Benet McLean: Green Park

Best known as a pianist, with four critically acclaimed albums behind him, on Green Park Benet McLean returns to his first instrument, the violin. The press release says he began studying the instrument at the age of 3, and Wikipedia tells us he was at some stage mentored by classical maestro Yehudi Menuhin. It stacks up. McLean can play. Green Park is a blast.

Along the way, as well as his own discs, McLean has, since the early 2000s, recorded on ranking albums by breakbeat pioneer, saxophonist Sean Khan, Kevin Haynes' Grupo Elegua, hard-bop tenor saxophonist Jean Toussaint, trombonist Dennis Rollins, singer Laura Mvula, the feted saxophone/bass/drums trio Partikel, and with keyboards player Ivo Neame and guitarist Ant Law in the delightfully monikered Simians Of Swing.

McLean's band on Green Park is a new one other than for tenor saxophonist Duncan Eagles from Partikel. Eagles first recorded with McLean on the pianist's 2013 album, Live At The 606 (33 Jazz). The rest of band comprises young London lions Liam Dunachie on piano, Rio Kai on double bass and Zoe Pascal on drums. It is a tight and kicking ensemble.

Overall, the music is joyful, melodic, rhythmically intense, up-tempo and visceral, taking in hard bop, fusion and points between. But McLean—who wrote all the tunes bar Bobby Watson's "Fuller Love"—rings the changes. Track three, "Red," is delicate, slower paced, and track six, "The Pharoah," on which Eagles swaps the tenor for a flute, has neo-classical gravitas. Stand-out track on a consistently enjoyable set is the closer, "Jo," at 09:16 the longest track, which features some thrilling interplay between McLean and Eagles on tenor, first trading eights then engaging in extended simultaneous improvisation.

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