(February 25th 1900 - April 4th 1943)

Hartzell Strathdene "Tiny" Parham was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada and raised in Kansas City where he worked as a pianist at The Eblon Theater and was mentored by ragtime legend James Scott. After touring the Southwestern United States with territory bands Tiny settled in Chicago in 1926 and organized his own group. The assembly went on to produce an abundance of recordings between 1927 and 1930; all composed by the pianist himself. Standing as an excellent example of late 1920s jazz Tiny Parham's sophiated piano has been compared at times to that of Jelly Roll Morton for its genius and complexity.