Lonely Woman ... female artists and solo horn performances

By Stef Gijssels

On May 22nd, 1959, Ornette Coleman recorded "Lonely Woman", after 67 years still one of the most beautiful pieces ever composed, with its conflicting sentiments of sadness, darkness and hope. I am close to having collected 200 versions of it by various musicians and in a huge variety of styles, and happy to get to know even more. 

Today, the tune itself is not the subject, but the many albums on which female horn-players (sax and trumpet) give a solitary performance, also in a variety of styles. We received some of these albums, and this made me search for other recent work by female saxophonists. It's quite a list, and one worth mentioning. I guess that solo albums by male horn-players will be for another occasion. 

Amelia Ya'el - Voices 1 (Signbearer, 2026)

When I first heard this brief album, I was struck by its raw yet delicate polyphonic sound. Through circular breathing on the baritone saxophone, Amelia Ya’El manages to express tension and tenderness, rhythm and lyricism, all at once. What surprised me even more was discovering that this is not only her debut album, but also an entirely solo performance. Ya’El stresses that the music is fully acoustic and free of overdubs, underlining how important it is to her that the listener recognises the sheer virtuosity of her playing.

The four short compositions/improvisations each have their own specific character and recognisable sonic signature. "Mechanics of Anger", the first track is indeed brutal, direct, with no restraints, yet excellent. "Song of Peace" is built on a repetitive phrase, as the backbone for her improvisation, oscillating between joy and agony, and it's hard to believe that the total sound is just generated by one single instrument. 

“No Evil But Ignorance” is equally intricate in its solo voice, unfolding through broad, sweeping passages that at times seem almost to sing. Its sheer force even made me laugh in disbelief — the piece is absolutely ferocious.

“Beneath The Waves” closes the brief album with another recurring motif, its hypnotic repetition recalling Philip Glass. That pattern forms the backbone of the improvisation: there are moments of slight hesitation, perhaps, but the music continues to flow — singing, surging, and shouting.

Chicagoan Amelia Ya’El is unquestionably one of the standout newcomers of the year, and she deserves full credit for releasing a solo debut that is so pure and uncompromising. This album serves as her artistic calling card: physical, virtuosic, expressive, and deeply sensitive.

A real treat. 

Listen and download from Bandcamp. 

Caroline Kraabel - Translation Trials (Self-Released, 2025)

American saxophonist Caroline Kraabel found her artistic home in the UK’s free improvisation scene, where she has long been an active and influential presence, including as one of the leaders of the London Improvisers Orchestra. On this solo album, she offers twelve improvisations recorded at home during the summer of last year, capturing both the intimacy and spontaneity of her approach to improvised music.

As she writes in the liner notes: "As documents, these pieces may present what occurred with less lacking than is the case on many audio recordings of improvised music, because there was relatively little extra-sonic content to be missed: just me, alone in my body in a room with my saxophone." And that is precisely the impression that emerges: an artist 'playing' with her instrument in the truest sense — experimenting, exploring, delighting in discovery, allowing herself to be surprised, and enjoying the interaction. She sings through the horn, conjures multiphonics, and answers to nothing beyond the ideas in her mind, the brass in her hands, and the physical intensity of the encounter between the two.

In this sense "Translation Trials" is a very personal album, a translation of the artist's being into sound, it is pure, and a for it's a privilege to be witness of this process. 

Listen and download from Bandcamp. 

Adia Vanheerentals - Taking Place (Relative Pitch, 2025)

Adia Vanheerentals is a young Belgian saxophonist - although a little older than the picture on the cover - and one of the country's newcomers in improvised music. This is her sophomore solo album, after "Here Are 5 Reasons To Meditate" from 2024. Credit also to the "Relative Pitch" team, who invited her to release this album on their label, just like they asked several other female musicians to do the same, including the already reviewed and highly recommended "Holy Trinity" by clarinetist Laura Altman. 

Vanheerentals is active in various ensembles, including participating in some Fire! Orchestra shows earlier this year. She started playing saxophone at the age of 9, and switched later to jazz, having a degree from the conservatory of Antwerp. She says in an interview: "My real influence is Steve Lacy, from a very early age. I prefer to play the soprano saxophone myself, and Lacy opened up a whole new world for me, ranging from traditional jazz and classical to free jazz, and especially Thelonious Monk and modern jazz. I find Ingrid Laubrock impressive on both the soprano and tenor saxophones. She gave a masterclass at the conservatoire and writes original compositions in which she attempts to approach standard jazz in a different way" (with thanks to Jazz'Halo for the quote).

For this album she chose several external environments to act as the background for her improvisation: a chicken coop, a resonating silo, flowing water (rain?), cars on the street, ... It's fun to hear, especially when the chickens get all excited, as they should be. Her music has a striking directness, placing greater emphasis on lyricism and tone than on timbral experimentation or sonic exploration. In that sense, it feels very much in the tradition of Steve Lacy — marked by a clarity, purity, and understated simplicity that define her sound.

As a special gift, here is a video of the artist spending playing on Tram 10 in Antwerp at the beginning of last year. 

Listen and download from Bandcamp. 

Katie Porter - Conversation No. 1 - Collecting Rocks from the Places We've Been (Relative Pitch, 2025) 

Another album in the Relative Pitch series, is this album by bass clarinetist Katie Porter. In essence it's actually a duo album, in the sense that one bass clarinet line has been pre-recorded and serves as the background or foundation for the further expansion of her sound, which is exceptionally strong, and juxtaposing the high-pitched with the deep-toned, usually fluctuating around a tonal center, resulting in very long stretched notes, welcoming and slow, repetitive and well-paced. 

