Theo Parrish
Theo Parrish is a DJ and producer based in Detroit. He was born in Washington, D.C. in 1972, grew up in Chicago, and moved to Detroit in the 1990s, where he met Moodymann, who became a personal mentor. He studied sound sculpture at the Kansas City Art Institute and holds a BFA in it.
He founded the label Sound Signature in 1997, and it has pressed its own vinyl independently ever since. His first album, First Floor, came out in 1998 on Peacefrog Records. Later albums on Sound Signature include American Intelligence in 2014 and Wuddaji in 2020, and he released Free Myself with Maurissa Rose on the label in 2023. He also mixed a DJ-Kicks compilation for !K7 in 2022. He is a member of the group 3 Chairs, with Moodymann, Rick Wilhite and Marcellus Pittman.
As a DJ he is known for long sets that move between disco, jazz, soul, funk and blues, and Blank Forms calls him a cornerstone of the Detroit house music scene. By the early 2000s he held a residency at APT in Manhattan. In 2022 he received a Kresge Artist Fellowship from Kresge Arts in Detroit. Parrish is billed at upcoming Los Angeles shows, including a conversation event and a late-night set.
Washington D.C.-born, Chicago-raised DJ, producer, selector, arranger, keyboard clunker, machine beater, writer, sculptor, car lover, visual artist, lecturer, and father [...] He began manufacturing vinyl independently on his imprint in 1997, and since then Parrish continuously engages, challenges and redefines the limits of Black dance music, serving as an example of creative independence.
Bio from Sound Signature artist page (Theo Parrish's label)