PARRISH, AVERY

PARRISH, AVERY. Jazz pianist-arranger (26 January 1917 in Birmingham, Alabama; 10 December 1959 in New York). His mother played piano and a brother, Curley, became a professional jazzman. He was a member of the original ’Bama State Collegians at Alabama State Teachers College in Montgomery, Alabama, and in 1934 went with the band to New York, where later Erskine Hawkins took over the band's leadership. Parrish was pianist-arranger for the band, which played at the Harlem Opera House and...