She describes her music as an open invitation for others to join, like a a sonic landscape in which other 'rocks' can be added. 

Her music has its own aesthetic, one that requires close listening, and that offers a unique, rewarding and hypnotic listening experience. 

Listen and download from Bandcamp. 

Berlinde Deman - Plank 9 (Relative Pitch, 2025) 

We've met Belgian tuba-player Berlinde Deman before, on Dave Douglas's "Secular Psalms" from 2022. 

On this album, her main instrument is the 'serpent', one that we only knew from French musician Michel Godard, and his collaboration with Lebanese oud-player Rabih Abou-Khalil. Deman started playing tuba at the age of eight, and is classically trained. In an interview with Jazz'Hallo she explains her fascination for the serpent: "My serpent sound is melancholic, full of character and very dark. The serpent naturally has a warm tone. People sometimes associate the sound with a womb or with deep roots. Melancholy is also a pitfall; it’s easy to evoke that feeling with the serpent. Three notes and everyone is moved. For me, the challenge lies in making the sound dangerous. I do that with effects pedals." (with thanks to Jazz'Hallo). 

Her music is melancholy, and not in a cheap way. Her sound is deep, often sustained with the use of pedals, giving a level of resonance or depth, further increased by electronic effects that multiply the voices, and add layers of sound. This is not jazz, often more ambient music, quietly moving waves of sound, sensitive and rich. My preference goes to those tracks on which the serpent has its simplest and original acoustic sound, as on the beginning of "Three Trees", which offers a higher level of authenticity and musicianship. 

Listen and download from Bandcamp. 

Camila Nebbia – Rastro O Vacío (Self-Released, 2025)

My search for female solo saxophone albums inevitably brought me to the Argentinian artist Camila Nebbia, who delivers seventeen mostly brief but vividly varied tenor explorations: sharp, agile, expressive, playful, direct, sensitive, brutal, blues-inflected, and consistently charged with energy and intensity.

Some of the longer pieces, such as “El color de un río desconocido” and “Algo que solía conocer que ya no puedo identificar o recordar,” are multi-layered and heavily post-produced, with overlapping saxophone lines unfolding into slow-moving sonic textures before descending into bursts of chaos and noise toward the album’s conclusion. As a result, the record seems to present two distinct identities, which somewhat undermines the coherence of the listening experience.

Listen and download from Bandcamp. 

Alexandra Grimal - Interspaces (Self-Released, 2025)

One of France's top saxophonists is without a doubt Alexandra Grimal, a musician with a strong personal sound and voice, whose albums we reviewed and appreciated before on this blog. 

This album is very short - a little longer than 14 minutes - and only available digitally. Interested readers can also check out the video of her performance in the art gallery where the exhibition took place. As a kind of joke at the entrance, there is a copy of Gustave Courbet's (in)famous painting "L'Origine Du Monde" (1966), on which the names of all famous painters of the previous century are presented with female first names. 

The music itself is quiet, intimate, fragile and sensitive. Her soprano cautiously thrills the air, touching it, sensing it, appreciating it, in the same mode as the paintings on the wall, light touches of colourful poetry in a white and empty space. 

Short, but excellent. 

Listen and download from Bandcamp. 

Anna Piosik - In The Absence of Gods (4DaRecord, 2026)

Anna Piosik is a Polish trumpeter, singer and ceramics artist living in Portugal. She is a member of the all female group Lantana, and also collaborated with Ernesto Rodrigues and with the Variable Geometry Orchestra. 

She explains the title of her first solo album: "Without really meaning to, I think it reflects my sadness about the state of the world today. It was during the recording sessions. João Madeira said something to me at one point that really stuck with me; he said: “Let it flow and play as if no one were listening”. It sounds like a cliché, but somehow I thought: “Yes, that’s exactly what I’ve been doing all this time in Alfafar (where she lives in Portugal)”. Just me and my goats in the woods, in the absence of my “gods” — my idols, my musician friends and collaborators." 

She is her own self on this album, playing without an audience, except for the occasional dog or goat bells, or the orchestra of crickets on the last track, intimate and close, expressing her deepest feelings, stripped from all influences, preconceived notions, expectations and other distractions that create barriers between the self and the sound. 

Yet however personal and intimate, her heart belongs also to the entire world. "And then, when we were working on the album and it came to choosing a name, the title really resonated with the state of the world. As if we were living in times when nothing matters anymore — neither ethics nor morality." (with thanks to Jazz.pt)

The overall mood is undeniably melancholic and sad, yet she brings an authentic voice and a refreshing sound—shaped not by a pursuit of perfection of sound, but by a search for emotional depth, that can also offer moments of wonder and surprise, of pain and joy, of struggling and hope. 

We hope to hear much more from her. 

Listen and download from Bandcamp. 

Signe Emmeluth - Lonely Woman (Self-Released, 2025)

... and we end our list with Danish saxophonist Signe Emmuth, most appropriately giving a solo sax performance of "Lonely Woman" (with thanks to Jeff Sackmann for the tip!). She was recently reviewed by us for "With Love", "The Hyperboreal Trio", "Everything that shines, everything that hurts", "Banshee", "Bonanza of Doom", "Nonsense", and these were only released in the last few years. 

The single track can be listened to and downloaded from Bandcamp.