BY SAM SPOKONY | Here’s a jazz scoop: you won’t need to wait for the big Midtown release show on June 16 to hear some of the tunes from tenor saxophonist Melissa Aldana’s hotly anticipated new trio album.
Special guest Zaleski is a perfect match For Aldana’s chops
Okay, I’m not saying you shouldn’t go to that gig too — but those who enjoy a cheaper ticket price and the Downtown scene should definitely check out the Chilean-born saxophonist and her Crash Trio when they hit Smalls on May 29.
MUSIC
MELISSA ALDANA & THE CRASH TRIO WITH SPECIAL GUEST GLENN ZALESKI
Thursday, May 29, at 9:30 p.m.
At Smalls Jazz Club
183 W. 10th St. (btw. W. Fourth St. & Seventh Ave. South)
$20 (must buy tickets at venue)
For more info, visit melissaaldana.com
Visit greenwichhouse.org
Eight months after she made history by becoming the first woman to win the Thelonious Monk International Jazz Competition, Aldana, 25, is only getting better, and it’s always a good time to see a rising star take another step in discovering her powers.
The forthcoming self-titled record will be the third for the Crash Trio, which has quickly evolved in its interplay, and exploration of both originals and standards, to become one of New York’s best small groups. Anchored by bassist Pablo Menares (a fellow young hotshot on the scene) and drummer Francisco Mela (the resident elder statesman, even though he’s still only in his 40s), the harmonically nimble and freely inventive trio is the perfect vehicle for Aldana’s talents, whether she’s breathing out a ballad or blowing a blistering hard bop solo.
But the other good news about this May 29 gig is that Aldana told me she won’t just be showing off some of the trio’s new tunes — and that’s because the group will also be joined for some other new (and old) originals by pianist Glenn Zaleski, who is another one these 20-somethings I generally try to bring up in conversations whenever I want to prove that, yes, I really do know the best young musicians in New York.
Aside from being jealous of the size of his Brooklyn apartment (you could rehearse a big band in there!), I still maintain that Zaleski’s last album, “Limitless” (equally co-starring bassist Rick Rosato and drummer Colin Stranahan), was basically the best trio release of 2013. Which makes it all the more awesome that the pianist has, for some time, been an on-again-off-again guest of Aldana’s trio — recently turning it into the “Melissa Aldana Quartet” during a four-night run at the Blue Note earlier this month.
There are a number of reasons why I think Zaleski and Aldana so wonderfully complement one another on stage, but most of those reasons are hard to explain because I can only fully realize them while closing my eyes and holding an overpriced beer (and, in one case, impressing a date at the Kitano). For now, I’ll stick with this one, a kind of amalgamation of reasons: they both have a knack for filling in the gaps, for picking up where the other leaves off, and for displaying a special kind of musical patience that leaves just the right amount of blank space without ever becoming tired or mundane.
