Pianist Nick Maclean delivers a tribute to Herbie Hancock’s 60s Blue Note with a collection of interpretations and originals. His team of Brownman Ali/tp, Jesse Dietschi/b and Tyler Goertzen/dr is up for the task, with Ali tapping into his inner Freddie Hubbard on sleek reads of “One Finger Snap” and “Cantaloupe Island” while he skates over Goertzen’s brushes with aplomb on “Tell Me A Bedtime Story.” Maclean’s own compositions are quite strong, flowing on the ballad “Feral Serenity” and Brownman gets the team into a funky mood on his own ”Madness of Nero.” Dietschi does some nice work on”Goldberg Machine” and the team develops infectious grooves as on “Elasticity of Time and Space.”
Respectful, but not deferential.