TWILIGHT JAZZ & BLUES SERIES: CONVERGENCE – Nick Maclean
📅 DATE: Monday, October 16th, 2023 🕑 TIME: 7:00 pm – 9:30 pm 🏟️ VENUE: The Hare Wine Co. 🗺️ ADDRESS: 769 Niagara Stone Rd, Niagara-on-the-Lake 💵 PRICE: $39 + HST + Fees 💵 DISCOUNT: MAWS (Musicians/Arts Workers/Students) $19 + HST + Fees 💵 SERIES PASS: $99+ HST + Fees (Value of $117) 🍕 FOOD: Charcuterie Boxes + Artisanal Pizzas available for purchase at The Hare 🚗 PARKING: Free on site
A huge thanks to Twilight Jazz & Blues (6th Edition) Series Sponsor:
Kim Schwenker of Sotheby’s International Realty
ABOUT THE SHOW:
NICK MACLEAN QUARTET feat. BROWNMAN ALI celebrates the release of their hotly anticipated sophomore album CONVERGENCE. Led by fast-rising piano star NICK MACLEAN — a 10x Global Music Award winner and one of the most in-demand young jazz piano players in Toronto — this contemplative yet thrilling quartet delivers jazz between the two poles of thoughtful introspection and powerhouse conveyance, taking influences from Herbie Hancock’s primordial 1960’s Blue Note era recordings. Maclean’s quartet heavily features one of Canada’s most provocative improvising trumpet players — BROWNMAN ALI — an internationally acclaimed, multi-award winning jazz iconoclast who has been heralded as “Canada’s preeminent jazz trumpet player” by New York City’s Village Voice and is best known globally as the last trumpet player to play in the legendary jazz-hip-hop group GURU’s JAZZMATAZZ. For this show, Ali & Maclean stand shoulder-to-shoulder with 2 of Canada’s top-tier 20-somethings: CHRIS PARNIS (in for Ben Duff) on upright bass, and PETROS ANAGNOSTAKOS on drums (in for Jacob Wutzke).
Nick Maclean on the Piano is joined by 3 legendary jazz musicians: Trumpet Player Brownman Ali, Christopher Parnis on Bass and Petros Anagnostakos on Drums for this CD release of ‘CONVERGENCE’.
The show will also feature JAZZ 4 the AGES Youth winners, Lorian and Eva Knapp.
ABOUT THE ARTISTS:
Nick Maclean on Piano
Born in Ottawa, and now based in Toronto Nick Maclean is the winner of 10 Global Music Awards as well as a Toronto Independent Music Award, and has quickly become one of the most in-demand piano players in that city’s bustling jazz scene. Nick received his Bachelor of Music from Humber College in 2013, having studied with David Restivo, Bernie Senensky, and Nancy Walker. He then went on to do a Masters in Jazz Performance at the University of Toronto researching synthesizer pedagogy while studying under David Occhipinti, Andrew Downing, Chris Donnelly, and David Braid. Braid in particular had an enormous influence on how Maclean approaches playing and composing especially as it relates to solo piano performance. Also among his list of mentors, Nick has studied and performed with “Canada’s pre-eminent jazz trumpet player” (NYC Village Voice), the highly decorated Brownman Ali who signed Maclean to his Brooklyn-based jazz label Browntasauras Records in 2016 and later brought him on board as a label manager. Additional musical influences include the likes of Herbie Hancock, Chick Corea, Brad Meldau, Weather Report, Branford Marsalis Quartet, Hiromi Uehara, Art Tatum, Miles Davis, Avishai Cohen (bass), Vijay Iyer, and Brian Blade. Maclean leads two award-winning groups who’ve received international critical acclaim – the groove-based, all-original, eclectic electric-jazz project SNAGGLE, whose 2016 release THE LONG SLOG received 3 ‘Gold’ Global Music Awards and a Toronto Independent Music Award, as well as the exploratory, post-bop influenced modern jazz ensemble NICK MACLEAN QUARTET who’s 2017 release RITES OF ASCENSION was awarded 3 Gold Global Music Awards and has performed tours across Canada and internationally. His SOLO PIANO work is his introspective jazz project whose spirit draws influences from the contemplative and thoughtful stylings of jazz piano greats like Bill Evans, Keith Jarrett and Brad Mehldau. His 2021 double-disc solo piano release CAN YOU HEAR ME? won 2 Global Music Awards and went to #7 in the Canadian national jazz charts. The future is bright for this young visionary as he continues his upward ascent in jazz art forms of all shapes and sizes.
Brownman Ali
Trinidadian-born, NYC-schooled & heralded as “Canada’s preeminent Jazz trumpeter” by NYC’s Village Voice, multi-award-winning trumpet player Brownman Ali stands at the forefront of innovation in the Canadian jazz community. A 2x National Jazz Award winner, 8x Global Music Award winner, 7x Toronto Independent Music Award winner — with a list of awards & accolades being far too long to list here — he is the protege to Grammy-winning trumpet legend RANDY BRECKER, and he tirelessly leads 8 unique ensembles of his own including the internationally acclaimed, Miles Davis influenced, BROWNMAN ELECTRYC TRIO. Now splitting his time between Toronto, Canada & Brooklyn, New York, he spent 4 years as the featured trumpet player with GURU’s JAZZMATAZZ, doing 4 world tours, catapulting him into the hip-hop history books. He has since worked with a wide assortment of A-list artists such as Jay-z, Missy Elliot, Mos Def, Beyonce, Paul Simon and Quincy Jones. In 2009 he launched his own record label: Browntasauras Records, which saw the Electryc Trio’s two now celebrated recordings garner a substantial number of awards & press. The label is not only home to all 8 of Brownman’s own ensembles but now looks to sign the hottest 20-somethings in jazz. The Browntasauras roster includes the CRUZAO, BROWNMAN ELECTRYC TRIO, GRUVASYLUM, ARECIBO, NICK MACLEAN QUARTET, NICK MACLEAN – SOLO PIANO, SNAGGLE, MODUS FACTOR, ALI BROS, JASON WILSON & DIVISION ONE and CHELSEA MCBRIDE’S SOCIALIST NIGHT SCHOOL. Now, using the label as a breeding ground for new and visionary talent in the modern jazz realm, Browntasauras and Brownman himself are widely regarded as vanguards for the evolution of Jazz in Canada.
Christopher Parnis on Bass
Christopher Parnis is a multiple award-winning jazz bassist/bandleader/composer originally from Peterborough, ON. Since moving to Toronto to pursue music in 2018 he has received his Bachelor of Music degree with Honours at the prestigious Humber College and has shared the stage with a who’s-who of established Canadian musicians including, among others: Brian Dickinson, Terry Clarke, Reg Schwager, Allison Au, and Alana Bridgewater. He has led a quintet performing his original compositions since 2019 and will be releasing his debut record inspired by the lineage of great Canadian improvised music in late 2024.
Petros Anagnostakos
A graduate from Juilliard’s legendary jazz program, Petros Anagnostakos is the winner of Downbeat’s 2017 improvisation award. He’s studied with greats like Kenny Washington, Billy Drummond, and Bill Stuart, as well as leading Canadian artists like Kirk Macdonald, Neil Swainson, and Lorne Lofsky, and is one of the most in-demand young drummers on the scene today.
OPENING ACT:
Each performance starts off with an opening act featuring one of our JAZZ 4 the AGES Youth winners or finalists. For this event the TD NJF is proud to present brother and sister duo: Lorian and Ava Knapp, winners in the 12 – 14 age category from our 2023 Season. CLICK HERE for bio.
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