The steady, resonant, metallic tick of a cymbal; ghostly ripples from a guitar; a distant piano phrase that sounds like a dripping icicle; then softly, a swelling call from a saxophone with a dreamlike vocal quality. It’s an arresting opening to Melissa Aldana’s second release on Blue Note Records.
The Chilean-born tenor player has established herself firmly on the international stage since winning the Thelonious Monk competition in 2013. Her musical imagination and the ensemble she’s working with have now, on this showing, evolved into something remarkable and distinctive.
The title track, ‘Echoes of the Inner Prophet’ (with which the album opens), lasts under three minutes. Aldana’s keening, emotional tenor slides through an evocative arc, slowly unfurling a melody. There’s no solo as such, but the band comprised of Lage Lund on guitar, Fabian Almazan on piano, Pablo Menares on bass and Kush Abadey on drums, paint textures and introduce rhythmic gestures so that by the end, the piece feels like a spontaneously developed, fully formed meditation.
This thoughtful air pervades the album, but there’s plenty of energy and momentum. There’s an organic flow between the group and their solos, that feels like someone taking the lead in a conversation as ideas are developed together. Six of the eight pieces are penned by Aldana, with Menares and Lund contributing one each. ‘Unconscious Whispers’ moves through different rhythmic motifs under ear-tweaking melodic phrases. Almazan takes the ideas to new and unexpected places with dense, abstract rhapsodic flourishes. The wonky groove of ‘A Story’ sounds like a disrupted tango, with Lage taking over from another attractive and engaging Aldana theme. Menares’ ‘Ritual’ is a ballad, given elegant movement by Abadey’s propulsive brushes. The melody is carried by Aldana’s sighing phrases, evoking an elegiac atmosphere. Lund’s jaunty ‘I know You Know’ evolves into a swirling exuberant ride to close the set.
Aldana’s singular voice is at the heart of the sound. Phrases flow, bend through microtones and melt into whispers, her sinuous lines weaving through the textures conjured by the band. Lund and Almazan both use subtle electronics, so that their sounds flex and expand in sympathy.
This album is a thoroughly absorbing and frequently emotionally affecting set, with the sense of being welcomed into an intimate and intense conversation that has plenty of playful and optimistic currents. It’s a recording to return to again and again.
Mike Collins is a pianist and writer based in Bristol. He runs the jazzyblogman
