This record has been graced by the following musicians:
Richard Cole - Tenor Saxophone, Flute & Alto Flute
Chad McCullough - Trumpet & Flugel Horn
Jason Flores - Electric Bass
Birch Pereira - Upright Bass
Susan Parks - Vocals
Carrie Wicks - Vocals
Ben Morrow - Drums & Percussion
Ed Littlefield - Drums
Robert Parks - Vocals, Guitars & Trumpet
Influences
A house full of music...Classical, Pop, Jazz, Rock, show tunes, the player piano (Girl from Ipanema the favorite), Herb Alpert and Satchmo...the earliest records, Tony Bennett, Burt Bacharach, The Beatles, a wide array of music and...possibly...being in my mother's womb when she went to the original Broadway musical of The Sound of Music with Julie Andrews! (These are what brought me to this style, anyway.)
BIO:
Singer/songwriter raised in California and weaned on Herb Alpert, Louis Armstrong, Jobim, Burt Bacharach, Michael Franks, Broadway Musicals, The Beatles and Led Zeppelin... and a player piano with the paper rolls in dusty cardboard boxes with faded standard titles like Hello Dolly, Girl from Ipanema and Mac the Knife. From a musical family with sometimes, piano, drums, trumpet and the stereo all happily orchestrating a chaotic symphony from different rooms of the house.
Early years were occupied with the trumpet in school bands and orchestras and also singing in choirs in the bay area of California and later attended Lionel Hampton School of Music for music theory. Developed Ala Zingara, a mediterranean spiced folk rock band - writes and mostly plays the bouzouki.
SONGWRITING:
“On average, 20 or so CDs arrive at the EW office each week with an average of 10 songs on each one. 200 songs a week times 50 work weeks means I listen to about 10,000 songs a year. Sometimes only for 10 seconds, but I listen to them all. Ala Zingara's lead singer, bouzouki player and acoustic guitarist Robert Parks wrote one of the three best songs I heard in all of 2004, "Because the Silence."”... Melissa Bearns, Eugene Weekly 7/21/05.
“Seu Ser” (an environmental bossa song for the Amazon), has aired on Seattle stations KMTT Sunday Brunch show and KBCS and was chosen as the soundtrack to a promotional video for Cornish University for the Arts.
VOCAL STYLE
“a mellow baritone, classy, romantic vocals in a smooth jazz or “crooner” style with a touch of latin”.
NEWS:
Robert is close to releasing his first solo jazz/bossa/pop album featuring Richard Cole, Chad McCullough, Benjamin Morrow, Ed Littlefield, Birch Pereira, Jason Flores, David Servias, Dave Pascal, and vocal guests Carrie Wicks and Susan Parks.
Online Now!
