Nextbop

The Next Generation of Jazz

  • Home
  • Blog
    • Newest Posts
    • Streams & Videos
    • Reviews
    • Interviews
  • New Releases
  • Best Of Lists
    • Best of 2019
    • Best of 2018
    • Best of 2017
    • Best of 2016
    • Best of 2015
    • Best of 2014
    • Best of 2013
    • Best of 2012
    • Best of 2011
    • Best of 2010
  • Advertising Rates
  • About
  • Contact Us
Home / Blog / Reviews / Aaron Parks Little Big – ‘Aaron Parks Little Big’ (Album Review)

Aaron Parks Little Big – ‘Aaron Parks Little Big’ (Album Review)

October 19, 2018 By Anthony Dean-Harris

ShareTweetSubscribe

Subscribe to our mailing list and receive our most read content directly to your inbox every month!*

* indicates required
*By subscribing, you agree to receive our monthly newsletter as well as sporadic promotional emails. Feel free to unsubscribe at any time!

Aaron Parks makes music that tells stories. There’s a narrative quality to his compositions that seem to carry a throughline to some beautiful truth about the universe. It’s hard to say what the propulsive quality is behind his work, but it’s always been there– in his Blue Note debut, Invisible Cinema, released ten years ago; in his work with James Farm; is his trio alongside Ben Street and Billy Hart; and now with his group Little Big which he’s been preparing for their debut release for some six years now. Aaron Parks Little Big — the group of Parks on keys, Greg Tuohey on guitar, David Ginyard on bass, and Tommy Crane on drums — continues with that beautiful storytelling quality Parks began a decade ago with his highly lauded debut to create new tales to cherish on their self-titled album out now on Ropeadope.

Maybe it’s something about the turns in these compositions. Sure, any jazz song will typically begin with the head, move on to its modulation of it through improvisation, eventually come back to the head and find a stopping place, but these tunes find some new turn in that return to the head. They arch up, find some new section to relate, some new corner to unfold. Take the closing of “The Trickster”, starting like a ballad and building into something more powerful through Tuohey’s soloing before coming back to the head… changed somehow before Parks’ piano shimmers the song into the ether. Or take “Professor Strangeweather”, rolling along on the track Crane on the drums is amiably laying, grooving through Ginyard’s bassline while Parks is increasingly freaking out on the keyboards. Or how “Aquarium” seems to find something new to be as if literally categorizing life underwater. It’s a quality about stories, how they have their clearly defined beginnings, middles, and endings. There may be surprises, but they still exist on a clear, discernable path.


Yet through all of this, there is Aaron Parks, making beautiful music as he always has. He’s always been around as a player and accompanist, but this new release is a return to form that has been highly anticipated by those who fell in love with Invisible Cinema some ten years ago for some and a simple natural progression for an artist who has always told beautiful stories through music. This may just be the latest iteration of his group of storytellers, and they’re a fine group at that.

Aaron Parks Little Big self-titled debut album is out now on Ropeadope.

aaron parks – piano, keyboards
greg tuohey – guitar
david “dj” ginyard jr. – bass
tommy crane – drums

all songs written by aaron parks (invisible cinema music, bmi)

produced by aaron parks
mixed by chris taylor & daniel schlett
recorded by daniel schlett at strange weather
mastered by greg calbi at sterling sound
executive producers – aaron parks & tommy hawk wilson
creative consultant – judie stein

additional keyboards by eliot krimsky
additional production by chris taylor
additional engineering by zach brown
assistant engineers garret deblock & kiri stensby
assistant mastering engineer steve fallone

album photography by aaron parks
album design by aaron parks & ania parks
album layout assistance by kaya marks
band photography by deneka peniston

Filed Under: Blog, Reviews Tagged With: Aaron Parks, David “DJ” Ginyard, Greg Tuohey, Little Big, Ropeadope, Tommy Crane

Follow Us


6,871
followers

9,720
followers

1,182
followers

Monthly Newsletter

Get our 5 most-read posts and a list of brand new jazz albums sent directly to your inbox every month!


Top Posts

  • Rob Shepherd Favorite Jazz Albums Decade Rob Shepherd’s Favorite Jazz Albums of the Decade
  • Best Jazz Albums 2019 Nextbop’s Best Jazz Albums of 2019
  • Nardis: A Critical Analysis of Covers
  • The Pitchfork of Jazz
  • Binker and Moses – ‘Alive in the East?’ (Album Review)

Tags

Aaron Parks A Critical Analysis of Covers BADBADNOTGOOD Ben Wendel Ben Williams Biophilia Blue Note Brad Mehldau Brainfeeder Braxton Cook Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah Colin Stranahan Concord Corey Fonville Derrick Hodge ECM Edition Gerald Clayton Gilad Hekselman Greenleaf International Anthem Ivo Neame Jason Lindner Kassa Overall Kendrick Scott Lawrence Fields Linda May Han Oh Makaya McCraven Mark Guiliana Matthew Stevens Motéma Nate Wood Nonesuch Phronesis Pi Robert Glasper Ropeadope Sarah Elizabeth Charles Stephan Crump Stones Throw Sunnyside Taylor Eigsti Thundercat Vijay Iyer Whirlwind
© 2021 Nextbop. All rights reserved.
Use of any portion of this site constitutes acceptance of our Privacy Policy.