CAMBRIDGE — Melissa Aldana was touring in support of her new album, the Sonny Rollins-inspired “Back Home,” when she brought her trio to the Regattabar on Tuesday night. But the tenor saxophonist and her bandmates — her fellow Chilean Pablo Menares on bass and Jochen Rueckert on drums (taking over for Francisco Mela from her previous trio) — played just one song from the disc during their impressive but lightly attended set.
That tune, Rueckert’s “Servant #2,” led things off and set the tone: a stripped-down stage presence with the musicians clustered together and casually attired, and smoldering drums and bass providing a dynamic but supportive floor for Aldana’s inventive, thematically grounded improvising. Aldana, 27, is the same age as Rollins was when he recorded his famous trio albums “Way Out West,” “A Night at the Village Vanguard,” and “Freedom Suite,” and she and her group accessed a comparable trio language here as they had on her new recording.
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“Elsewhere,” introduced as “a brand new tune,” had a cool feel to it, with long, swirling phrases that Aldana dug into deeply with her dry, sandpapery tone — playing with her eyes closed, rising up and down on her toes as she put body English into her phrasing. That her superb solo elicited no applause might have been because it bled directly into Rueckert’s.
“New Points,” from her previous trio album (“Melissa Aldana & Crash Trio”), had a more whimsical, samba-ish feel to it. Aldana moved behind her bandmates while Menares soloed and Rueckert accompanied with brushes, then returned to center stage blowing her horn. Eyes rolling back, she invented long, dreamy phrases that she would snip off without quite resolving, letting the rhythm section finish her thought.
The standard “Never Let Me Go” was another highlight. Aldana began unannounced and unaccompanied. Bass and brushes slipped in quietly as she edged her way around the familiar melody; after a slow Menares solo, Aldana eventually brought the ballad to a breathy conclusion.
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After “Turning,” also from Aldana’s previous trio album, she offered one more tune, which turned out to be Thelonious Monk’s “I Mean You.” All three players had one last chance to solo: Aldana tearing into her spot with such fire and fluency that the audience finally remembered to applaud, and an inspired Rueckert responding in kind to wrap things up.
MELISSA ALDANA TRIO
At the Regattabar, April 26
Bill Beuttler can be reached at bill@billbeuttler.com.