After Hours is a blues piano composition composed by Birmingham, Alabama pianist, Avery Parrish. The first recording of the song, done in 1940 on the Bluebird label with the Erskine Hawkins Orchestra, was an instant hit, and subsequently became a jazz standard. The composition is currently used by National Public Radio host Jim Wilke as the themesong for his show, "Jazz After Hours." The song has been recorded many times by such diverse artists as Glenn Miller, Dizzy Gillespie,Woody Herman, Hazel Scott, Phineas Newborn, Hank Crawford, Buck Clayton, Jeannie & Jimmy Cheatham, Ellis Marsalis (with the SuperJazz Big Band) and numerous others. There is even a vocal version by Aretha Franklin. The version used to open and close each "Jazz After Hours" program since 1984 is a solo piano version by Ray Bryant, recorded at the Montreux Jazz Festival in 1972, reissued by 32 Jazz.
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