14岁时就以电脑和音乐双主修进入华盛顿大学，爵士钢琴手亚伦帕克斯从小就知道自己是个天才。16岁时因为知道自己毕生使命将会是爵士音乐，而毅然转学至曼哈顿音乐院，并开始加入泰伦斯布兰查的乐队，与他到处巡迴演奏。16岁那年就灌录了生平第一张专辑，至今九年间，虽然先后和布兰查等多位乐手完成了许多共同专辑，但他却始终对个人专辑非常谨慎，至今只发行极少几张专辑。这张最新专辑「心影」採用帕克斯那种跳脱大部份现代爵士乐手的手法，呈现出非常现代感、却依然奠基在传统爵士、毫不马虎、充满创意的音乐。帕克斯的作品，如果说有一个特定的风格可以形容，那就是优雅，他不作兴狂野、粗鲁的音乐，总是营造出非常舒服的音乐氛围，这是一种天份，也是一种风格；他採用高度的主题动机重覆性，藉由节奏和时值的变化来创造些微的不同，藉此达到乐曲的一致性和变化，这种近乎后现代式的低限手法，或许正是他的爵士创作最让人感受到现代感和放鬆的地方，在这方面，帕克斯可以说是吸收到Pat Metheny、Ketil Bjornstad、Terje Rypdal等人在ECM的作风，而谁又想得到，在蓝调这样一向标榜主流美国爵士的厂牌中，也开始有后进的钢琴手，像亚伦帕克斯这样，吸收了欧陆爵士的影响，转而改变了未来美国爵士的方向？ Pianist and composer Aaron Parks is best known as a member of trumpeter Terence Blanchard's excellent sextet that recorded Bounce (2003) and Flow (2005). In addition, he worked with Blanchard on the soundtrack to Spike Lee's Inside Man and score for Lee's Katrina: A Tale of God's Will. Invisible Cinema is his debut on Blue Note Records. Parks teams with Eric Harland, the brilliant drummer from Charles Lloyd's group, as well as bassist Matt Penman and guitarist Mike Moreno. This is an interesting group with interlocking histories, creating a sense of familiarity with one another that all comes together here. Parks and Moreno played together on former Blanchard alum Kendrick Scott's album The Source, as well as Moreno's own Between the Lines. Penman and Harland are members of the SF Jazz Collective, and Harland and Parks backed Penman on Catch of the Day. The name of the game here is in the title; this is imagistic music that is big on nuance, space, and beautifully constructed melodies made up of equal parts piano and guitar, underscored and articulately dramatized by Penman's pristine sense of time and pulse and Harland's dancing movement but yet very physical manner of inhabiting his drum kit. Melodic improvisation is the key in Parks' mysterious, strangely beautiful compositions, such as the elliptical, shape-shifting "Peaceful Warrior." Parks employs his elegant style to full effect, allowing his sense of restraint and economy to create tension and drama, which is pointedly accented by Moreno. The dialogue between them is uncanny even in sparser moments -- one can think of only two other piano/guitar pairings like this one, Pat Metheny/Lyle Mays and Ketil Bjørnstad/Terje Rypdal. Here the structured euphoric feel of the former and the spaciousness and haunting melodic sense of the latter are combined. ... Read More...