After Hours (Avery Parrish Song)

After Hours is a blues piano composition composed by Birmingham, Alabama pianist, Avery Parrish.

The first recording of the song, 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 Public Radio International host Jim Wilke as the theme song 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, Ellis Marsalis (with the SuperJazz Big Band) on the CD, UAB SuperJazz, Featuring Ellis Marsalis) and numerous others. There is also 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, and re-issued by 32 Jazz.