Geri Allen (b. June 12, 1957): Outstanding pianist, composer, arranger, teacher, and ensemble leader

SOUND PROJECTIONS

  

AN ONLINE QUARTERLY MUSIC MAGAZINE

EDITOR:  KOFI NATAMBU

WINTER,  2014

VOLUME ONE            NUMBER ONE

  

MILES DAVIS

Featuring the Musics and Aesthetic Visions of:

ANTHONY BRAXTON                  
November  1-7 

CECIL TAYLOR                
November 8-14

STEVIE WONDER             
November 15-21

JIMI HENDRIX                  
November 22-28

GERI ALLEN                    
November 29-December 5

HERBIE HANCOCK   
December 6-12

SONNY ROLLINS    
December 13-19

JANELLE MONAE   
December 20-26

GARY CLARK, JR.   
December 27-January 2

NINA SIMONE         
January 3-January 9

ORNETTE COLEMAN   
January 10-January 16

WAYNE SHORTER    
January 17-23


*[Special bonus feature:  A celebration of the centennial year of musician, composer, orchestra leader, and philosopher SUN RA, 1914-1993]   
January 24-30

Published: 4/28/2014

Geri Allen To Receive Berklee Honor

Congratulations to SESAC affiliate, jazz pianist Geri Allen who will be honored by Berklee School of Music with an honorary doctor of music degree during commencement ceremonies on May 10. Allen is being recognized for her achievements and influences in music and for her enduring contributions to American and international culture.  Allen will be joined by fellow honorees Led Zepplin’s Jimmy Page, Ashford & Simpson’s Valerie Simpson and musician and educator, Thara Memory.
 
Geri Allen is a pianist, composer, educator, and Guggenheim Fellowship recipient. Over her expansive career, the Detroit native released nearly 20 albums as a leader, and worked with Ornette Coleman, Betty Carter, Tony Williams, Ron Carter, Ravi Coltrane, Esperanza Spalding, Terri Lyne Carrington, Marcus Belgrave, Jimmy Cobb, Charlie Haden, and Paul Motion. The first recipient of the Soul Train Lady of Soul Award for jazz, Allen was also the first woman and youngest ever recipient of the Danish Jazzpar Prize. Her work has been featured in the Peabody-winning film Beah: A Black Woman Speaks, on Carrington's Grammy-winning album The Mosaic Project, and Andy Bey's Grammy-nominated album American Song. She was recently commissioned by the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra to compose a piece to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech. In 2013, Allen returned to her alma mater, the University of Pittsburgh, to serve as director of jazz studies. She continues to tour with the Geri Allen Trio and her tap quartet, Timeline.

http://www.gf.org/fellows/211-geri-allen 

John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation: Fellowships to Assist Research and Artistic Creation

2008 - US & Canada Competition
Creative Arts - Music Composition

http://geriallen.com
 
BIO

Born in 1957 in Pontiac, Michigan, Geri Allen was reared in Detroit, the home of Motown and such jazzmen extraordinaire as Thad, Elvin, and Hank Jones, Barry Harris, and more recently Ron Carter, Yusef Lateef, and James Carter.  Encouraged by her parents, Ms. Allen began studying piano at the age of seven, attended the acclaimed magnet school for music Cass Technical High School, and took advantage of one-on-one tutorials at the Jazz Development Workshop.  There she was guided by trumpeter Marcus Belgrave, drummer Roy Brooks, and saxophonist Donald Walden.  In Detroit she studied everything from classical music, to jazz, to Motown hits--even madrigals.

After receiving a B.A. in jazz studies and piano from Howard University and an M.A. in ethnomusicology from the University of Pittsburgh, Ms. Allen moved to New York in 1982 where she quickly established herself.  A charter member of the M-Base Collective and the Black Rock Coalition, she became known as a strong new presence on the New York jazz scene.  She was invited to perform and record with Charlie Haden, Paul Motian, Dewey Redman, Oliver Lake, and Betty Carter.  One of her most memorable collaborations was with Ornette Coleman, one of the indisputable inventors of free jazz.  In 1992, he invited her to record with him, only the second time he'd recorded with a pianist, the  previous time being thirty-five years earlier.  The resulting sessions produced Sound Museum, a two-volume CD consisting of "Three Women" and "Hidden Man."  She also performs and collaborates with her husband, jazz master Wallace Roney.

Her own recordings include Twenty One, Eyes. . . in the Back of Your Head, Maroons (all on the Blue Note label), The Gathering (Verve), and, most recently, the ambitious, critically acclaimed double CD Geri Allen: Timeless Portraits and Dreams (Telarc).  In his review of that CD, Tavis Smiley, the highly respected African American radio and television host and cultural commentator, raved that "Jazz pianist Geri Allen has take the freedom of Jazz and combined it with the cultural freedom movements that have paralleled the evolution of Jazz itself."

Geri Allen has received numerous commissions, from, among others, Jazz at Lincoln Center (Sister Leola, 1989), the Music Theater Group (Short Takes, 1990), and Stanford University (Of Mounts and Mountains, 2003).  The Walt Whitman Arts Center, Meet the Composer, and the Dodge Foundation commissioned For the Healing of the Nations, a sacred jazz work composed as a tribute to the victims and survivors of 9/11, which premiered 10 September 2006.  The youngest person and only woman to date to receive the Danish JAZZPAR award (1996), she was asked to compose original music for the award celebration in Copenhagen.  The recorded performances were released the following year  as Some Aspects of Water (Steeplechase).

