The Wizard

The Wizard

Track Listings

1. Greasy Little Cookies

2. The Enchantress

3. Child's Eyes

4. Haunt

5. Planting Flowers

6. Winter Poem

7. The Wizard

Editorial Reviews
About the Artist
Aaron Parks, 17, is a Cole Porter Fellow of the American Pianists Association and winner of the 5th American Jazz Piano Competition in Indianapolis (April, 2001). As a jazz pianist/composer/bandleader, he has been garnering an impressive international reputation. Having skipped high school, he entered the University of Washington at 14, became a National Merit Scholar at 15, and transferred to the Manhattan School of Music at 16 to study under piano great, Kenny Barron. After his trio released their debut CD, The Promise, they were named 1999 Northwest Emerging Group of the Year and listed among Seattle's 1999 Top Ten Noteworthy Jazz Performances. He was also honored as a Clifford Brown/Stan Getz Fellow, a Yamaha Young Performing Artist, a Betty Carter Jazz Ahead Recipient, a National Grammy Ensemble participant, and a Down Beat Magazine Outstanding College Instrumentalist. Last summer, in addition to receiving a Presidential Medallion in a ceremony with President Clinton and performing at the Kennedy Center as a Presidential Scholar, he was awarded Third Prize in the Jas Hennessy Piano Solo Competition at the Montreux Jazz Festival. This CD and his other two albums (The Promise and First Romance) are all available on Amazon.com. He has been profiled numerous times in national and international newspaper and magazine articles, on National Public Radio, and on television.

Jay Thomas, a brilliant instrumentalist on trumpet, flugel horn, and all the saxes, grew up in Seattle in 1949. He began trumpet at ten and began gigging at fifteen. While still in high school, he received a Down Beat one-year scholarship to the Berklee School of Music in Boston. From Boston, Jay moved to New York where he studied with famed trumpet teacher Carmine Caruso, frequented Village jam sessions and worked one summer with Machito's Latin band. By the time Jay moved back to Seattle three years later, he had added flute and tenor to his repertoire. Through the mid-seventies and eighties, he played with numerous jazz legeneds, such as Jessica Williams, George Cables, Charles McPherson, Bill Mays, Diane Schuur, and others. Jay can be heard on over 60 LPs and CD's, with seven as a leader (most recently with McVouty Records). He has appeared in concert with the bands of Mel Lewis, Maria Schneider and Bill Holman, and has toured with David Friesen and John Stowell. He was selected as Musician of the Year by Earshot Jazz for 1996 and 1998, and was chosen as one of the top 10 players by the national magazine, Jazziz.
Jeff Johnson, was born in Minneapolis, but left at age 20 to play in Philadelphia and New York. He has worked with many great jazz musicians, such as Philly Joe Jones, Chet Baker, Lew Tabackin, Mark Murphy, Joanne Brackeen, Julian Priester, George Cables, Claudio Roditi, Jessica Williams and Hal Galper, to name a few. He is one of the most on-call working musicians in the competitive Seattle musical arena, and his contribution to jazz is substantial and continuing. He now leads various small ensembles, composes, goes on the road frequently, and is involved in numerous projects and recording dates around the world.
Both Tim Green, 19, from Baltimore, Maryland, and Obed Calvaire, 19, from Miami, Florida, showed tremendous talent at a young age. Both Tim and Obed were selected for the 2000 Grammy High School Jazz Ensemble. The same year, Obed received an award for outstanding drummer at the Essentially Ellington Competiton at the Lincoln Center. He has performed occasionally with Wynton Marsalis. Both musicians are studying at the Manhattan School of Music and perform regularly in New York City.

Product Description
The Wizard, Aaron Parks' third album, contains all original compositions recorded at 16 by the jazz pianist and his quintet. The album starts out swinging hard with a down and dirty blues called Greasy Little Cookies. Next, Jay Thomas creates a Stan Getz-style bossa nova feel with The Enchantress, followed by a trio tune, Child's Eyes, which evokes the wonder of life through a child's eyes. Next is Haunt, a tune with a simple yet yearning quality to it that takes the listener on a journey of musical exploration. Planting Flowers, a gorgeous flugel horn tune featuring Jay Thomas and dedicated to Aaron's former teacher, Marc Seales, takes a musical idea and moves it around in different keys. Winter Poem, a lovely ballad with a lush introduction follows, bringing together a simple and sparse melody with splashes of color and mood. Closing the album is the title track, The Wizard, a dark and mysterious piece with a Middle Eastern tinge that swings hard.

Aaron Parks, a Cole Porter Fellow of the American Pianists Association, has earned numerous prestigious honors for his compositions and his playing, most notably First Prize in the 5th American Jazz Piano Competition in Indianapolis in April, 2001, and Third Prize in the Jas Hennessy Piano Solo Competition at Montreux, Switzerland in July, 2000. The album also features the brilliant multi-instrumentalist, Jay Thomas on flugel horn, trumpet, tenor and soprano sax, the incomparable bassist Jeff Johnson, and introduces three young exceptional musicians on the New York scene: Tim Green on alto and Obed Calvaire on drums, both from the 2000 Grammy High School Ensemble, and Josh Ginsburg on bass, from the 2000 Betty Carter Jazz Ahead Program.

The Wizard,Aaron Parks Quintet

Jazz Music: The Wizard

Jazz Music: