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Rick Parker
Since relocating to New York in August of 2001, Rick Parker has performed at several of the city’s major jazz clubs including Blue Note, Birdland, the Jazz Standard and the Jazz Gallery. His primary musical project, the Rick Parker Collective, is a critically acclaimed sextet that has been called "the best kept secret in New York right now."(All About Jazz) The group performs all original music at venues including Blues Alley, Somers Point Jazz Festival, Chris’s Jazz Café, Kavehaz, Knitting Factory, Cornelia Street Café and his first CD, New York Gravity, was released on the Fresh Sound New Talent record label in 2004. Rick also leads an improvised electronic music group called Ambient Assault which consists of electric trombone, keyboards and two drummers. His other musical endeavors include the world renowned trombonist/composer Ku-umba Frank Lacy’s 14 piece Vibe Tribe and legendary drummer Charlie Persip’s big band. He is also the musical curator of the Jazz series at Brooklyn’s Laila Lounge.
A prolific composer, Rick was named a winner of the ASCAP Young Jazz Composer Awards for 2004/2005. In April of 2002 and 2003, he participated in the Kennedy Center’s "Betty Carter Jazz Ahead" invitation only workshop for composers/soloists where he studied under jazz icons such as Curtis Fuller, Eric Reid and John Clayton. In March 2002 he was named runner up in the Eastern Trombone Workshop National Solo Competition. Since graduating from Georgetown University with a BA in economics in 2001, Rick recently received his MM in Jazz Performance and Composition from New York University in 2003.
Born in 1978, Rick has already performed with such jazz greats as George Benson, Grady Tate, Eddie Henderson, Conrad Herwig, Steve Turre, Cecil Bridgewater, Frank Lacy, Greg Tardy, Myron Walden and Andrew White in venues around the world including the Montreux Jazz Festival, Berkshire Jazz Festival, Lincoln Center, Kennedy Center, Blue Note, Birdland, Sweet Rhythm, Jazz Gallery, Blues Alley (DC), Chris’ Jazz Café (PA), Jazz Club (Argentina) and Oliveria Always (Argentina). He has studied with Conrad Herwig, Frank Lacy, Steve Davis, Mike Holober and Thad Wilson.
Rick appears on recordings including: Finding Space (WJF Records) Rick Parker Collective, 2006 New York Gravity (Fresh Sound New Talent), Rick Parker Collective 2004 Get Together Eric Hoffman and the Underdog, 2006 A Work In Progress, Thad Wilson Jazz Orchestra, 1999 Riot at the Mardi Gras Dance Hall, One Too Many 1996
Gear
Shires Trombone, Curry Mouthpieces, AKG Microphones, Electroharmonix Pedals, Boss Pedals, Digitech Pedals
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Rick Parker: Finding His Own Space
by Jason Crane
On the new episode of The Jazz Session, Jason Crane interviews composer and trombonist Rick Parker. Parker's most recent album with the Rick Parker Collective is Finding Space (WJF Records, 2006). It was named one of the top CDs of 2006 by Michael Ricci, publisher of All About Jazz. Parker sees himself as a composer first, trombonist second. His passion for writing shows on Finding Space, an album of original music by Parker (plus one number by ...
read moreRick Parker: Finding His Own Space
by Jason Crane
All About Jazz founder Michael Ricci thought Rick Parker's second CD, Finding Space (WJF Records, 2006) was one of the best records of 2006. Parker is an energetic young musician and composer who also happens to play trombone. He's serious about writing his own music and finding his own way, even releasing his new album on a label he co-founded with Jesse Selengut, with whom he runs the Williamsburg Jazz Festival.All About Jazz's Jason Crane spoke with Parker ...
read moreRick Parker Collective: Finding Space
by Troy Collins
New York-based trombonist Rick Parker follows up his 2004 debut New York Gravity (Fresh Sound New Talent) with Finding Space, a winning combination of lyrical writing, intricate arrangements and spirited improvisation. Winner of the 2005 ASCAP Young Jazz Composer Award, Parker has proven his mettle as an up-and-coming writer, and it is his composing and arranging skills that make the greatest impression on his sophomore album.
Parker's writing is clever but not impenetrable, honeyed and sumptuous rather than ...
read moreRick Parker Collective: Finding Space
by Dan McClenaghan
You gotta love a good album cover, even if a photo of a big goofy-looking dog has nothing to do with the music. But why not--Matt Jorgensen did it with Hope (Origin Records, '04), and there was some first-rate modern-leaning stuff on that disc. The same goes for the Rick Parker Collective's Finding Space.Parker is a young--not yet thirty years old--New York-based trombonist with some serious chops; but it's his bandleading and composing skills that stand out most. ...
read moreRick Parker Collective: New York Gravity
by Elliott Simon
Happily, trombone-led sessions are making a comeback in modern jazz circles these days, and a listen to the Rick Parker Collective's New York Gravity provides ample evidence of why. A relative newcomer to the NYC environs, Parker has put together a disc with a swinging little big band feel intertwined with a hard bop modernistic edge. Of course it doesn't hurt that trumpeter Thad Wilson, leader of his own big band, and Charis Ioannou on saxophones and bass clarinet, sync ...
read moreRick Parker Collective: New York Gravity
by AAJ Staff
New York Gravity is an object lesson in how hard bop may be kept applicable to the 21st Century. There isn't a false or dishonest note on the entire album. Instead of recycling the improvisational or compositional strategies of the early 1960s, these musicians dance through a rigorous array of changing time signatures and hip chord changes that could only exist here and now. At the same time, they swing with a ferocity and focus that could only have arisen ...
read moreRick Parker Collective: New York Gravity
by Peter Aaron
Trombonist/composer/leader Rick Parker and his band are the best-kept secret in New York right now. But in light of this fine debut and a steadily growing live demand, the secret's not likely to be kept much longer.
At 25, Parker is already a tested vet, sharing his horn talents with Frank Ku-umba Lacy's colossal Vibe Tribe, the Charli Persip Superband, and his own trio, in addition to the sextet featured here. A Connecticut-born Yankee, Parker started out playing ...
read moreThe Jazz Session #23: Rick Parker
Source:
All About Jazz
On the new episode of The Jazz Session, Jason Crane interviews composer and trombonist Rick Parker. Parker's most recent album with the Rick Parker Collective is Finding Space (WJF Records, 2006). It was named one of the top CDs of 2006 by Michael Ricci, publisher of All About Jazz. Parker sees himself as a composer first, trombonist second. His passion for writing shows on Finding Space, an album of original music by Parker (plus one number by drummer Kyle Struve). ...
read more
Trombonist Rick Parker Interviewed at AAJ
Source:
All About Jazz
All About Jazz founder/publisher Michael Ricci thought Rick Parker's second CD, Finding Space (WJF Records, 2006) was one of the best records of 2006. Parker is an energetic young musician and composer who also happens to play trombone. He's serious about writing his own music and finding his own way, even releasing his new album on a label he co-founded with Jesse Selengut, with whom he runs the Williamsburg Jazz Festival.
All About Jazz contributor Jason Crane, who also hosts ...
read more
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Trombone
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Beginner to advanced
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