Let’s face it: jazz isn’t the cultural movement it once was. The improvisational genre’s fanbase, today, is far more niché and underground than it was 60 years ago. So, it’s not every day that jazz fans in Edmonton have the opportunity see an act at the calibre of Melissa Aldana.
This Saturday, the Grammy-nominated tenor saxophonist arrives in Edmonton for a feature performance in Edmonton’s premiere jazz ensemble, the Don Berner Big Band.
“Aldana is one of the foremost saxophonists in the world,” says Berner.
While this performance isn’t Aldana’s first in Edmonton (she played the Edmonton Jazz Festival in 2019) it is a rare opportunity to catch her amid a busy schedule that has her performing across the globe.
“She’s been so generous with her time,” Berner says. “If you look at her tour schedule, she’s booked well into December at places all across the planet. She spends her life travelling and playing sax.”
Together, the big band and Aldana will perform a selection of Aldana’s songs arranged by the Frankfurt Radio Orchestra.
Aldana’s music, which skews towards the contemporary and is influenced by jazz legends like Sonny Rollins and Charlie Parker, might not be the type of jazz you first associate with a big band act. But Berner says the two distinctive styles of jazz pair together better than many might think.
“Big band is unique in so much as the term refers to a specific instrumentation, a style and an era,” he says. “But all of those three definitions don’t always meet. A lot of people hear big band and they think of the 1940s … but if you look at the Lincoln Center band with Wynton Marsalis, they’re playing traditional shows as well as contemporary jazz. If you look at Michael Bublé, he’s backed up by a big band and he’s straight ahead pop. So, to my mind, big band is broad and an easily transferrable instrumentation.”
Slated for March 30 at the Triffio Theatre, Berner hopes bringing acts as lauded as Aldana will help to bolster the jazz scene here in Edmonton, but he’s also just really excited about getting to test his chops alongside her.
“It’s professional development for us,” he says. “Getting to share a stage with Aldana for a night isn’t just instrumentation, it’s instruction. Quite frankly, I’m getting paid to take a lesson.”
Help Berner take his lesson, March 30 at the Triffo Theatre.
