James Avery Parrish (January 24, 1917 – December 10, 1959) was an American jazz pianist, composer and arranger. He wrote and recorded “After Hours“. Injuries from a bar fight in 1943 ended his career as a pianist.

Parrish was born in Birmingham, Alabama. His parents were Curley and Fannie G Parrish. Avery had at least one brother, who became an educator.

Parrish graduated from Parker High School in Birmingham. According to a gossip columnist in 1935, Parrish was at that time married to singer Velma Middleton.

Parrish studied at the Alabama State Teachers College, where he played in the Bama State Collegians, an ensemble led by Erskine Hawkins. He remained in Hawkins’s employ until 1942, and recorded with him extensively. Parrish wrote the music to “After Hours“, and a 1940 recording of the tune with Hawkins’s orchestra resulted in its becoming a jazz standard. He also wrote arrangements for Hawkins.

In August 1942 Parrish was injured in a car crash that killed Marcellus Green, one of Hawkins’s trumpeters. They were in a group of five in the vehicle, driving between Pittsburgh and Chattanooga to gigs when it overturned.Parrish left Hawkins later that year.