nik tee - cerulean blue (Self Release)

The Slow Music Movement
7 days ago
1 min read

The cover art for nik tee's, cerulean blue single showing a blue sky with fluffy white clouds above a calm sea. A concrete pier extends into the water. Text reads "cerulean blue" and "nik tee" in bright green.

Nik Tee is a force of musical nature. Hailing from Vancouver he started playing classical piano at the age of four and hasn't looked back since, although when eventually free from parental control, it wasn't long before he started dabbling in punk, new wave, blues, pop, funk rock and electronic music - he can do it all, and has done for decades.

Nic Tee and friends smiling and posing together on a patio with plants. Casual, relaxed atmosphere.

His recent releases have seen him working with a larger band and recording some 80s indebted, pretty smooth grooves (with some throwback cover art to match) but he's really gone deep with his latest track, "cerulean blue". Teaming up with Richard Brown on drums who is aided by Jack Duncan on percussion whilst Brendan Steele takes care of guitar, Phil Bell on bass, Jocelyn Waugh blowing her trumpet alongside Kaylar Chan on Sax, whilst the main man takes care of piano and vocals - the crew have attained quite the spiritual/psychedelic (delete as applicable or choose both) soulful jazz-funk state.

The track kicks off with Tee warming up his vocal cords with some light scatting and his piano looking beyond the clouds for a higher plain, and damn me he found one too. The band immediately reach for sky too, locking into a tight groove which Tee's blue eyed, soulful AOR vocals relish as he recounts this hallucinatory tale, whilst weaving his jazzy keys through the grooving rhythm section and righteous horns. But just as you're getting a sweat on the track dissolves into a spiritual jazz comedown and we're left wondering was it all just a dream?