Formed in 2019, Free Spirits – led by pianist/composer Teri Parker – was originally conceived as a tribute to the talents of legendary jazz pianists Mary Lou Williams (1910-1981) and Geri Allen (1957-2017). With the October 4th, 2024 release of their debut album Peaks and Valleys on Modica Music, the band honours the impact of these two master musicians, both by playing fresh versions of Allen’s and Williams’ compositions, and by continuing their shared legacy of intrepid, groundbreaking improvisation.

Captured at Toronto’s incredible Revolution Recording studio, Peaks and Valleys was recorded after a residency at The Rex, and has all of the energy and nuanced interplay one would expect from some of Canada’s best musicians. Parker – who plays piano and, on one track, recites spoken word poetry – is joined by Allison Au on alto saxophone, Alison Young on alto saxophone and voice, Rebecca Hennessy on trumpet and voice, Lauren Falls on upright and electric bass, Mackenzie Longpre on drums, and percussionist Mario Allende. Peaks and Valleys is produced by Parker and leading Canadian bassist Dan Fortin. This album is made possible through grants from both the Toronto Arts Council and the Ontario Arts Council.


Peaks and Valleys contains two tracks by Allen, two by Williams, and five – the Peaks and Valleys Suite – by Parker. It begins with Allen’s song “Unconditional Love,” which starts with Parker playing a beautiful solo section before she sets up the form and is joined by Falls, who plays the melody in unison with the piano. As Longpre, Au, and Hennessy join, the track gains momentum and sonic depth, leading into a beautiful solo by Hennessy.


“Drummer’s Song” - another composition of Allen’s – is next up, and, true to its name, begins with a playful solo drum introduction before electric bass, saxophone, piano, and percussion join in. (“Drummer’s Song” features the extraordinary Toronto-based percussionist Mario Allende on congas.)


“Gloria’ – originally written by Mary Lou Williams and Robert Ledogar, released on Williams’ 1974 album Zoning – is a funky, groove-oriented tune, driven by Longpre’s drums and Falls’ bass. Young takes a fantastic solo, initially starting over just the electric bass and drums before Parker joins with energizing, intelligent comping that segues into another exciting solo from Hennessy.


“Gemini II” is the first track from Parker’s original five-song Peaks and Valleys Suite. “Gemini II” showcases Parker’s prowess not only as a player – she takes a daring, engaging solo that starts with just piano and drums – but also as a composer and arranger. The song jumps gleefully from section to section, with quick shifts in rhythm and texture. Dedicated to Geri Allen, the song has a strong focus on percussion and articulation.


“Survival” – the second song in the suite – is, as Parker puts it, “a letter to the children of the future,” including her young niece. It contains text from a poem written and recited by Parker, whose poetic composition – much like the music itself – paints an idyll that it simultaneously interrogates, asking questions such as “what will you do when the honey bees have taken their leave? When the waves claim our walls, and the fires burn our cities down? Will you move to higher ground?”


The third song in Peaks and Valleys, “Giantess” is a 7/4 blues with lyrics by Parker about Mary Lou Williams. Sung by Young, “Giantess” starts off as an odd-metre boogie, and highlights both Young and Parker on solos over Falls’ and Longpre’s propulsive swing. After Young and Parker, Longpre takes a solo over the form, then the tune shifts gears into one final melodic statement.


The Peaks and Valleys Suite’s fourth song, “Bear Hug,” is a dedication to Parker’s mother, who, as the title implies, has been a reliable and welcome provider of hearty embraces in Parker’s life. Starting with wide, rolled chords on the piano, “Bear Hug” transitions into a medium-slow ballad, with sensitive brush work on the drums, bowed acoustic bass, and rippling lines from Au and Hennessy.


The final track of Peaks and Valleys, “Perseverance” is a meditation on both the difficulties and joys that women experience. With shifting textures and tempos, “Perseverance” showcases Hennessy and Au as they trade back and forth during solos before coming together in a thrilling, exuberant display of their formidable instrumental abilities.


The album’s final track, “Rosa Mae,” is written by Mary Lou Williams, transcribed from Williams’ appearance on the very first episode of Marian McPartland’s seminal Piano Jazz, recorded in 1978. Williams sings the song, and the recording stands as perhaps the only publicly-available version of “Rosa Mae” with lyrics. Hennessy provides the vocals on “Rosa Mae,” treating the listener to a deft take on the melody before Au takes one of her most rousing solos on the album.

“Music is just sound particles in the air, but it doesn’t exist until you make it exist. The challenge of being a musician is in trying to shape something invisible, unlike the way that painting and other artistic mediums produce visible results. What is music? It’s nothing until you conceptualize it and bring it to life.” – Teri Parker

Releasing worldwide on September 29th, 2023, Shaping The Invisible, the sophomore bandleader album from Toronto-based pianist Teri Parker, is the culmination of years of playing, composing, and artistic growth, a fusion between heritage and innovation that places Parker squarely in the lineage of ground-breaking musicians such as Aaron Parks, Joshua Redman, Aaron Goldberg, and Fred Hersch. The album was recorded live off the floor in the classic jazz tradition, with no click, and minimal post-production edits; what listeners hear is the crackling, improvisatory energy of jazz musicians at the top of their game, confidently making breathtaking music together exactly as they would in a live performance.

The album first started to coalesce during a period of writing that Parker undertook as part of a Toronto Arts Council grant, which allowed her to lock herself up in a room for hours a day, listening to music from a wide range of artists, studying compositional methods, and writing every day. During this months-long process, Parker would typically start a composition at the piano, letting ideas develop organically before committing them to the page; eventually she assembled the body of work that would become Shaping The Invisible. Following a string of performances with her band at The Rex, one of Canada’s premier jazz clubs, she decided that it was time to hit the studio.

Shaping The Invisible was recorded at Toronto’s fabled Revolution Recording, a studio with which Parker is intimately familiar, having co-produced Deniz’ most recent album there. The album was engineered and mixed by David Hermiston, with whom Parker shares a fruitful history (Hermiston mixed Parker’s debut bandleader album, In The Past, as well as other projects she’s been involved with). Working at Revolution, says Parker, was an easy choice; not only does the studio have a few excellent pianos (the Yamaha C-7 was used for this album), but it also has exquisite acoustics, spacious, well-lit rooms, and an enviable collection of world-class microphones.

As much as the album stems from Parker’s individual vision, it is also a celebration of the unique collaborative spirit of the top-shelf band that Parker has assembled. Joining Parker are some of Canada’s most accomplished and daring improvisers: Luis Deniz, on alto and soprano saxophones; Mark Godfrey, on bass; Ernesto Cervini, on drums; and special guest Andrew McAnsh, on trumpet.

The album begins with “Becoming,” a through-composed piece named for Michelle Obama’s memoir, which features a dreamy opening that gives way to an insistent straight-eighths groove. “Humph,” inspired in part by Dewey Redman, sees the band playing joyfully and openly, with exceptional brushwork from Cervini. “K.T.T” features soaring solos from McAnsh and Deniz, before “Desolate Places,” a tender duet between Parker’s piano and Deniz’s soprano saxophone. “Segment” sees Parker taking a classic bebop tune and boldly rearranging it, with masterful solos from Deniz and Parker, and “Paw Prints” showcases Parker’s skills for imaginative rhythmic comping and for highly communicative soloing. “Retrograde,” a cover of the British producer/singer James Blake’s well-known song, is given a thoughtful, backbeat-driven treatment, before the album’s final track, the original Monk-style blues “Strolling,” in which the band stretches out with inspired, electric synergy.