J.D. Parran Establishes Dance Clarinets Ensemble

Greenwich House Music School’s (GHMS) adult woodwind ensemble, Dance Clarinets, began in 2010 by renowned jazz musician and GHMS faculty J.D. Parran. The ensemble consists of Music School students as well as professional and semi-professional jazz musicians. GHMS invites visiting artists and composers to commission new works expressly written for the ensemble or to reimagine existing jazz compositions into arrangements for a woodwind band. Over the past 15 years, notable composers have included James “Jabbo” Ware, Oliver Lake, Julius Hemphill, Howard Johnson, Duke Ellington, and Joseph Daley.  

J.D. Parran is an American multi-woodwind player, educator, and composer specializing in jazz and free improvisation. J.D. plays the soprano, alto, tenor, baritone, bass saxophone, as well as the E-flat clarinet, alto clarinet, bass clarinet, contra-alto clarinet, piccolo, alto flute, bamboo flute, Native American flute, bass flute, and bamboo saxophone.  

Parran spent his college years in St. Louis, Missouri, where he attended Webster University and received an M.A. in music education from Washington University in St. Louis. In his hometown, St Louis, J.D. was a founding member of the Black Artist Group (BAG), where he participated in the early artistic statements of Julius Hemphill, Oliver Lake, James “Jabbo” Ware, Hamiett Bluiet, and Baikida Carroll. He moved to New York City in 1971 and has served as chairman of the music department and the director of Jazz and African American Music Studies at The Harlem School of the Arts. He has taught at the City University of New York and Greenwich House Music School.  

J.D. teaches clarinets, saxophones, and flutes at Greenwich House Music School, where for the past 15 years he has led the jazz orchestra, Dance Clarinets, as bandleader and founder. This performing group presents concerts there each year, most recently headlining in the Black Composers Upsouth series in 2025.