Ms. Allen is the musical director of the Mary Lou Williams Collective, and she played the role of Ms. Williams in Robert Altman's celebrated film Jazz 34, Kansas City.  She has also composed the score (with Bernice Reagon and Toshi Reagon) for Beah: A Black Woman Speaks, a Peabody Award-winning documentary produced by Lisa Gay Hamilton and Jonathan Demme, which aired on HBO during its Black History Month, and created original orchestrations for the Grammy-nominated American Song by Andy Bey.

During her twenty-five-year professional career, Ms. Allen has been honored more times than it is possible to list, both for her musical accomplishments and her outstanding work as an educator.  Spellman College presented her with its African American Classical Music Award, Howard University gave her a Distinguished Alumni Award, and SESAC has given her many awards as well.  The Detroit Metro Jazz Festival honored her with a "Geri Allen Day" and Harvard University declared a "Geri Allen Week" during which the mayor of Cambridge gave her the key to the city.

For her Guggenheim Fellowship project, Ms. Allen is composing an original solo piano work, celebrating three of the most important pianist composers/innovators in contemporary jazz: Cecil Taylor, McCoy Tyner, and Herbie Hancock.  The piece, entitled Refractions: Flying Toward the Sound, will be recorded on Montema Records; Ms. Allen will be performing this new piano work throughout the 2009 to 2011 concert seasons in major museums and concert settings in the United States and abroad.

Geri Allen is presently Associate Professor of Jazz and Contemporary Improvisation at the University of Michigan.

2014 Berklee Honorary Doctorate Recipient Geri Allen

June 3, 2014 | By Chris Andersen

Biography

Geri Allen is considered one of the greatest female piano players of all time, alongside Marian McPartland and Aretha Franklin. She was born and raised in Detroit, Michigan, one of the many music capitols in the US. Greats such as Al Green, Stevie Wonder, John Lee Hooker, The White Stripes, and Eminem all came from the Detroit music scene. Detroit is an industrial motor city whose music is defined by the roughness and edge heard in Motown, jazz, hip-hop, and rock.

Geri was part of the Detroit group The Detroit Experiment, which also featured DJ/producer Carl Craig, saxophonist Bennie Maupin, trumpeter Marcus Belgrave, violinist Regina Carter, and Geri on piano and keys. The sound on this album is very different from all of her original music (which is more acoustic based), featuring modern sounds such as electric keys and drums. One of their songs, “Revelation,” opens with trumpet, keys, flute, drums, and percussion; a bass vamp leads us into the song where the melody is lead by the violinist. Another song, “Think Twice,” is lead by a constant piano vamp and a straight drum groove. Later, the trumpet follows and plays on top of the vamp.

Influences

Geri is a versatile piano player who can be heard playing in any context from bop to free jazz. Some of her greatest inspirations are pianists such as Herbie Hancock, Keith Jarrett and Bill Evans. Aside from being the leader on her own albums, she has collaborated with many jazz greats. Since her first studio date in 1986, Geri’s extensive recording career includes recordings with Wayne Shorter, Wallace Roney, Jack DeJohnette, Ravi Coltrane, and Steve Coleman’s M-base collective.

Geri’s musical path began at the Cass Technical High School, where she studied with trumpeter Marcus Belgrave. Later, she went on to earn her bachelor’s degree in jazz studies at Howard University in Washington, DC. After completing her studies, she decided to move to New York where she studied with piano great Kenny Barron. A few years later, she earned her master’s degree in ethnomusicology at the University of Pittsburgh. The first album under her name The Printmakers (1984), which featured bassist Anthony Cox and drummer Andrew Cyrille.

Over the years she has received many prizes and honors. Here in Massachusetts she received the key to the city of Cambridge during a week dedicated to her at Harvard University. She was the first woman (as well as the youngest woman) to receive the Danish Jazzpar prize, and was honored with an honorary doctorate from Berklee at 2014′s commencement ceremony.

Recommended listening  (click on following hyperlinks):

Geri Allen – Philly Joe

  This recording is from a performance at the Detroit International Jazz Festival, which opens with tap percussionist Maurice Chestnut and drummer Kassa Overall doing call and response. Geri and bassist Kenny Davis enter after a bit with the tune, which is titled “Philly Joe” after the late great drummer Philly Joe Jones. The band drops out again and the song is left up to Chestnut and drummer.

Betty Carter – Giant Steps

This version of “Giant Steps,” featuring Betty Carter on vocals, opens very colorfully, with rubato (meaning free tempo). The tune features Geri on piano, Dave Holland on bass, and Jack DeJohnette on drums. Geri is playing a lot of open chords, Holland is playing arco style with a bow, and DeJohnette chooses mallets for cymbal washes. At 3:35 , Geri begins her solo and the time goes from free to swing, while Holland starts playing a walking feel. The dynamics drop at where Holland takes a bass solo. At 6:30, Carter takes a scat solo. She is emphasizing a lot on the melody, using a lot of Bs and Ls. At 8:05, the time goes back to the rubato.

Geri Allen working with the Kata Kozma Trio

Here we explore Geri’s critique of a piano trio regarding how to improve their group sound. We see how she suggests that the drummer takes a solo over piano comping and walking bass.

