Little Big, l-r: Greg Tuohey, Aaron Parks, David Ginyard Jr, Jongkuk Kim. Photo: Anna Yatskevich
I’ve heard US pianist Aaron Parks play live a couple of times – firstly at the Pizza Express Jazz Club when he was in Terence Blanchard’s band; the second also in London at the Vortex in an incredibly maverick band back in 2015 led by Russian saxist Zhenya Strigalev with brilliant bass guitarist Matthew Garrison and remarkable drummer Eric Harland who was with Parks in James Farm.
Both gigs were stimulating and a lot of their success was to do with this remarkable pianist and writer.
Oh and remember Arborescence (2013) his very different solo album for ECM. While something of an outlier we reckon that’s another side of his personality we’d like to hear more of again. He gelled extremely well with producer Sun Chung who now runs the Red Hook label and brought the best out of him.
Here you get a memory of Parks’ time with Blanchard on a new version of Parks meisterwerk (no exaggeration) ‘Ashé’ which is so beautiful.
The piece was in a strings soaked setting on Blanchard’s Hurricane Katrina requiem A Tale of God’s Will (2007). That album contains part of the Blanchard music used on Spike Lee documentary When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts.
It’s taken me a while to get used to Little Big and I still am acculturating. The Parks vehicle continues to change a good deal and not just in terms of personnel. And while it isn’t Parks’ end destination at all – maybe he’ll form other bands in the future – it is a sturdy charabanc to journey the American’s writing to and fro. I’d love to hear the four-piece live.
Check out the now 41-year-old Parks above with the WDR Big Band playing his earlier tune ‘Little River’ sized up in yet another side to his playing personality
With some tunes on this just released album by guitarist Greg Tuohey, the band has yet another Blanchard connection in the presence of bass guitarist David Ginyard Jr who contributes the tune ‘Little Beginnings.’
A search for inner peace
There’s plenty of pace and vitality provided by drummer Jongkuk Kim who succeeds Tommy Crane. The other memorable tune besides the Blanchard era piece mentioned above and it’s no coincidence that it was picked out as a single ahead of release is the very striking head bobbing ‘Delusions.’
Overall the style is one that lives in the real world meaning it has plenty of rock and Americana influence to it. It’s not difficult music at all to digest. And there is a lot of heartfelt feeling, like a search for inner peace, that Parks is not afraid to underline which I think is also its strength through an examination of a certain vulnerability.
Complete list of tunes
▢ Flyways
▢ Locked Down
▢ Heart Stories
▢ Sports
Hear another cracking live version of the Zawinul-esque piece ‘Sports’ when Crane was still in the band and heard on 2023’s Live in Berlin
It’s the balladic album piece ‘Heart Stories’ in the video – the playing personnel is slightly different in this clip.
▢ Little Beginnings
▢ The Machines Say No
▢ Willamina
▢ Delusions
▢ Ashé
Maybe working with Don Was who co-produced the album introduced a new direction. You get some interesting South African rhythms along the way. Plenty of nods to 1970s jazz-rock fusion present in places are also welcome. We’ll add the album to our best of 2024 pile which is now nearly complete. Little Big show a lot of heart and rhapsodic vision.
Catch Little Big at the Jazz Cafe, London on 2 December
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