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Aaron Parks: Little Big III

By Chris May
October 5, 2024
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After debuting with a clutch of albums on Keynote around the start of the millennium, and then spending five years with

Terence Blanchard

trumpet
b.1962

" data-original-title="" title="">Terence Blanchard, Aaron Parks emerged as a fully-fledged bandleader with his album Invisible Cinema on Blue Note in 2008. On it, Parks fronted a quartet completed by guitarist

Mike Moreno

guitar

" data-original-title="" title="">Mike Moreno, bassist

Matt Penman

bass

" data-original-title="" title="">Matt Penman and drummer

Eric Harland

drums
b.1976

" data-original-title="" title="">Eric Harland. The group's bag was the capacious one known as post-genre, but the music was indisputably jazz for all that. After spells on ECM and Ropeadope, Parks has returned to Blue Note with another, similarly constituted quartet, Little Big, this one completed by guitarist

Greg Tuohey

guitar

" data-original-title="" title="">Greg Tuohey, bassist

David Ginyard

bass

" data-original-title="" title="">David Ginyard and drummer

Jongkuk Kim

drums

" data-original-title="" title="">Jongkuk Kim. Little Big III, co-produced by Parks and Blue Note head honcho Don Was, is the group's third studio album.

The vibe, up to a point, is the same as on the 2008 album—post-genre, still jazz-based though on three tracks edging a little closer to rock ("Sports," "Delusions") and Americana ("Willamina"). Check the YouTube below. The key difference is that Parks has simplified his compositions and arrangements this time. These were hardly complex to begin with but their occasional rhythmic displacements and harmonic surprises brought depth to the music. The press materials for the new album, presumably quoting Parks, describe this artistic decision as "sidestepping any surplus of harmonic information." A more objective commentator might call it "dumbing down." Time will tell whether the album's replay shelf-life is correspondingly foreshortened, as one suspects it may be.

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Track Listing

Flyways; Locked Down; Heart Stories; Sports; Little Beginnings; The Machines Say No; Willamina; Delusions; Ash��.

Personnel

Aaron Parks

drums

Greg Tuohey

guitar

David Ginyard

bass

Jongkuk Kim

drums

Album information

Title: Little Big III | Year Released: 2024 | Record Label: Blue Note Records

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