One of Newnan's own appears on Jimmy Fallon Show
By ALEX MCRAE
alex@newnan.com
Newnan native Deantoni Parks — one of the world’s most accomplished drummers — was back on national TV Jan. 10 appearing on the Jimmy Fallon show with long-time collaborator John Cale, co-founder of Velvet Underground.
Parks is the founder, producer and drummer of the New York band KUDU, and one-half of the writing duo Dark Angels with producer and keyboardist Nick Kasper. He is also currently a member of progressive rock band The Mars Volta.
After graduating from Newnan High School, Parks took his act to Boston’s prestigious Berklee School of Music and then on to Brooklyn, where he started his professional career. After college he, along with fellow Berklee students Sylvia Gordon and Nick Kasper formed the group called KUDU.
Parks has collaborated with artists including Meshell Ndegeocello, John Cale and Asteroid Power-up!. He is also the most recent addition to The Mars Volta and plays alongside TMV founder Omar Rodriguez Lopez in Bosnian Rainbows, along with Teri Gender Bender of Le Butcherettes and Nicci Kasper.
Parks seems to be on an endless world tour with one group or another. He recently sat still long enough to do his first solo album via Rodriguez Lopez Productions. It is titled “Touch But Don’t Look.”
Parks is currently on tour with Omar Rodriguez’s new group, Bosnian Rainbows.
Based in Brooklyn, New York City, he is a vested partner in a developing audio/visual communications agency. In between writing and performances he has been participating as part-time faculty at Stanford Jazz Workshop, Berklee College of Music and NYC’s Drummers Collective.