Geri Allen: Timeline Live - review
4 / 5 stars
(Motema)

Reviwed by John Fordham

This is the album for jazz fans to play at full volume to anybody who says the music can't be danced to any more. Timeline is inspired American pianist Geri Allen's unique two-year-old quartet – unique in that it combines the virtues of the traditional acoustic trio with the explosive percussion input of young New Jersey tapdancing phenomenon Morris Chestnut. Even without the bonus videos on this disc (also viewable at youtube.com/motemamusic) the audience reaction makes the thrill level pretty apparent, and Allen's shrewd choice of material and McCoy Tyner/Herbie Hancock-inspired momentum are the ideal foils for a rhythm celebration, a showcase for Chestnut and drummer Kassa Overall. For all its infectious danceability, though, this music constantly references the jazz tradition – from the tribute to the late drummer Philly Joe Jones in the torrential rainstorm of an opener, to the dark riffs and skidding melodies of McCoy Tyner's Four By Five, and a headlong and then dreamily slinky account of Mal Waldron's Soul Eyes. An Embraceable You/Lover Man medley explores both Allen's wealth of piano-jazz resources and Kenny Davis's warm bass variations, and Charlie Parker's Ah Leu Cha emerges at a jangling gallop out of a martial drums-and-tap tattoo. It barely lets up for a moment. 

http://www.allmusic.com/album/live-at-the-village-vanguard-mw0000094310

Live at the Village Vanguard - Geri Allen--Songs, Reviews, Credits, Awards | AllMusic 
              
Review by Don Snowden

What a shame this trio didn't keep working together longer -- the finely honed veteran rhythm section of Charlie Haden and Paul Motian was a match made in heaven for Geri Allen, the most stylistically versatile and creative pianist of her generation. But praise the music gods they managed to record as much as they did, even though Live at the Village Vanguard may not be the best starting point to sample the interaction of this creatively balanced trio. The compositions, split among all three, avoid repetition with studio releases -- but don't expect any fireworks. The opening "Prayer for Peace" is as low-key and moody as the title would suggest, and "Obtuse Angles" seems designed mainly to provide frameworks for brief individual breakdowns. There's an underlying somberness running through "It Should Have Happened a Long Time Ago" and the ruminative "Fiasco" that seems to come from Allen -- her spare playing style generally shows a fondness for the lower and middle registers, so it's not entirely out of musical character. Motian's solo at the end of "Fiasco" starts energizing the music -- if any one member of the trio really shines bright on this disc, it's the drummer. But Allen's pensiveness remains on "In the Year of the Dragon," even as Haden's lines weave countermelodies to her piano at the end. "Vanguard Blues" briefly brings the tempo up before Haden's arco bass imitates underwater whale speech on "Song for the Whales" and Allen's haunting piano melody complements the bassist's mammalian moans. Live at the Village Vanguard is a good CD musically, but there's not much jump-up factor here -- it's moody and very bluesy in feeling if not actual form, almost like chamber jazz at times. The very compressed, muted recorded sound doesn't alleviate the somber aspect of the listening experience any, but jazz is about capturing the moment. And those were the moments, emotional and musical, caught by these three master musicians on those two December nights.  

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/08/arts/music/geri-allen-trio-at-the-village-vanguard-review.html

Music Review

Assertive and Soulful Piano, With a Slow Backbeat and a Spirit of Flow

Ruby Washington/The New York Times  From left, Geri Allen, Kenny Davis and Jeff (Tain) Watts at the Village Vanguard on Tuesday night. The trio began its first set that night with "Drummer's Song," a showcase for Mr. Watts.

By NATE CHINEN
September 7, 2011
New York Times
 
If every great jazz pianist needs a “Live at the Village Vanguard” album, made with a fine trio, the time is ripe for Geri Allen. True, she already released such an album, for a Japanese label, with two of the best possible partners — the bassist Charlie Haden and the drummer Paul Motian — but that was 20 years ago, and it’s no longer in print. (Look to iTunes for your copy.) A lot can happen to a determined and introspective artist since then.

And Ms. Allen firmly fits that description. She’s working at the Village Vanguard this week with the bassist Kenny Davis and the drummer Jeff (Tain) Watts, and if there are plans to record the engagement — besides the Wednesday-night broadcast and an online video stream coordinated by NPR and WBGO-FM (88.3 in the New York region) — she hasn’t said anything about them. Which means you should hedge your bets and head to the club, where she’ll be through Sunday. What she’s doing there constitutes a vital update.

Her brand of pianism, assertive and soulful, has long suggested a golden mean of major postwar styles. She just as easily deploys the slipstream whimsy of Herbie Hancock, the earthy sweep of McCoy Tyner and the swarming agitation of Cecil Taylor. (Last year Ms. Allen released a solo piano album, “Flying Toward the Sound,” on the Motéma label, naming those three figures as inspiration.) She also seems to have absorbed useful information from Randy Weston and Kenny Barron. But what you hear in her playing isn’t a jumble of influences; she has her own point of view, and she’s clearer about it now than ever.

She was generous with her output during the week’s first set on Tuesday night, which began with a vintage original, “Drummer’s Song.” The tune fulfilled its stated function, becoming the first of several muscular polyrhythmic showcases for Mr. Watts. The framework bracketing his solo, a vamp with a shifting time signature, could have resulted in something jagged and fitful, but the trio made it otherwise, upholding a spirit of flow.

Ms. Allen and Mr. Davis have been working together regularly in recent years; her bond with Mr. Watts, though it goes back quite a few years, hasn’t been reinforced in a while. That may be why he so often kept his eyes trained in her direction, intent on locking into her groove. It could also account for some of the freshness in Tuesday’s set, the intimation of musical relationships being tested and renewed.

