Aaron Parks
Organised by: Voll-Damm Barcelona Jazz Festival
Venue: Conservatori del Liceu
Photography: Jordi Amela (@amela_photo_concert)
Writer: Carles Pinós
Aaron Parks — Sumptuous, Bold Pianism
On Monday 13 November, Aaron Parks visited us as part of the Voll-Damm Barcelona Jazz Festival at the Liceu Conservatory Auditorium. This time the pianist came with his new quartet, made up of himself on piano, Ben Solomon (tenor sax), Kanoa Mendelhall (double bass) and RJ Miller (drums). The set list was made up of previously released pieces, though seen from a different angle, plus new compositions — making this tour’s shows something of a testing ground for what we hope will be his next release.
The opening was unhurried, a sax-piano duo that laid out the quartet’s aesthetic clearly and vividly — a heavily improvised piece seasoned with impressionistic touches, conjuring a dreamlike, magical sound some might file under the German label ECM’s output. As the piece went on, it shifted from an ethereal atmosphere into free improvisation, led by a thoroughly inspired Ben Solomon. That improvisation stayed within certain bounds, never straying into Free Jazz territory — in fact, the piece, “Find the Way”, closed the same way it opened, in a warm, imaginative way, with Aaron Parks on top form.
The concert’s second piece began with solo piano, Aaron Parks in dialogue with himself, a soliloquy that recalled the Keith Jarrett of the Köln Concert — poetry poured from his fingers, transformed into music. Mendelhall’s double bass then made its entrance, lending the piece weight and development, which continued along that same melodic path, sketched out by Solomon’s sax notes.
The third piece, provisionally titled ‘Mossy Horn’, was a brand new one. The double bass opened with a robust phrase carrying a marked ‘latin’ accent, giving the piece a more up-tempo feel, with a playful tenor sax melody and a round of solos closer to what we know as straight-ahead jazz.
The next piece followed the rhythmic path of the previous one, with an irresistible piano solo and a suggestive melodic line carried by Aaron Parks himself and Ben Solomon’s sax. The improvisation unfolds freely, with RJ Miller’s drums winding their way through until they arrive at swing, the point where the piece starts walking on a clearly marked walking bass.
The quartet’s aesthetic swung between phlegmatic, almost icy pieces and others of a more frantic character, until what seemed to be the final piece, where the musicians returned to that very ethereal opening atmosphere, though with a structure closer to pop.
The quartet treated us to two encores. The first, a piece titled ‘Alice’, dedicated to Alice Coltrane, combined a bluesy piano riff with a melodic sax in a musically explosive setting that recalled the most experimental, spiritual John Coltrane of the ’60s. The final piece was preceded by a reflection from Aaron Parks himself on the state of the world and its wars, ending on a single wish: peace. From that moment, the quartet performed the beautiful piece ‘Peace’, by Horace Silver — an elegant, heartfelt ballad with a moving double bass solo, which brought a solemn close to a monumental concert.
