Papers of Harry Parry, Bandleader

Comprises: 

• School report, dated 1925, describing Owen Henry Parry as a born musician
• Letter and reference relating to Harry Parry's career at University College of North Wales.
• Scrapbook of material illustrating his career in music, from c. 1939 until his death in 1956. They contain photographs, handbills, copies of the Columbia and Parlophone Record Guide. Also contains the words and music of the song Twenty Tiny Fingers, dated 1955.
• Press cuttings (photocopies) relating to Harry Parry.
• List of recordings of Harry Parry deposited at the British Library's National Sound Archive by Mr and Mrs Taylor in 1987.

Harry Parry (1912-1956), jazz musician and bandleader, was born and educated at Bangor in north Wales. Between 1926 and 1934 he was employed as an instrument maker at the physics and chemistry departments of the University College of North Wales. A gifted musician, whose professional career began in Llandudno and later moved to the London club scene, he was an exponent of pure jazz and could play a variety of instruments. In 1941 he became leader of the Radio Rhythm Sextet and producer of the BBC radio programme Radio Rhythm Club. After the war he appeared in films and on television and also toured in India. He recorded extensively for the Parlophone label. For further details of his career, see Y Goriad, October-November, 1983 and Harry Parry - In Retrospect by Rod Holcombe in Jazz Journal International, January 2004.

Material was received on separate occasions, is arranged according to type, then chronologically and incorporated into the General Collection of Bangor Manuscripts .

Open to all users

Material was deposited at the Archives Department of the University of Wales, Bangor, by Eunice and Stanley Taylor of Cheshire, Harry Parry's sister and brother-in-law.

Description compiled by Anne Lenaghan, February 2002. Amended by Elen Wyn Simpson, March 2004.

Item level word-processed list is available at the Archives Department of the University of Wales, Bangor. Reference numbers: General Collection of Bangor Manuscripts: 32686-32689, 35960-35963, 39082-39084

Usual copyright conditions apply. Reprographics are made at the discretion of the Archivist.

Columbia and Parlophone Record Guide, October 1941, July and September 1942.