The Baltimore-born, Paris-based vocalist Marvin Parks first came to wider attention in 2012 when he appeared on the well-received Brooklyn Butterfly Sessions by Stéphane Ronget's Rongetz Foundation, singing ‘The Braggart’. Parks' marble smooth, mellifluous pipes subsequently graced a trio of songs – ‘Shades Of Joy’, ‘If I Should Lose You’ and ‘African Other Blues’ – on Nicola Conte's 2014 album Free Souls, both the second and third of which appear on this hugely impressive self-titled debut. Released on the Milan-based Schema Records, and produced by Conte, the debut sees Parks back in the company of a number of players from the Free Souls line-up including trumpeter Francesco Lento, pianist Pietro Lussu, percussionist Pierpaolo Bisogno, and Conte himself on guitar. With its distinctively chromatic melodic line, Parks delivers a winning interpretation of Billy Strayhorn's ‘A Flower Is A Lovesome Thing’ and a big-hearted take on the Styne/Cahn standard ‘I Fall In Love Too Easily’. Giving a nod to one of his greatest influences, Nat King Cole, ‘The Very Thought Of You’ is a standout, with Park's lustrous baritone at its most enchantingly intimate. To hear him at his eloquent, quietly dramatic best, head straight for the Jobim/de Moraes classic, ‘How Insensitive’.