Among the eight pieces performed a few fell along the swinging post-bop continuum, including themes by Mr. Watts and the clarinetist Don Byron. Elsewhere came songs that employed an unhurried backbeat: notably a reharmonized version of Smokey Robinson’s “Tears of a Clown” and a simmering R&B tune called “Unconditional Love,” from the drummer Terri Lyne Carrington’s new album, on which Ms. Allen appears.       

At almost every turn Ms. Allen played with supple authority and unforced restraint, and her band mates followed her lead. Their chemistry is likely only to improve over the next few nights, which is saying something.

The trio performs through Sunday at the Village Vanguard, 178 Seventh Avenue South, at 11th Street, West Village; (212) 255-4037, villagevanguard.com. 

http://bricartsmedia.org/events/geri-allen-carrie-mae-weems-slow-fade-to-black

Geri Allen & Carrie Mae Weems: Slow Fade To Black

June 15, 2012 · 8:00 PM
CELEBRATE BROOKLYN! @ Prospect Park Bandshell
Doors open at 7:00pm.

With ESPERANZA SPALDING / TERRI LYNE CARRINGTON / LIZZ WRIGHT / PATRICE RUSHEN AND MORE!
 
The great pianist GERI ALLEN and the world-renowned photographer and video artist CARRIE MAE WEEMS team up for this special world premiere commission. SLOW FADE TO BLACK combines Weems’ arresting projections with an astonishing night of music featuring Allen’s new trio with fellow jazz giants ESPERANZA SPALDING and TERRI LYNE CARRINGTON, her regular group Timeline, LIZZ WRIGHT, PATRICE RUSHEN, the Howard University vocal group AFRO BLUE, the tap dancer MAURICE CHESTNUT, and many surprises. Weems, who has a major three-decade retrospective coming to the Guggenheim Museum in the fall of 2013, explores issues of gender, race, and identity in her work. These themes inform Slow Fade to Black, in which live performance and video will comingle on stage and screen in unimagined ways. The night promises to be unlike anything that has ever happened at Celebrate Brooklyn!, or anywhere else.
   

GERI ALLEN

(b. 1957)

THE MUSIC OF GERI ALLEN: AN EXTENSIVE VIDEO OVERVIEW, A CROSS SECTION OF RECORDINGS, MUSICAL ANALYSIS AND COMMENTARY, PLUS VARIOUS INTERVIEWS WITH MS. ALLEN        

Geri Allen - "Feed the Fire" (composition by Geri Allen)

The Geri Allen Trio:

From album Twenty One (1994)

Geri Allen - piano
Ron Carter - bass
Tony Williams - drums 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f6qS05TZmME

Geri Allen Trio,  "Dark Prince"  (composition by Geri Allen:

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=42X2rb60_Mk

Geri Allen - piano
Terri Lyne Carrington - batterie
Esperanza Spalding - basse

Célébration du 80e de Wayne Shorter

Série Les Grands Concerts
Festival International de Jazz de Montréal 2013

ACS : Geri Allen Terri Lyne Carrington Esperanza Spalding play "Fall"  (composition by Wayne Shorter) - TVjazz.tv:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g1uLH-GoZjc

http://www.pghcitypaper.com/pittsburgh/geri-allen-takes-over-the-pitt-jazz-program-from-nathan-davis/Content?oid=1703204

Geri Allen live at The Commons

A clip from Geri Allen's concert at The Commons of First Congregational Church in Atlanta, GA in 2009:

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bSqqoCWQ4CI

Popular Geri Allen Videos

by Geri Allen:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aI-L0HjXNbc&index=3&list=PLFCBLGWFdq89cAmZAzvs6iNI7AHrlIk2W

Geri Allen - 'Red Velvet In Winter':

"Red Velvet In Winter" is taken from Geri Allen's album "Flying Toward The Sound". The video is excerpted from "Refractions", an art film directed by Carrie Mae Weems.
The music was composed during Geri Allen's John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship. 

http://youtu.be/5swuqr_0MT4


The Pace Report: "A Motown Homecoming" The Geri Allen Interview with Danilo Perez
 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7nbXJjBDwsM



One of the highlights of this year's 2013 Detroit Jazz Festival was the homecoming performances of pianist and composer Geri Allen. The proud Detroit, Michigan native and graduate of Cass Technical High School performed two sets during the festival in support of her latest CD, "Grand River Crossings: Motown and Motor City Inspirations," on Motema Music. This is the third and final CD of Geri's solo piano trilogy series that she's released over the last three years. Her first release was "Flying Toward The Sound" in 2010 and "A Child Is Born," her disc of Christmas music in 2012. "Grand River Crossings" is her celebration of the music Geri grew up listening to while growing up in Detroit and features some great Motor City luminaries including trumpeter Marcus Belgrave and saxophonist David McMurray.

Over the weekend during this years 2013 Detroit Jazz Festival Geri performed a duo set with Grammy-Award winning pianist Danilo Perez, who was also this year's 2013 Artist in Residence for the DJF. Also, she performed with the Geri Allen Homecoming Band with the legendary George Bohanon on trombone, J.D. Allen on tenor sax, David McMurray on alto and tenor sax, Robert Hurst on bass, and Karrim Riggins on drums.

