The Frankfurt Radio Big Band built its reputation in European jazz due to the eclecticism of its approach to the multiple facets of this musical genre and to its punctual incursions into the universes of pop and world music. Currently considered a true German institution, this orchestra promoted, through the course of its activity, ambitious and expansive programs of collaboration not only with some of the most influential names of jazz, among them John Scofield, Django Bates or Billy Cobham, but also with musicians and artists from other creative contexts.

Born in Chile, Melissa Aldana (b. 1988) is an emergent name from the new generation of the twenty-first’s century globalized and multipolar culture, and also the most recent representative of Latin-influenced jazz, whose tradition she incorporates into her musical language. Introduced in North-American jazz circuit by Panamanian pianist Danilo Pérez, Aldana graduated at the Berklee College of Music in Boston, where she studied under great musicians such as Joe Lovano, and she currently resides in New York. The Chilean saxophonist released her first album, “Free Fall”, under Greg Osby’s record label, and in 2013 she became the first South-American woman to be awarded with the prestigious Thelonious Monk Music Award. In parallel to her career as leader and soloist, Melissa Aldana collaborates with other important jazz musicians such as Peter Bernstein or Christian McBride, among others.

After a career of forty years in high-level jazz circuit, Jim McNeely is unanimously acknowledged as one of the most distinguished representatives of orchestral jazz tradition, having been nominated multiple times to the Grammy awards. The beginning of his trajectory in music in the late 1970’s, was decisively marked by his collaboration with Thad Jones and Mel Lewis jazz orchestra (still active and now known as The Vanguard Jazz Orchestra) and also by his work as a member of Stan Getz’s mythical quartet. Since then, McNeely has developed a tireless and eloquent work as musical director and arranger for some of the most reputed jazz big bands of the world such as, among many other, the Carnegie Hall Jazz Band or the Metropole Orchestra, while at the same time pursuing his work as composer and teacher in music universities all around the globe.