Aaron Parks
Pianist Aaron Parks made his ECM debut with the 2013 solo recording Arborescence. The word “aborescence” refers to the way something grows, seeking and adaptive, like a tree. And the title stems from the album being 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 pianist’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 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 [...]
Pianist Aaron Parks made his ECM debut with the 2013 solo recording Arborescence. The word “aborescence” refers to the way something grows, seeking and adaptive, like a tree. And the title stems from the album being 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 pianist’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 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 contemplative instrumental poetry “often felt less like conscious intention,” he says, “and more like something half-dreamed, half-remembered.”
Raised in Seattle, Washington, Parks was already attending the University of Washington at age 15 with a triple-major in math, computer science and music; three years later, he was the champion Cole Porter Fellow of the American Pianists Association. Parks has since worked with the likes of Terence Blanchard, Joshua Redman, Kurt Rosenwinkel, Ambrose Akinmusire and Gretchen Parlato, among others. The Guardian has lauded Parks for his “independent vision,” calling him a “fast-rising star.”
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