Piano, Composer (1931-2017)

Born Horace Louis Parlan on 19 January 1931 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. At age five he contracted polio, partially paralysing his right hand and leg. He began piano lessons at age eight as physical therapy. He studied with James Miller, who also taught Ahmad Jamal, and Miller encouraged him to develop his left hand. Through church organist studies he discovered jazz. He adapted his style, developing pungent left-hand chord voicing for melodies and harmony while comping with rhythmic, angular right-hand phrases using his pinky, pointer, and thumb, infused with blues, gospel, and R&B. He cited Ahmad Jamal and Bud Powell as influences. Between 1952 and 1957 he worked in Washington DC with Sonny Stitt. In 1957 he moved to New York and joined Charles Mingus's Jazz Workshop from 1957 to 1959, appearing on Blues & Roots and Mingus Ah Um (both 1959). He worked with Lou Donaldson's band, then recorded seven albums as leader for Blue Note between 1960 and 1963, starting with Movin' and Groovin' (1960). By the mid-1960s he freelanced with Dexter Gordon, Clark Terry, Coleman Hawkins, Rahsaan Roland Kirk, and Booker Ervin. In 1973 he moved to Copenhagen, Denmark. He recorded extensively for SteepleChase label and made duet albums with Archie Shepp including Goin' Home (1977) and Trouble in Mind (1980). He later developed diabetes and lost his eyesight. His final recording My Little Brown Book appeared in 2007. He died 23 February 2017 at a nursing home in Naestved, Denmark, aged 86.