A band that flourishes over the course of years is bound to deepen and evolve, and that is certainly true of Little, Big, launched by celebrated pianist Aaron Parks in collaboration with guitarist Greg Tuohey, bassist David “DJ” Ginyard, and original drummer Tommy Crane. Now, with new drummer Jongkuk Kim joining the fold, the band initially known as Aaron Parks’ Little Big and now simply as Little, Big, will be in Europe in November 2024 for the release of their third album.
Dreams of a Mechanical Man is Little Big’s second release on Ropeadope Records, recorded after more than two years of touring for Parks, guitarist Greg Tuohey, bassist David “DJ” Ginyard, and drummer Tommy Crane. One primary distinction of this new album, according to Parks, is that “today, the band operates as a single organism. The first record was about the tunes and the aesthetic. This album keeps that focus and also captures the chemistry we’ve developed on the road, the way this band feels as it makes music in the moment.”
2018’s Little Big was itself a kind of sequel to Parks’ acclaimed Blue Note debut, Invisible Cinema, a 2008 recording that put the composer and pianist in the center of the conversation about how jazz was developing in the new century. With Dreams of a Mechanical Man, Parks continues to explore the possibilities of how the music can find a voice that incorporates influences from popular music, the jazz tradition, classical composition, and folkloric songs—ideas that are now finding their most compelling and mature expression yet, as songwriting, performance, and production come together in surprising ways.
“Pianist Aaron Parks is one of the most exciting representatives of the young American jazz scene.”– Beate Sampson, br-Klassik
“Songs without words that tell more than many an opulent songbook, that is the music of Aaron Parks. The subtle message he conveys is the vision of a more peaceful society.” – SWR2
” (…) grippingly sparkling piano power, self-confidently clear trumpeting guitar lines and trickling current drum beats. This breathes creative freedom (…)” – Rondo Magazine
A band that flourishes over the course of years is bound to deepen and evolve, and that is certainly true of Little, Big, launched by celebrated pianist Aaron Parks in collaboration with guitarist Greg Tuohey, bassist David “DJ” Ginyard, and original drummer Tommy Crane. Now, with new drummer Jongkuk Kim joining the fold, the band initially known as Aaron Parks’ Little Big and now simply as Little, Big, will be in Europe in November 2024 for the release of their third album.
“Little, Big started as my band,” Parks explains, “but it’s grown into something more than what I would have just imagined on my own, and it felt less and less appropriate to have my name at the top of it.” The added comma brings the group even closer to its founding inspiration, John Crowley’s 1981 novel Little, Big. But the name change also acknowledges the shift in personnel, altering the quartet’s chemistry and opening new doors. This new music continues the band’s cultivation of a musical language that marries creative improvised music to more groove-centered music—electronica, indie-rock, hip-hop, and psychedelia—but without a trace of mannered “fusion” or a sense that the music is cobbled together from disparate styles. Rather, it feels seamlessly integrated, whole in and of itself.
