Aaron Parks is steps away
Aaron Parks and most of humanity are within 6 degrees of each other. This matrix combines the small-world principle behind this fact with inter-artist recommendations-in-series. By this m.o., writers, musicians, filmmakers, quiltmakers, dancers, painters, multimedia artists, architects, sound designers, chefs, producers et al (see categories) across the planet are within close, discoverable steps of each other, and most of the world as well. 100% AI FREE
I RECOMMEND people (do you?)
Why again is Aaron Parks mere steps away from all other artists in here, and by extension, everybody on the planet?
WHO IS CURATING FROM HERE?
- Vertex/Edges Out by: The Matrix via ↴
Artist & Where
- Name: Aaron Parks
- City/Place: Brooklyn, NY
- Country: United States
- Hometown: Seattle, Washington
Current News
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What's Up?
“Arborescence” is the word for the way something grows, seeking and adaptive, like a tree – its roots and branches moving under and around things wherever they need to go toward water, toward the sun. Prize-winning young pianist Aaron Parks titled his ECM debut Arborescence because the album’s music is the fruit of a session of solo studio improvisation in which little was predetermined; the pieces developed in the moment like “living things,” in the artist’s words. “
The music felt as if it were coming into being and going where it had to go, in that sort of arboreal way.” It’s possible to hear fleeting echoes in this music of Arvo Pärt and Paul Bley, Erik Satie and Kenny Wheeler; but Arborescence is ultimately something deeply individual and intimate, recorded with the lights down low in the warm, clear acoustics of Mechanics Hall in Worcester, Massachusetts.
Listen close and one can hear Parks whispering part of a melody along with the piano, as if he were playing at home alone, for himself. This is contemplative instrumental poetry that “often felt less like conscious intention,” he says, “and more like something half-dreamed, half-remembered.”
Life & Work
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Bio:
Pianist Aaron Parks is a forward-thinking jazz musician who came to the public's attention during his time with trumpeter Terence Blanchard.
Born in Seattle, Washington, Parks began playing piano at a young age and by the time he was 14 had enrolled in an early entrance degree program at the University of Washington. Originally, Parks pursued both science and music degrees; however, his prodigious talent won out and by age 16 he had transferred to the Manhattan School of Music. While there, he studied with noted pianist Kenny Barron and received several competitive accolades, including being named the 2001 Cole Porter Fellow of the American Pianists Association.
At age 18 he joined Blanchard's ensemble and subsequently recorded four albums with the veteran trumpeter, including 2003's Bounce, 2005's Flow, the soundtrack to the 2006 Spike Lee film Inside Man, and Blanchard's 2007 Grammy-winning opus A Tale of God's Will (A Requiem for Katrina).
Besides playing with Blanchard, Parks has performed with a variety of artists including trumpeter Christian Scott, drummer Kendrick Scott, vocalist Gretchen Parlato, and others.
Parks has released several albums under his own name, including his 2008 Blue Note debut, Invisible Cinema. Parks, who has also recorded with Christian Scott, Kendrick Scott, Ambrose Akinmusire, and Kurt Rosenwinkel, was an integral part of the James Farm Quartet with Joshua Redman, Matt Penman, and Eric Harland. Nonesuch released their self-titled album in 2011.
The pianist subsequently signed to ECM and released the solo piano offering Arborescence in the fall of 2013. He also made sideman appearances on Will Vinson's Live at Smalls and Yeahwon Shin's Lua Ya, and Live in Japan with his own trio of Thomas Morgan and RJ Miller. It was recorded on the pianist's phone during a show and released for free on his Bandcamp page.
Find the Way, his sophomore label date for ECM, was issued in late spring of 2017. It featured bassist Ben Street and drummer Billy Hart in the rhythm section and was inspired in part (according to Parks) by the music of Alice Coltrane and Shirley Horn (for whom Hart played); both of whom prioritized space and subtlety in composition and improvisation.
Contact Information
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Management/Booking:
Management
Tommy Wilson
tommyhawkwilson@gmail.com
Booking
Maria José Galindo (Worldwide)
mariagalindotobon@gmail.com
Ryan Anderson (North America)
ryan@bigfishbookingco.com
Media & Markets
- ▶ Buy My Music (downloads/CDs/DVDs): http://aaronparks.bandcamp.com/
- ▶ Twitter: aparksmusic
- ▶ Instagram: aparksmusic
- ▶ Website: http://www.aaronparks.com
- ▶ YouTube Channel: http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvY6ZOsqPTUlWSgl6jPFTWg
- ▶ YouTube Music: http://music.youtube.com/channel/UC4mZBHwCY1rATrADJIOHJIQ
- ▶ Spotify: http://open.spotify.com/album/0H2PGA1jUGuUQgxdW3Oyzn
- ▶ Spotify 2: http://open.spotify.com/album/1Ar01FQjqOGYbYgUnpQBsu
- ▶ Spotify 3: http://open.spotify.com/album/3xfueIrMUw57owAiYVKt8S
- ▶ Spotify 4: http://open.spotify.com/album/2yRchatpprc3DnmCqL4Ybl
- ▶ Spotify 5: http://open.spotify.com/album/4xjys0dhhX8AD2Oiz5Y5S6
- ▶ Spotify 6: http://open.spotify.com/album/0zY1rkYkwCiUKPCQxqAAb9
Clips (more may be added)
ABOUT THE MATRIX
This matrix is dedicated to creative artists and non-algorithmic discovery.
It was described (to some degree) and can be accessed via this article in British journal The Guardian (which named our radio of matrixed artists as one of ten best in the world):
https://www.theguardian.com/travel/2020/apr/17/10-best-music-radio-station-around-world
While the Brazilian musicians I work with now you may not know, I formerly worked (chasing unpaid royalties!) on behalf of Aretha Franklin, Barbra Streisand, Led Zeppelin, Jim Hall, Mongo Santamaria, Gilberto Gil, Astrud Gilberto, Wah Wah Watson (Melvin Ragin), Philip Glass, The Cadillacs (Earl Carroll), The Flamingos (Zeke and Jake Carey), and others, including Oscar-winning world-class great-guy Robb Royer. I was interviewed by David Dye for broadcast on U.S. National Public Radio several years ago ... about the Brazilians:
- Randy "Pardal/Sparrow" Roberts
All is more connected than we know.
w/ David Dye for U.S. National Public Radio
The matrix was inspired in (the kabbalah-inspired fiction of) Borges' El Aleph, that in the pillar in Cairo's Mosque of Amr, where the universe in its entirety throughout all time is perceivable as an infinite hum from deep within the stone...
Our logo, per the "spirit" above, is a cortador de cana, a cane cutter. It was designed by Walter Mariano, professor of design at the Federal University of Bahia to reflect the origins of the music the shop specialized in. The Brazilian "aleph" doesn't hum... it dances and sings.
