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Artist: Aaron Parks
Album: By All Means
Genre: Post-Bop, Contemporary Jazz
Label: Blue Note Records
Released: 2025
Quality: FLAC (tracks+.cue)
Tracklist:
01. A Way (Parks) - 6:09
02. Parks Lope (Parks) - 5:09
03. For Maria Jose (Parks) - 4:55
04. Dense Phantasy (Parks) - 6:23
05. Anywhere Together (Parks) - 5:33
06. Little River (Parks) - 6:52
07. Raincoat (Parks) - 6:27
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Personnel:
Aaron Parks - piano
Ben Solomon - tenor saxophone
Ben Street - bass
Billy Hart - drums
Pianist Aaron Parks returns to Blue Note with By All Means. The quartet includes drummer Billy Hart and bassist Ben Street who, as a trio, recorded 2017's excellent Find the Way on ECM. The newcomer is saxophonist Ben Solomon, best known for his stint with Wallace Roney's band between 2012 and 2017; he joined this group in 2023. Simply put, By All Means is a straight-ahead jazz date. Parks has been pursuing the creation of a body of compositions in his own post-bop vernacular. He did it first with drummer Eric Harland and bassist Matt Brewer on the self-released Volume One and Volume Two in 2022. While each of those albums contained standards and tunes by the trio's members, By All Means was composed entirely by the pianist.
"A Way" introduces the album with Parks and Solomon in spacious Ellingtonian conversation on the tender, lilting head. Hart's brushed, breaking snare and hi-hat flutter in the backdrop as Street joins Parks in framing the melody. Toward the middle, spacier chord voicings come from the pianist, Hart deliciously syncopates, and Street extends into the lower register. Traces of modal dissonance appear and vanish as the band builds this elliptical, luxuriant ballad. "Parks' Lope" nods at the hard bop era without going there. The swinging lyricism of the front line is not so much appended as expanded by the rhythm section before the band moves full tilt into fingerpopping modal hard bop (à la the Kind of Blue era). "For Maria Jose," composed for Parks' spouse, is a brightly shaded, midtempo ballad with short labyrinthine asides. Solomon is as sensitive as Coltrane in elucidating the lyric, while the pianist paints his changes and delivers a gorgeously illustrative solo. On "Dense Phantasy," Parks delivers a painterly embrace of Bill Evans and Duke Ellington -- combining tenets from both composers/players embraces their lyric gentleness while Solomon offers a sensitive solo. "Anywhere Together" was written by Parks during his teens. Here it consciously evokes mid-'60s jazz and the deep influence of saxophonist Wayne Shorter’s post-bop composing. The sly solo by Street is a gem. "Little River," composed for his oldest son, is a swinging lullaby with gorgeous lyricism from Solomon and rich colorful chord voicings from Parks anchored by Street's musicality; Hart's song-like snare and hi-hat add just enough foundation for his bandmates to explore a more physical improvisational space. The set closes with "Raincoat," the most understated ballad on the record. Parks offers his melody with sparse grace and unhurried expression. As it develops, Hart's crystalline cymbals and tom-toms add just enough weight for Street to frame the lyricism which begins circling outward with each chorus. Solomon's intimate, soulful playing recalls Charles Lloyd's.
Parks was quoted in the album's press release saying, "It's not about nostalgia or preservation. It's about being alive within that lineage, that continuum." His quartet certainly succeeds in that pursuit here.
Review by Thom Jurek