This year also marks some important milestones in Geri's career. She's now the Associate Professor of Music at the University of Pittsburgh, her Alma Mater. She took over the position after her mentor, Professor Nathan Davis, retired this year. Also, look for her to go on tour with the ACS Trio featuring drummer Terri Lyne Carrington and bassist Esperanza Spaulding. 

Geri Allen - "Flying Toward The Sound" (composition by Geri Allen)

'Flying Toward The Sound' is taken from Geri Allen's album of the same name. The video is excerpted from "Refractions", an art film directed by Carrie Mae Weems.

The music was composed during Geri Allen's John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MibNhLCRF_w






http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLFCBLGWFdq89cAmZAzvs6iNI7AHrlIk2W

POPULAR GERI ALLEN VIDEOS:



Geri Allen@ Berklee College of Music Commencement 2014:

Miss Geri Allen performance at Berklee College of Music Commencement 2014 with Berklee student feat.Terri Lyne Carrington (Drums) and Maurice Chestnut(Tap)

http://youtu.be/BI16XPukYrQ

Unconditional Love x2 Geri Allen, Kenny Davis, Jeff Watts, Esperanza Spalding, Terri Lyne Carrington:

1. Geri Allen (piano), Kenny Davis (Bass), Jeff Watts (Drums)

2. Geri Allen (piano), Esperanza Spaulding (Bass), Terr Lynn Carrington  (Drums), Tineke Postma (Soprano saophone)

Learning from a Legend: Geri Allen carries on the traditions of jazz:

Legendary pianist Geri Allen performs jazz around the world and teaches at the University of Michigan  (2011)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KOXx5tAtrUU

Jazz Music, Jazz Piano - Geri Allen & Timeline Live - Interview:

Jazz pianist Geri Allen is interviewed by Brian Pace of the Pace Report. 

http://www.motema.com/artist/geri-allen

"Over the last 20 years I've watched pianist Geri Allen grow as a fine musician and communicator of the past, present, and future of what jazz music represents. Her latest Motema Music release "Geri Allen and Timeline Live" features tap dance sensation Maurice Chestnut, veteran bassist Kenny Davis, and drummer Kassa Overall. The disc is her first live recording as a leader and was recorded in 2009 a series of performances at Reed College in Portland, Oregon and Oberlin Conservatory of Music in Ohio. Geri clearly fuses traditional jazz with hip-hop oriented themes that both Maurice and Kassa bring to the music as well as stage presence.

Geri, a native of Detroit, is part of the great tradition of legendary pianists that the city as produced and contributed to the world of jazz. Icons such as the late Hank Jones and Tommy Flanagan to Dr. Barry Harris. Geri's unique piano style fuses both the traditional Avant-Garde musical styles.

Throughout her many years in the business, Geri has backed and played with artists such as Charles Lloyd, Betty Carter, Dave Holland, Jack DeJohnette, Lee Konitz, and Wayne Shorter.

In addition of being a well noted musician, she's also the Associate Professor of Jazz and Contemporary Improvisation at the University of Michigan.

Geri and I sat down at the Motema Music Showcase live at The Iridium for the 2011 APAP Music Winter Conference."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DEL9GLMBB1s&list=PLFCBLGWFdq89cAmZAzvs6iNI7AHrlIk2W&index=15




Geri Allen and the Celebration Ensemble Suite For Eric Dolphy 1989:



Geri Allen playing "Pisces" a composition by Mary Lou Williams:http://vimeo.com/108474010

Behind the Scenes: Geri Allen performing "Pisces" from Paradox Films on Vimeo.




Geri Allen takes over the Pitt jazz program from Nathan Davis:

"Nathan Davis is my mentor, and he has supported my academic and performance career." 

By Mike Shanley
Pittsburgh City Paper
October 23, 2013

Jazz scholar: Dr. Geri Allen
Photo courtesy of Dean C. Jones

43RD ANNUAL PITT JAZZ SEMINAR CONCERT featuring GERI ALLEN.
8 p.m. Sat., Nov. 2.
Carnegie Music Hall,
4400 Forbes Ave.,
Oakland. $10-25.
412-624-4187

or music.pitt.edu/jazz-sem

Geri Allen is pretty busy these days. In the midst of a tour with ACS — a trio with drummer Terri Lynn Carrington and bassist Esperanza Spaulding — the pianist is preparing for a move that brings her back to Pittsburgh, the city where she earned her master's degree in ethnomusicology in 1982. Come January, she assumes the position of director of jazz studies at the University of Pittsburgh, succeeding her mentor, Dr. Nathan Davis, who retired last summer.

But before that happens, Allen will host one of Davis' most enduring legacies: the 43rd Annual Pitt Jazz Seminar and Concert. The weeklong event features free presentations by participating musicians, culminating in a concert on Sat., Nov. 2, featuring 12 musical guests. Throughout its history, the seminar has drawn legendary musicians such as Dizzy Gillespie, Elvin Jones, Art Blakey and Kenny Clarke (the latter two Pittsburgh natives) to perform and lecture in close quarters with fans and students of the music. With Davis retiring, Allen says it was important for the event to continue without a gap. She also stresses that this year's seminar pays tribute to the man who set the standard for it in 1970.

Allen was already on a fast track toward a jazz career before she came to Pitt in 1979. Growing up in Detroit, she immersed herself in the city's fertile jazz scene, playing with people like trumpeter Marcus Belgrave, one of this year's seminar guests. Upon leaving Pittsburgh, she was part of the adventurous M-BASE group in New York, and went on to lead her own groups and play with legends like saxophonist Ornette Coleman, who hadn't played with a pianist in nearly 40 years. Allen's latest album, Grand River Crossings: Motown & Motor City Inspirations, puts a modern spin on classic songs that came out of her hometown.

