His father introduced him to the music of Thelonious Monk, Miles Davis, Leadbelly, Ray Charles, Woody Herman, Count Basie, Lionel Hampton, Bix Beiderbecke, Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington.
As a teenager, however, Parker began seeing the appeal of rock and roll and R&B, as he practiced with friends and listened to drummers like Roger Hawkins, D. J. Fontana and Al Jackson, Jr., as well as New Orleans icons such as Earl Palmer, Smokey Johnson and James Black.
[1] It was while there that Parker's decisive pivot to music occurred, in the form of a "Drummer wanted" ad in Rolling Stone Magazine, which, in turn, led him to Woodstock, New York, where he joined a band called Holy Moses.
Although the band survived scarcely long enough to record one album, Parker opted to remain in Woodstock, working at local venues with music icons such as Paul Butterfield's Better Days, Bonnie Raitt, Tim Hardin, Rick Danko, Mike Bloomfield and Merl Saunders.
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