they are not the only ones. There is a story about the painter Frida Kahlon about a ghostly dream, is a story about my own dream and my (yet) unborn daughter, and a story about those who were violently blinded during the protests in Chile in 2019 – in the song The Eyes of Chile.

As a composer Melissa Aldana is indeed a storyteller to some extent, but above all she is the kind of tenor saxophonist who developed her own voice, who really didn’t spare herself at the Savoy – and let her star shine.

Correction 12.10. at 5:20 p.m.: Corrected the name of the Umo Helsinki Jazz Orchestra, which was previously in the incorrect form Helsinki Umo Jazz Orchestra.