College-level jazz programs were still a relatively new concept in 1979. "I feel I was [coming to Pitt] at the tail end of an era when musicians still learned in the traditional way — from their mentors," Allen explained in an email. "The schools today are focusing more on mentorship and I see a shift happening in that regard. Nathan Davis is my mentor, and he has supported my academic and performance career as a teaching assistant here at Pitt, and throughout my journey as a professional musician/scholar."

The seminar and concert are highly regarded because of their "marriage of the performance and academic aspects of the art form," she says. "Dr. Davis created an innovative prototype for jazz in the academy, which connects university and grassroots community together in a spirit of meaningful exchange."

This year's concert features: trumpeters Belgrave and Randy Brecker; tap percussionist Brinae Ali; tenor saxophonists Ravi Coltrane and Ernie Watts; trombonist Vincent Chandler; bassist Kenny Davis; vocalist Carmen Lundy; guitarist Russell Malone; and drummers Kassa Overall and Jeff "Tain" Watts. Along with the individual seminars that several musicians will host prior to the concert, some will also lecture at Pittsburgh CAPA High School, Falk Laboratory School and the Hill House Association Senior Service Center. Jana Herzen, of the Motéma Music record label, will also host a free lecture titled "Navigating the Changing Tides of the Business."

Allen, who just completed 10 years on the jazz and contemporary improvisation faculty at University of Michigan's School of Music Theatre and Dance, feels comfortable stepping in to host the event. "Nathan has been so respected, and he's created such an important legacy that [with] my coming in, I've been very supported [by the seminar committee]," she says. "Everyone wants to see the seminar do well."

While the concert will follow the traditional format of ensemble performances with break-out sections for different subgroups, there are a few additions this year. Most significantly is the addition of dancer Ali (who acts as an additional percussionist) and vocalist Lundy.

The use of two drummers is a bold move, especially with a force of nature like Pittsburgh native Watts, and with Overall, whose experience includes time with Allen and in freer settings as well. But having both is another extension of the way her predecessor would program the show. "Nathan, as a horn player, would always share the bandstand with other horn players," she says. "And I'm a rhythm section player and I thought, ‘OK, let me look at having more than one drummer.'"

Allen's career has been similar to the best jazz, in that it has made new strides while hewing close to its history. Prior to her album saluting Detroit, for example, she recorded the solo album Flying Toward the Sound. On it, she paid homage to pianists Herbie Hancock, McCoy Tyner and Cecil Taylor, all of whom have vastly different approaches to their instrument. Rather than play their compositions, Allen composed a suite  that uses their ideas as a launch pad, thereby taking the idea further.

Likewise, the array of musicians coming to Pitt this month will likely create something new by building on the legacy. Yet as she talks about the event, Allen continually returns to the subject of Davis. "His generosity has benefited many artist/scholars and he has made a profound impact on the perception of jazz as it exists today in the academy," she says. "We owe a great deal to him."

http://revive-music.com/2014/03/11/uptown-nights-harlem-stage-geri-allen-celebrates-mary-lou-williams/

Posted by Aja Burrell Wood 

Geri Allen Celebrates Mary Lou Williams at Harlem Stage
The incomparable Geri Allen, esteemed composer and pianist, will be at Harlem Stage when she explores the continuity and influences of Mary Lou Williams– from Jelly Roll Morton to Cecil Taylor!

Audiences will be in for a treat with an evening of song and dialogue performed by jazz vocalist Carmen Lundy as scripted by writer Farrah Jasmin Griffin. This highly anticipated program includes Williams’ works as well as new compositions by Allen. The evening will be under the impeccable direction of Golden Globe and Emmy Award-winning artist S. Epatha Merkerson. Not to be missed!

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Directed by S. Epatha Merkerson
Geri Allen, piano
Kenny Davis, bass
Kassa Overall, drums
Special guest vocalist, Carmen Lundy

Thursday, Friday, Saturday   March 13-15   7:30 p.m.  Tickets: $45

http://www.jazzwax.com/2012/01/interview-geri-allen-part-1.html

JazzWax

Marc Myers writes daily on jazz legends and legendary jazz recordings

January 18, 2012:

Interview: Geri Allen (Part 1)

Interview: Geri Allen (Part 2) 

 
Too many jazz fans are unfamiliar with pianist Geri Allen. Though not yet a household name, Geri will be soon. Her recordings and live performances make her one of jazz's most vibrant and dynamic musicians. Geri has been categorized as avant-garde, but that term seems ironically passe. Geri's free approach and warmth transcends "avant-garde," placing her at the front of a group of musicians today who are forging a new jazz style. I call it the jazz-feelings movement.

Last week Geri performed with her trio—Terri Lyne Carrington on drums and Esperanza Spalding on bass—at the Village Vanguard. This Saturday (January 21), Geri will be appearing for one night only at New York's trendy 92YTribeca on 200 Hudson St. in Manhattan. She's on the same bill as Jason Moran & The Bandwagon. From what I hear, tickets ($25) are still available but going fast. For information and ticket purchases, go here. Or call 212-601-1000.

In Part 1 of my three-part conversation with Geri, 54, the pianist and associate professor at the University of Michigan talks about growing up in Detroit, her musical mentors and why the visual arts offer lessons jazz appreciation...

