Beneath Lifted Skies Linda May Han Oh & Melissa Aldana

• 1 Anthropology 03:08
• 2 Hallucinations 03:27
• 3 Infinite 01:56
• 4 Duke Ellington's Sound of Love 04:51
• 5 Cyclic Episode 03:19
• 6 The Sorcerer 02:16
• 7 Dance Cadaverous 04:22
• 8 26-2 02:51
• 9 I'll Be Seeing You 04:47
• 10 Social Call 03:48
• 11 Resolve 04:01
• 12 Introspection 04:04
• 13 God Bless the Child 03:27
• 14 Shoulder to Shoulder 04:22
• 15 Winter 03:34
• Total Runtime 54:13

Info for Beneath Lifted Skies

"Beneath Lifted Skies" is an intimate and expansive dialogue between bassist Linda May Han Oh and saxophonist Melissa Aldana, two singular artists who turn to the Great American Standard canon not as an act of nostalgia but as a means of discovery. Through a program of standards, bebop classics, free improvisations and solo meditations, the album honors the musicians who shaped the language of this musical tradition while revealing new possibilities within that inheritance. Stripped to the vulnerable clarity of a duo setting, each performance unfolds as a conversation grounded in deep listening, trust, and mutual curiosity, balancing reverence for tradition with a restless spirit of exploration. Like the title suggests, the music exists beneath a vast horizon of artistic possibility—acknowledging the pioneers who “lifted the skies” for future generations while inviting listeners into a boundless space where memory, imagination, freedom, and human connection converge.

"Demonstrating a quick-witted rapport, Oh and Aldana are two kindred spirits in conversation. They’ve already found their own voices in jazz, but together, they manage to offer a very enjoyable album with varied rhythm, groove, and breath. While old standards can sometimes feel stale, creative reinvention transforms them into a thrilling experience. Beneath Lifted Skies is an excellent case in point." (jazztrail.net)

Linda May Han Oh, double bass
Melissa Aldana, tenor saxophone

Recorded February 4–5, 2026 at Wellspring Studios, Acton, Massachusetts
Recording Engineer: Tyler McDiarmid
Mixed by David Darlington at Bass Hit Studio
Mastered by David Darlington at Bass Hit Studio
Produced by Linda May Han Oh

Linda May Han Oh
GRAMMY Award winning - Linda May Han Oh is a bassist/composer who has performed with artists such as Pat Metheny, Kenny Barron, Joe Lovano, Terri Lyne Carrington, Vijay Iyer, Steve Wilson, Geri Allen and Dave Douglas.

Originally born in Malaysia and raised in Boorloo (Perth), Western Australia, she is a Guggenheim fellow has received many awards including a 2024 Herb Albert Award and a 2022 Deutscher Jazz Preis. She was voted “Bassist of the Year” eight times between 2018-2026 by the Jazz Journalist’s Association, in 2024 she received an Honorary Doctorate from Manhattan School of Music and was the 2026 Artist in Residence at the Zuckerman Institute.

Linda recorded eight albums as a leader which have received critical acclaim, her latest is a duo album "Beneath Lifted Skies" on Biophilia Records - a label founded by Fabian Almazán that promotes environmental sustainability. Her latest commissions include "Ephemeral Echoes" written for percussion trio/piano trio as well as the 2025 Melbourne Jazz Festival Commission "Invisible Threads" featuring vocalist/electronic musician Pamela Z and animation by Keith Henry Brown. Her band has performed worldwide in venues such as the Village Vanguard and was recently featured on NPR’s Tiny Desk.

Linda has written for large and small ensembles as well as for film, participating in the Sundance Labs at Skywalker Ranch. Most recently she scored "Sorority Story" by film maker Kathryn Smith Pyle.

Melissa Aldana
Saxophonist and composer Melissa Aldana was born in Santiago, Chile and grew up in a musical family. Both her father and grandfather were saxophonists and she took up the instrument at age six under her father Marcos’ tutelage. Aldana began on alto, influenced by artists such as Charlie Parker and Cannonball Adderley, but switched to tenor upon first hearing the music of Sonny Rollins. She performed in Santiago jazz clubs in her early teens and was invited by pianist Danilo Pérez to play at the Panama Jazz Festival in 2005.

Aldana moved to the U.S. to attend the Berklee College of Music, and the year after graduating she released her first album Free Fall on Greg Osby’s Inner Circle label in 2010, followed by Second Cycle in 2012. In 2013, at 24, she became the first female instrumentalist and the first South American musician to win the Thelonious Monk International Jazz Saxophone Competition, in which her father had been a semi-finalist in 1991. After her win, she released her third album Melissa Aldana & Crash Trio (Concord).

Aldana’s celebrated 2019 album Visions (Motéma) earned the saxophonist her first-ever GRAMMY nomination for Best Improvised Jazz Solo. In naming Visions among the best albums of 2019 for NPR Music, critic Nate Chinen wrote that Aldana “has the elusive ability to balance technical achievement against a rich emotional palette.”

Aldana was one of the founding members of ARTEMIS, the all-star collective that released their debut album ARTEMIS on Blue Note in the Fall of 2020. The album featured Aldana’s simmering composition “Frida,” which was dedicated to Mexican painter Frida Kahlo, who inspired the musician through “her own process of finding self-identity through art.”

Aldana began releasing her own leader albums on Blue Note in 2022 with 12 Stars followed by 2024’s Echoes Of The Inner Prophet, both of which featured her original compositions performed by her longtime working quintet. 2026’s Filin is a ballads album of songs drawn from Cuba’s Filin music tradition featuring Aldana leading a quartet with Gonzalo Rubalcaba, Peter Washington, and Kush Abadey.

This album contains no booklet.