One of the up and coming tenor saxists and composers, Melissa Aldana, continues here ascent with this latest release with her team of Lage Lund/g-prod, Sullivan Fortner/p-key, Kush Abadey/dr and Pablo Menares/b for these twelve songs that are part of the forbidden fruit of the tarot cards.
The moods, as expected with the material given, is a bit dark and moody, with a bluish mist around Lund’s solo and Aldana’s breathy tenor on “Intuition” while Abadey and L und communicate around Fortner’s extrapolations on the laconic “The Foil”. The team is boppish on the most swinging song, “Los Ojos de Chile” while Aldana sighs on the ballad “12 Stars”. Menares is spotlighted on the intro to “Emilia” before the subdued lyricism of Aldana’s hazy tone takes over. A searching soul looking for signs. Hopefully from above next time.