JazzWax: You were born in Pontiac, Mich.?
Geri Allen: Yes, and so was my brother Mount. My mom and her family were from Pontiac. But when I was very young, my parents moved to Detroit, where my dad was a teacher and later an administrator in the Detroit Public Schools.

JW: Growing up in the 1970s, Detroit was a center of soul and dance music. Why did you turn to jazz?

GA: I loved all of it. I listened to radio station WJLB and danced to soul, disco—everything. But my heart was in jazz. My father was always a huge jazz fan. When I was growing up, he played records by Charlie Parker, the Modern Jazz Quartet, Sonny Rollins, Thelonious Monk and Bud Powell. The music was always in our home. Just before high school, I made a commitment to myself: I was going to be a jazz pianist.

JW: Did soul and pop leave any impression on you?
GA: Oh sure. I heard both forms on the radio and was trying to learn those songs by ear. I realized later that many of the musicians on those recordings were jazz musicians—many of whom later became my mentors.


 

JW: Did you study piano?
GA: Yes I studied with a terrific teacher—Patricia Wilhelm—from the time I was in the 7th grade until college. She was very supportive of my search to become a jazz musician. Though she was a classical teacher and didn’t have a jazz background, she wasn’t afraid of the music and understood its value and importance to me. [Pictured: Geri Allen]

JW: What did you learn from trumpeter-teacher Marcus Belgrave when you attended Detroit's Cass Technical High School in the 1970s?

GA: I was very fortunate. The entire jazz scene in Detroit has been fortunate to have Marcus [pictured] there. He’s still that same person today, striving to give young musicians a shot. He gave me a sense of hope. By believing in my talent, Marcus gave me a certain layer of confidence to pursue jazz as an art and a lifestyle. He also gave many others and me the opportunity to test out our abilities in real time—on stage.

JW: For example?

GA: The first time I went to Europe I went with Marcus, when I was in high school. The trip validated my talent. We went to Amsterdam and played at the Bimhuis Club for three days. When we first went there, it was a small, independent venue that was struggling. It’s where all the new music was happening then. I went back to Bimhuis Club this year [pictured]. Now it’s a first-class, government-sponsored concert hall. 

JW: Did Belgrave point you in a specific musical direction?

GA: I came away with a greater respect for the whole African-American music continuum. The music of the Supremes and Muddy Waters and the church—it’s all connected and meant to be revered and taken seriously. I also learned that as a pianist, it’s important to be able to play many different things. When I came back home, I played Bar Mitzvahs, Italian weddings—all kinds of events. The ethnic music we played gave me a clear sense of the different cultures.


 

JW: At the University of Pittsburgh, you earned a masters in ethnomusicology. What is that exactly?

GA: Ethnomusicology is the study of how music functions in society and the value placed on music in various cultures around the world. For example, the music of most African societies integrates all of the arts—particularly dance. By doing this, the entire culture is embraced, not just music and musicians. The result is that audiences have a more vivid sense of music’s importance. The cultural embrace of music has been a big part of my reality and my art.

JW: Your music tends to be highly textured in this regard. 

GA: When audiences are really a part of what’s being played and they experience the motion and flow of the moment, the spirit of the music crystallizes in a deep and meaningful way. This is key to the quality of the experience.. 

JW: Did you make a conscious decision to become an avant-garde pianist?

GA: I’ve always felt that having my freedom in music was important. That’s a part of my upbringing. I need to feel I can be versatile, to have the ability to move back and forth between different types of music. I’m attracted to the music of a large variety of great musicians. Then I synthesize all of it in a way that retains my freedom and particular energy as an artist.

JW: Doesn’t avant-garde jazz require a different commitment?

GA: Yes. Every music has its own set of idiosyncrasies and audiences are very sophisticated. People coming to experience the music come because they want to participate in the spirit of adventure that improvised music brings. Alice Coltrane said that "music is fundamentally a spiritual language that speaks to the heart and soul." I feel this way as well.

JW: It feels more embracing, actually.
GA: How do you mean?

JW: Your music feels as though it’s extending a helping hand to the audience, as if the music is about the community rather than just the technical ability of the performer. Where does this come from?

GA: I spend a great deal of time with friends in the visual arts. They would never allow me to pigeonhole what I saw in their paintings, film or sculpture. Some critics might ask them, “What were you trying to convey in this work?” Their answer would be, “Just look at it. What do you feel?” I tend to have the same view about my music. People who come with an open mind will become a part of the experience, informing the moment of improvisation by their willingness to participate. [Album cover artwork by Kabuya Pamela Bowens]

JW: What will you be playing at 92YTribeca in New York on Saturday?

GA: I’m excited to be working again with filmmaker Carrie Mae Weems. My album Flying Towards the Sound included three short art films by Carrie Mae. We may do some excerpts from that album. Then I’ll play solo piano.

Tomorrow, Geri Allen talks about her approach to the piano, how it taps into a part of us that dates back to childhood and what she plans to perform on Saturday night in New York.

JazzWax tracks: A good place for jazz traditionalists to start in Geri Allen's discography is Twenty One (1994), with Ron Carter on bass and Tony Williams on drums. This album features standards and originals. Then move on to Some Aspects of Water (1996), one of my early favorites of Geri's, featuring Johnny Coles (flhrn), Palle Danielsson (b) and Lenny White (d).
JazzWax clip: Here's Geri Allen's Feed the Fire from Twenty One (1994)...

