JazzTimes is honored to present the premiere of “Elsewhere” by Melissa Aldana, taken from the saxophonist’s upcoming album Visions, due out May 24 on Motéma Music.
Composed by Aldana, “Elsewhere” features her on tenor, along with pianist Sam Harris, vibraphonist Joel Ross, bassist Pablo Menares, and drummer Tommy Crane. Like the rest of Visions, the track was recorded by David Stoller in September 2018 at the Samurai Hotel Recording Studio in Astoria, N.Y.
The compositions on Visions are inspired by and dedicated to artist Frida Kahlo, a favorite of Aldana’s since childhood. They were originally written as a suite commissioned by the Jazz Gallery in New York as part of its residency program for emerging artists; the same quintet heard here premiered the suite live at the Jazz Gallery in June 2018.
“’Elsewhere’ was the second composition that grew out of the inspiration from Frida Kahlo,” Aldana says. “The music was inspired from this feeling of being physically in a certain place but having your mind elsewhere, a place where you could be free from everything, where fear doesn’t exist, and where the only thing that counts is your creativity and your imagination…”
Read a Before & After listening session with Melissa Aldana from 2016.
To find out more about Aldana, visit her website.
