Edinburgh was fortunate to secure a visit from the only ever female winner of the Thelonius Monk International Jazz Saxophone Competition, Melissa Aldana.  Hailing from Santiago, Chile, but nowadays based in New York, USA, Aldana last visited Edinburgh three years ago in her trio. Tonight was part of a world tour in quartet format, promoting her recently issued album, ‘Visions’, the tunes on it all self-penned and inspired by a favourite artist of Aldana’s, iconic Mexican artist Frida Kahlo.

Thus we might have expected the concert tonight to consist of music that was colourful, intelligent, full of feeling and infused with Latin rhythms, and so it was. A bonus was Aldana’s helpful explanations prior to each tune.

Although the band members seemed different to those listed on the album sleeve, all played exemplarily. Even more impressive was Aldana’s craft, her technical proficiency not least her consistently beautiful tone, immediately obvious from the stonking opener ‘Elsewhere’, to her delicate and gorgeous version of George Gershwin’s ‘I Loves You Porgy’.

The entire two set gig was fresh-feeling, intelligent, very exciting and really quite beautiful. Hopefully it won’t be too many years before Aldana and band are invited back to the Edinburgh Jazz and Blues Festival.