Artist Profile: Theo Parrish
Born in Washington, bought up in Chicago and musically schooled in Detroit, Mr Theo Parrish was bought up on a diet of Miles Davis, Stevie Wonder (citing ‘As’ as the first tune he fell in love with), Jimmi Hendrix and Nina Simone. In later years his musical palate widened and he discovered early house music through the productions & radio shows of Ron Hardy, Larry Heard, Gene Hunt & Frankie Knuckles.
Theo came out of Kansas City Arts Institute where he picked up a bachelor of fine arts degree with a concentration in Sound Sculpture, a form of orchestrating live instruments, looped recordings, the human voice and other sound generating devices. Then in 1994 Theo moved to Michigan and became heavily involved with the Detroit underground music scene.
Over the years, Theo has crafted some of the most beautiful music through his Sound Sculpture releases, his Ugly edits and through his manipulation of sound in his live DJ sets and is widely considered the ‘savoir of house music’ and a DJ’s, DJ who doesn’t let a Silly thing like genres get in the way…..His style is maybe best expressed by one of his biggest supporters…The team at Red Bull Music Academy…
Theo Parrish’s musical expression fuses the rhythmic, disco-based pulse of Chicago house with the modernist motorik soul of Detroit techno, at the same time pointing to a lineage in black music that runs directly from Sun Ra to his own label, Sound Signature. “Jazz spawned house music, jazz spawned hip-hop, jazz spawned funk and they all reflect back into that,” says this consummate architect of soulful sound envelopes. Step inside Mr. Parrish’s musical teleporter and jack back to the time.
It’s for these reasons that we are more than excited to be hosting the man himself at The Hare and Hounds on August 31st…It’s a rare thing to see such a Don and all around legend playing Birmingham, let alone the Midlands, so we hope to see all Soul, Funk, Disco, House and Techno heads representing in force for this show.
Tickets are £10 advance and available from here
Mixes:
Red Bull Music Academy Sonar Sessions
