In the summer of 2003, a handful of jazz fans and musicians gathered to celebrate the opening of Thelonious, Lugar de Jazz, an important addition to the small but bustling jazz scene in Santiago, Chile. Among them was a 14-year-old saxophonist, probably the youngest person in the new club. She was attending under the watchful eye of her father — himself one of Chile’s most renowned jazzmen — but Melissa Aldana had insisted on being there.
“I was there the first night,” she explained to me in a recent interview. “I was trying to play because it was supposed to be an open jam session, and then only a few people showed up.” Continue reading