Chris Parker Releases ‘Reunion’ on Circle 9 Records
Chris Parker’s ‘Reunion’ releases March 6, 2026 on Circle 9 Records
PIANIST AND COMPOSER CHRIS PARKER RETURNS WITH REUNION, A SEPTET DOCUMENT FEATURING DOUG BEAVERS, ALEJANDRO AVILÉS, ROB THOMAS, DAVE RIEKENBERG, TONY MARINO, LUISITO QUINTERO, AND MARKO MARCINKO
RECORDED AT TRADING 8s STUDIOS JUST MONTHS BEFORE A LIFE-ALTERING STROKE RESHAPED PARKER’S ARTISTIC PATH
OUT MARCH 6 VIA CIRCLE 9 RECORDS
Reunion is the forthcoming fifth album by pianist and composer Chris Parker, to be released March 6, 2026 on Circle 9 Records in digital, CD, and vinyl formats. Parker recorded the session on January 28, 2023 at Trading 8s Studios in Paramus, New Jersey, co-producing the project with trombonist and Circle 9 founder Doug Beavers. The album was engineered by Chris Sullit and mixed and mastered by Beavers at Circle 9 Studio in Jersey City.
Across twelve original compositions written and arranged over more than four decades, Parker leads a septet featuring Beavers, alto and soprano saxophonist Alejandro Avilés, violinist Rob Thomas, baritone saxophonist and bass clarinetist Dave Riekenberg, acoustic and electric bassist Tony Marino, drummer Marko Marcinko and percussionist Luisito Quintero. Rooted in Parker’s lifelong identity as a composer, the arrangements expand music shaped across decades of performance into fully realized ensemble works animated by collective improvisation and the rhythmic language of jazz and Afro-Latin tradition.
Months after completing the recording, Parker suffered a major stroke on August 18, 2023, while on vacation in Cannon Beach, Oregon. He was airlifted for emergency care, and for days his survival remained uncertain. The stroke left him unable to walk and unable to play piano with his left hand — a rupture his wife Teresia describes plainly: “A piano player is not just a right hand and a left hand. It’s one instrument.”
Reunion stands as the final album Parker completed before the stroke reshaped his life and musicianship. “This album is a reunion with my musical past — the crossroads between what was and what will be,” Parker says. “It’s about looking for the beauty in life.”
The recording reached completion through the sustained care of musicians, friends, caregivers, and collaborators who carried both Parker’s recovery and the project forward. “Without everybody’s support, this thing would have still just been a bunch of tracks and a Google Drive somewhere,” Teresia Parker reflects. The album is dedicated to her, to Parker’s daughter Haley, and to the extended circle of medical professionals and loved ones who aided his recovery.
Born in Portland, Oregon and long based in New York, Parker has spent nearly forty years composing, performing, and teaching. Hired to build a SUNY jazz program from the ground up, he went on to mentor generations of students who later emerged onto national and international stages. His performing career has included work alongside Randy Brecker, Bob Mintzer, Chris Vadala, and Lyn Seaton. Trained in both classical and jazz composition — including large-ensemble orchestral writing — Parker formed the septet to bring his compositional language into a broader ensemble setting shaped equally by classical structure, jazz improvisation, and the rock and groove traditions of his early musical life.
“I’m a tune writer,” Parker says. “Melody and harmony come first, and then the band brings the music to life.”
Several works on Reunion date to Parker’s twenties in the 1970s, appearing over the years in solo, trio, quartet, and quintet settings before being reimagined here for septet. The program opens with “Emmy’s Shuffle,” named for his daughter Haley’s middle name, Emerson, grounding the album in family continuity. That lineage continues into “Stages,” one of Haley’s favorite pieces, whose shifting harmony and rhythm trace the passage of time across the record.
“Say It Again,” “Just a Thought,” and “Hymn” emphasize direct melodic statement and clear harmonic motion, allowing phrasing and ensemble color to carry emotional weight. Parker wrote “Just a Thought” in a single sitting at the piano, capturing a fleeting musical intuition as it arrived.
Memory and geography shape the album’s middle arc. “Been This Way Before” balances emotional return with physical landscape, while “Left at Bingen” recalls an outdoor performance in the Washington woods, where musicians and listeners gathered around a fire and the surrounding environment became part of the music itself.
At the core of the record, the title composition “Reunion” gathers musical language from Parker’s earlier ensembles and reshapes it for the septet’s collective sound. Rhythmic energy expands through “Stand Back,” which evolves from an initial samba conception into a soca-inflected groove revealed through collaboration with the rhythm section, and “Boonchaká,” which grows from syllables Parker once used while teaching Latin bass patterns — classroom language becoming composition.
Near the close, the music turns inward. Parker recorded “To You (For Teresia)” alone at the piano during a studio warm-up, realizing a private dedication written years earlier. The closing track, “One for CB,” returns to Cannon Beach — where Parker once lived and taught, and where the stroke occurred months after the recording — bringing the album’s ending back to the place where his life changed.
The release of Reunion continues Parker’s musical life in altered but enduring form. On March 7, 2026, one day after the album’s release, he returns to SUNY Orange — the institution where he taught for decades and last appeared in concert at his retirement — for a performance marking the first time another pianist will present his music in his place. The moment signals a turning point, as Parker moves further toward the roles of composer, bandleader, and musical director.
For Teresia, the album speaks to survival, strength, and the necessity of moving forward when life changes without warning. For Parker, the meaning resolves more simply. “Just beauty — love and beauty. Beauty and love,” he says. Of his lifelong practice, he adds: “It’s not what I do. It’s who I am.”
Tracklist
Emmy’s Shuffle
Say It Again
Just a Thought
Stages
Been This Way Before
Left at Bingen
Reunion
Stand Back
Boonchaká
Hymn
To You (For Teresia)
One for CB
