Carson Parker started playing piano at six. He's been at it ever since — and the Midwest's jazz rooms keep calling him back.
A native of Des Moines, Parker has built a sound that draws from the lineage he came up studying — Cedar Walton, Oscar Peterson, Benny Green — and threads it through the blues and funk that come naturally to a player from this part of the country. In 2023 he was named the sole pianist of the National Jazz Band of America. Since then he's worked the rooms that matter: Noce, Clara Chicago, Fulton Street Collective, the Iowa City Jazz Festival, and bandstands shared with Sean Jones, Benny Benack III, and Isaiah Spencer. In June he brings his jazz trio to The Ideal Theater & Bar in NewBo — joined by vocalist Aviana Gedler of Chicago.
The Ideal is built for this. Jazz piano. Close tables. A bar that knows what it's doing.
Thursday, June 18.
Doors at 7.
First note at 7:30.
