Parris Fleming is the bandleader of The Parrisian Live Band, which will play New Year’s Eve at The Arts Campus at Willits. Fleming said the evening will be an all-out funk dance party featuring the music of artists and bands such as Earth, Wind and Fire, Prince and Sly and the Family Stone.
Parris Fleming will never forget the moment when Harry Styles “entered the building.”
The building was New York’s Madison Square Garden. It was Aug. 22, 2022. Fleming was the trumpet player in Styles’ horn section. It was the first night of a 15-night sold-out run at MSG, one of the most famed entertainment venues in the world.
The horns weren’t slated to come on until the third song and Fleming and the rest of the members of the horn section were sitting in the green room waiting for their cue.
“All of a sudden the room started shaking and bouncing,” Fleming said in an interview from his home in Denver. “I’m sitting in a chair and it and the floor started bouncing. I’m like, ‘What is happening?’ We thought it was an earthquake. So we all walked out to see what was happening. Every girl in the audience was jumping up and down at the exact same time and making the entire stadium bounce.
“Harry comes up in the middle of the riser and the girls are just losing it, they’re crying and screaming, but jumping in simultaneous motion. The band was playing but he was just standing there. I will never forget that moment in my entire life.”
Parris Fleming performs as a member of Harry Styles’ band at Madison Square Garden in August 2022. The band played 15 sold-out nights at the famed arena. Fleming is the bandleader of The Parrisian Live Band, which is booked for New Year’s Eve at The Arts Campus at Willits.
Fleming will take the stage at The Arts Campus at Willits on New Year’s Eve as the headliner of The Parrisian Live Band. The outfit is an all-star funk and soul band whose members have played in some of the funkiest bands in the country. Fleming will be joined by Hunter Roberts on bass (Break Science/BTTRFLY Quintet), Blaak Jordan on drums (Jack Harlow), Enmanuel Alexander on guitar (Namebackwards) and Joslyn Ford Keel, aka JoFoKe, on vocals (Same Cloth).
Fleming was born in Detroit but grew up in Springfield, Illinois. He started playing trumpet when he was 8. He attended Columbia College Chicago, a fine arts college in downtown, where he graduated with a bachelor’s degree in instrumental jazz.
He stayed in Chicago for the next eight years and played with several local bands and toured with national acts like Dumpstaphunk from New Orleans, with whom he played from 2016-18. He then joined the horn section for The Motet in 2018 which prompted his move to Denver (where the band is from).
Fleming’s next gig was with Styles, who is arguably the biggest male pop star in the world. His first show with the former member of the boy band sensation One Direction was at Coachella in front of 125,000 people.
He also has played with Lizzo, Shania Twain (both special guests of Styles’ during Coachella 2022), Big Gigantic, Lettuce and Trombone Shorty.
Denver-based Parris Fleming of The Parrisian Live Band will play on New Year’s Eve at The Arts Campus at Willits. Fleming will be joined by Hunter Roberts on bass, Blaak Jordan on drums, Enmanuel Alexander on guitar and Joslyn Ford Keel (aka JoFoKe) on vocals.
“One of the most unique gigs I’ve ever played was in Vegas a few weeks ago for the Formula One races. I was performing with a German techno marching band called Muete and the Blue Man Group joined us, all dressed up in their blue man outfits, playing percussion with us, it was wild.”
When Fleming finished the European leg of Love On Tour with Styles in August 2023, he took the rest of the year to start writing, producing and recording original material. The Parrisian Live Band started playing gigs this past summer in Denver and toured and played shows in Chicago; Cleveland; Boston; Burlington, Vermont; Brooklyn; and Portsmouth, New Hampshire.
Fleming said he expects New Year’s Eve at TACAW to be an all-out funk dance party.
“We’re going to bring the energy. We’re gonna mix in some of my originals but I’m going to make sure that we bring a funk dance party. We’re going to be covering Prince, we’re going to be covering Earth, Wind and Fire, we’re going to be covering David Bowie, we’re going to be covering Sly and the Family Stone.”
Asked what he hopes people will remember about the last night of 2024 spent hanging out with his band, Fleming said, “They’re going to remember how amazing the band sounded and I’m hoping everyone wakes up the next day exhausted because they couldn’t stop dancing and hanging out with us.
It’s going to be a heavy night with a bunch of world-renowned musicians. We want people to think back and say, ‘They really brought the party. Those cats rang in the new year with style. I’m so glad I was there, what a way to start 2025.’”
For more information and to purchase tickets, visit tacaw.org/calendar/new-years-eve-bash.
