Rachel Parks Changing Room

For the second ECM album by Aaron Parks – following the solo release Aborescence, which JazzTimes praised as “expansive, impressionistic… like a vision quest” – the prize-winning pianist has convened a trio featuring bassist Ben Street and drummer Billy Hart. The rhythm pair, which also teams in Hart’s hit quartet for ECM, blends fluidity and strength – what Parks calls “an oceanic” quality, producing waves of energy for the pianist to alternately ride and dive into. Find the Way has the aura of a piano-trio recording in the classic mold, from melody-rich opener “Adrift” to the closing title track, a cover of a romantic tune Parks grew to love on an LP by Rosemary Clooney and Nelson Riddle. Parks also drew inspiration for this album from the likes of Alice Coltrane and Shirley Horn (for whom Hart played); space and subtlety are a priority.

Since Van Dyke Parks has never released a greatest hits album (okay, he's never had any hits) in the U.S., this long-overdue concert album, which draws on material from his studio recordings dating back to 1968's Song Cycle, is a welcome sampler of his stunning, if small, body of work from "The All Golden" (Song Cycle) to "Orange Crate Art" (the title track from his duet album with Brian Wilson).

2021 is less than a month old and already we have one of the albums of 2021 from London-based musician and poet Arlo Parks. The album is a series of vignettes and intimate portraits surrounding her adolescence and the people that shaped it. It is rooted in storytelling and nostalgia. The album is an emotional rollercoaster of heartbreak, beautiful poetry, betrayal and hope, that has been inspired by Allen Ginsberg, Sylvia Plath, Jim Morrison and Fela Kuti. One listen and you will fall in love, like you did when you first heard Frank Ocean, King Krule or Lilly Allen.