Nick Maclean Review: Rites of Ascension

Nick Maclean is a Toronto-based pianist, synthist, composer, arranger, educator and band leader that has just dropped his new CD, Rites of Ascension. His quartet explores a set of modern standards and original repertoire. Maclean’s foursome delivers jazz between the two poles of thoughtful introspection and hard-swinging post-bop era improvisations. With self-declared influence from Herbie Hancock’s primordial 1960’s Blue Note era recordings. The quartet’s debut 11-track full-length album Rites of Ascension, features six Maclean penned compositions, one Ali original and four re-imagined Herbie Hancock classics, all recorded at the renowned Canterbury Studios in Toronto and produced by Brownman Ali. With a balanced mix of originals and arrangements of well-known modern standards, this quartet is a joy to listen to and has a stunning group chemistry. The music covers many styles: complex metric divisions, feel changes, funky grooves, tempo changes and plain and simple swinging. One thing that never changes though, is the logical and orderly way the compositions and improvisations are presented. That’s the short of it!