Chris Parker grew up playing drums on wooden blocks attached to the hi-hat and bass drum pedals by his father, a jazz drummer, while listening to Monk and Mingus on the radio. By his early teens, he was performing with friends and discovering the allure of rock and roll, through drummers such as Roger Hawkins, D.J. Fontana, Stax record ace Al Jackson, and New Orleans greats Earl Palmer, Smokey Johnson and James Black. By night, he put into practice what he heard, backing up strippers and exotic dancers in clubs and cocktail lounges. While studying painting at New York City’s School of Visual Arts on scholarship, Parker answered a “drummer wanted” ad in Rolling Stone. He moved to Woodstock, New York, where he joined the band Holy Moss. Holy Moss was short lived, but Parker recorded one album with them and stayed in Woodstock where he worked in the local scene with artists Paul Butterfield’s Better Days, Bonnie Raitt, Tim Hardin, Rick Danko, Mike Bloomfield and Merl Saunders. Chris Parker is a co-founder of the Brecker Brothers band and has recorded and/oe performed live with James Brown, Miles Davis, Aretha Franklin, Ashford and Simpson, Patti Austin, Cher, Michael Bolton, Quincy Jones, Freddie Hubbard and Salt n’ Pepa, Eric Clapton, Paul Simon, Elvis Costello, Aaron Neville/Linda Ronstadt, Quincy Jones and Bryan Ferry among others.
