Primary Instrument: Drums
Born in Chicago, Chris was playing drums at age three and began performing his first professional gigs at eleven. At nineteen, Parker began recording and touring with blues great Paul Butterfield and broke into the New York studio scene in 1970, doing records, movie scores and filling the drum chair at Saturday Night Live.
Toph, as friends know him, recorded platinum, gold and Grammy winning albums and CDs with many artists, including the original Brecker Brothers, Bob Dylan, Cher, Donald Fagen, Ashford and Simpson, Natalie Cole, Aretha Franklin, Freddie Hubbard, James Brown, Joe Cocker, Salt 'n' Pepa, Stuff, Miles Davis, Patti LaBelle and Michael Bolton. He has toured with many artists; among them Boz Scaggs, Joe Cocker, Bob Dylan, Bette Midler, Paul Simon and Ralph Mac Donald.
Michael Brecker recently spoke of Parker, in Modern Drummer Magazine, “...Like Harvey Mason, Chris (is) also a natural drummer with great musicianship and a strong feel for funk.” Also in a recent Modern Drummer issue, Tom Scott said, “ Chris Parker is one of the sweetest human beings on the planet.”
Movie Soundtracks:
Beat Street-MGM
Michael Collins-Warner
Bright Lights, Big City-MGM
Nadine-Columbia
China Girl-Artisan
Prelude to a Kiss-Fox
City of Industry-MGM
Prime Suspect-King
Doc Hollywood-MGM
Punchline-Columbia
Ed-Universal
Quick Change-Warner
The Emperor's New Groove-Disney
Searching for Bobby Fisher-Paramount
The Experts-Paramount
Something So Right-King
Fame-Turner
Steelyard Blues-Warner
Flirting with Disaster-Miramax
Striptease-Castle Rock
Garbo Talks-MGM
Tootsie-Columbia
Grace of My Heart-Universal
The Untouchables-Paramount
Hercules-Disney
The Warriors-Paramount
In Love and War-King
The Wiz-Universal
Kidco-Fox
Two Weeks Notice-Castle Rock
