Keyboard player and arranger Tiny Parham (February 25, 1900 – April 4, 1943) was born in Canada, but grew up in Kansas City. He got his start in vaudeville and moved to Chicago in 1925. In Chicago he led several small bands, worked as an arranger and talent scout at Paramount Records, and played organ and piano in theatres.

He cut 38 sides for Victor between 1928 to 1930 under the name of Tiny Parham and his Musicians. The sound of these records is somehow reminiscent of Duke Ellington’s records from the same time period. (Listen to the song “Jungle Crawl” and see if you don’t think so yourself). Throughout the 1930s he continued to lead and tour with his own bands and played organ in a Chicago roller-skating rink in 1939 and 1940. He died in a dressing room in Milwaukee during a show in 1943.

Tiny Parham and his Musicians	Dodds And Parham
Tiny Parham and his “Forty” Five	Parham’s Black Patti Band
Parham – Pickett Apollo Syncoators	Tiny Parham’s Four Aces