I’m sure you all know how stale the contemporary jazz scene can be sometimes (like all music scenes I hear you say). Thank God there’s always some fresh talent waiting to take it to the next level. One such beam of freshness is Brooklyn based pianist Aaron Parks, who recently had a Blue Note debut named Invisible Cinema.

At just 24 years old it’s astonishing to have a debut at the Blue Note juggernaut, yet creating something as full-fledged as this is prodigious. He’s made a name playing as a sideman for the trumpetist Terence Blanchard before he secured the Blue Note card and sidemen for his quartet are guitarist Mike Moreno, bassist Matt Penman and drummer Eric Harland, a fellow friend from Blanchard’s band.

As the title “Invisible Cinema” suggests, his compositions are wonderfully cinematic. It’s experimental in a good sense, not the pointless experimentalism for experiment’s sake that we are prone to seeing, yet at the same time it’s highly structured as well. There’s another balance between solo piano pieces and jazz. Then there’s the rock energy coming mostly from Moreno’s guitar, this album shall easily apply to post-rock listeners and those who want challenging jazz/rock fusions.

The hauntingly beautiful “Harvesting Dance” takes cinematic composition to epic proportions with Moreno’s guitar playing middle-eastern melodies a la Rashanim and Harland’s berserk drumming at the last 2 minutes makes this easily one of the best compositions I’ve heard this year. Invisible cinema is a cerebral, emotional and powerful debut, don’t miss!

Aaron Parks - Nemesis
Aaron Parks - Harvesting Dance