Aaron Parks

Aaron Parks (born October 7, 1983) is an American jazz pianist.

Aaron Parks
Aaron Parks plays a duo concert with Adam Baldych in Aarhus, Denmark, in 2014.
Background information
Born (1983-10-07) October 7, 1983
Seattle, Washington, U.S.
GenresJazz
Occupation(s)Musician
InstrumentsPiano
Years active2001–present
LabelsBlue Note, Nonesuch, ECM
Associated actsTerence Blanchard, James Farm
Websiteaaronparks.com

Career

A native of Seattle, Parks studied at the University of Washington at the age of 14[1] through the Transition School and Early Entrance Program as a double major in computer science and music. At 15 he was selected to participate in the Grammy High School Jazz Ensembles which inspired him to move to New York City and transfer to the Manhattan School of Music. At Manhattan one of his teachers was Kenny Barron.[1] During his final year he began touring with Terence Blanchard's band, recording three albums with him for Blue Note, including the Grammy-winning A Tale of God's Will (A Requiem for Katrina).[1][2] Parks can be heard on the soundtracks to Their Eyes Were Watching God and the Spike Lee films Inside Man, She Hate Me, and When the Levees Broke.

He is a member of the band James Farm with saxophonist Joshua Redman, bassist Matt Penman, and drummer Eric Harland.[1][3] He has toured with guitarist Kurt Rosenwinkel.[1][4]

Awards and honors
  • 2001: Cole Porter Fellow of the American Pianists Association[1]
  • Thelonious Monk International Jazz Piano Competition (Third Place)
  • Jas Hennessy Piano Solo Competition at Montreux (Third Place)
  • 2016: DownBeat magazine: “25 for the Future”[5]

Discography

As leader
  • The Promise (Keynote, 1999)
  • First Romance (Keynote, 2000)
  • Invisible Cinema (Blue Note, 2008)
  • Alive in Japan (Bandcamp 2013)
  • Arborescence (ECM, 2013)
  • Find the Way (ECM, 2017)[6]
  • Little Big (Ropeadope, 2018)
  • Little Big II: Dreams of a Mechanical Man (Ropeadope, 2020)[7]

As co-leader
  • 2011 James Farm, James Farm
  • 2014 City Folk, James Farm
  • 2015 Misfit with Elif Çaglar, Eric Harland, Harish Raghavan
  • 2016 Groovements with Karsten Bagge, Thomas Fonnesbæk

As sideman

With Terence Blanchard

With Mike Moreno

  • Between the Lines (2007)
  • First in Mind (2011)
  • Lotus (2015)[9]

With Christian Scott

  • 2007 Anthem
  • 2008 Live at Newport

With Dayna Stephens

  • 2012 Today Is Tomorrow
  • 2015 Reminiscent[8]

With others

References
  1. Collar, Matt. "Aaron Parks". AllMusic. Retrieved 29 September 2018.
  2. GRAMMY.com Archived 2007-12-08 at the Wayback Machine
  3. "James Farm". Nonesuch. Retrieved 29 July 2013.
  4. "Aaron Parks". Blue Note. Retrieved 29 July 2013.
  5. Panken, Ted (July 2016). "25 for the Future / Aaron Parks". DownBeat. Vol. 83 no. 7. Chicago. p. 36. Retrieved 2020-03-06.
  6. "Aaron Parks | Album Discography". AllMusic. Retrieved 29 September 2018.
  7. "Little Big II: Dreams of a Mechanical Man | Aaron Parks". Aaronparksmusic.bandcamp.com. Retrieved 2020-05-09.
  8. "Aaron Parks | Credits". AllMusic. Retrieved 29 September 2018.
  9. "Mike Moreno - Lotus (2015, CD)". Discogs.com. 2015-10-20. Retrieved 2020-05-09.
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