Melissa Aldana Quartet at Sam First

This performance is made possible by a generous Music in Action grant from the Live Music Society, supporting small venues and listening rooms nationwide. GRAMMY nominated saxophonist and composer Melissa Aldana returns with Echoes of the Inner Prophet, a deeply introspective yet powerfully collaborative follow up to her acclaimed Blue Note debut 12 Stars. Exploring the idea of the “inner prophet” an older, wiser self that reveals truths both inspiring and uncomfortable Aldana creates music that is at once personal, exploratory, and rooted in the collective growth of her long standing quintet with Lage Lund, Fabian Almazan, Pablo Menares, and Kush Abadey...

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This performance is made possible by a generous Music in Action grant from the Live Music Society, supporting small venues and listening rooms nationwide. GRAMMY nominated saxophonist and composer Melissa Aldana returns with Echoes of the Inner Prophet, a deeply introspective yet powerfully collaborative follow up to her acclaimed Blue Note debut 12 Stars. Exploring the idea of the “inner prophet” an older, wiser self that reveals truths both inspiring and uncomfortable Aldana creates music that is at once personal, exploratory, and rooted in the collective growth of her long standing quintet with Lage Lund, Fabian Almazan, Pablo Menares, and Kush Abadey. The album reflects Aldana’s profound artistic kinship with Lund, who arranges and co-produces, and includes heartfelt dedications to Wayne Shorter whose influence permeates the record’s evocative sense of space, color, and storytelling and legendary engineer James Farber. Blending impressionistic soundscapes, inventive compositional narratives, and a modern lineage that traces from Hawkins and Rollins to Mark Turner, Echoes of the Inner Prophet captures Aldana at a moment of deep artistic clarity, honoring the Blue Note tradition while forging her own path of continual discovery.

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