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http://www.hollywoodbowl.com/philpedia/acs-geri-allen-terri-lyne-carrington-esperanza-spalding

ACS: Geri Allen, Terri Lyne Carrington, Esperanza Spalding

Visit this artist's website: http://www.imnworld.com/artists/detail/231/ACS-Allen-Carrington-Spalding

ACS (Geri Allen, Terri Lyne Carrington and Esperanza Spalding) gathers three of the most important female instrumentalists in current jazz. Formed out of their work together on Carrington’s Grammy Award winning album “The Mosaic Project,” the small ensemble stretches boundaries and revels in the art form. In response to their debut at New York’s legendary Village Vanguard, The Village Voice remarked, “the set’s expressionistic push-pull turned out to be a show of jazz fealty as disorienting as it was riveting.” The trio is elegant, experimental, and unquestionably bold.

Geri Allen is an internationally recognized composer and pianist. Since 1982 she has recorded, performed or collaborated with Ravi Coltrane, Dianne Reeves, Bill Cosby, Ron Carter, Ornette Coleman and Paul Motian. Allen is also an active jazz educator, and has taught at the New England Conservatory, The New School in New York and her alma mater, Howard University. She currently teaches at the University of Michigan School of Music, Theater and Dance as an Associate Professor of Jazz and Contemporary Improvisation.

American drummer Terri Lyne Carrington has been at the top of the music industry for almost 25 years, collaborating with luminaries like Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, Al Jarreau, Stan Getz, David Sanborn, Joe Sample, Cassandra Wilson, Clark Terry, Nancy Wilson, George Duke, Dianne Reeves, and numerous others. Her latest endeavor, “The Mosaic Project,” brings together some of the world’s most celebrated female instrumentalists and vocalists.

In one of the most startling achievements in jazz history, bassist Esperanza Spalding captured the world’s attention upon earning the title of Best New Artist at the 53rd Annual Grammy Awards. A gifted composer with a hypnotic voice, Spalding stretches the boundaries of jazz and continues her evolution with the 2012 release of Radio Music Society, which she describes as “bombastic and fun – funkier and more upbeat” than her critically acclaimed Chamber Music Society.

http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/geri-allen-carrie-mae-weems-team-salute-legendary-legacy-women-jazz-article-1.1095064

Geri Allen and Carrie Mae Weems team up to salute the legendary legacy of women in jazz  

Pianist-composer and visual artist create 'Slow Fade to Black' for Brooklyn's Prospect Park  Thursday, June 14, 2012

 
Pianist-composer Geri Allen will have more than an illustrious ensemble backing her up on Friday night under the Prospect Park bandshell. She will also have images of iconic black women, as provided by visual artist Carrie Mae Weemsand her “Slow Fade to Black” exhibit.

Allen and Weems have been collaborating for year s. When it comes to “Slow Fade to Black,“ Allen says,

“The images remind me of the joys and struggles of a woman’s journey. And for me, the dignity of that universal experience as it presents in different cultures.

I see this as a joyous celebration of the continuity of that journey, including the men whom have been important contributors to this journey.”

Allen mentions one of those men particular.

“My father, Mount Vernell Allen, is one such man,” she says. “I will be paying tribute to both my father and my mother, Barbara Jean Allen.

Allen, Weems and several other members of the ensemble, including Esperanza Spalding, talk excitedly about what they will be doing Friday night — and the long creative road leading to this unusual evening. They also emphasize the ways in which they have been inspired by each other’s work.

Weems says she created the original “Fade to Black” exhibit a few years ago because “I was thinking of all of these extraordinary voices that seemed to be fading from the American landscape that I wasn’t hearing anymore.”

Voices like Lena Horne, Abbey Lincoln, Nina Simone, Billie Holiday, Betty Carter and Alice Coltrane.

They shaped her sense of what it meant to be a woman, an artist, and to be alive.

“They were extraordinary, and what they gave to America and the world was extraordinary,” Weems says. “I was missing them and yearning for them, so I started making these blurred images of these women that seemed to be disappearing.

“At some point, it occurred to me that things move in cycles, so as certain things end, certain things begin. I then thought of ‘slow fade to black’ as a double entendre. And now there’s been this slow fade into contemporary black culture. There’s something new that’s merging, and a new blackness that’s emerging where we’re slow fading into that.”

For the multimedia evening, Allen’s group also will include Terri Lyne Carrington, Lizz Wright and Patrice Rushen, among others.

Weems will begin the second half solo, with a short film of narrative and images chronicling a woman’s journey.

“Every serious artist wants to solo,” Weems says. “Geri, Terri Lyne, Esperanza, Lizz Wright and Maurice Chestnut will have theirs. I figured the visual arts couldn’t play second fiddle."

DJ artist Val Inc., Marvin Sewell and Rodney Jones, as well as members of Allen’s Timeline band — Kenny Davis, Kassa Overall and Chestnut — will follow Allen’s lead. The stage will also be graced by

Afro-Blue, the award-winning vocal group from her alma mater , Howard University . The winner of the recent Downbeat award for Best Jazz Vocal Group, Afro-Blue was featured earlier this year on the NBC show “The Sing Off” with Smokey Robinson.

The rhythm section — pianist Allen, drummer Carrington and bass and vocal wunderkind Spalding — is the core of the musical response to the call of the images. Carrington’s all-female recording project, “The Mosaic Project,” winner of the 2012 Grammy for Best Jazz Vocal CD, was inspired, in part, by playing with Allen and Spalding.

Like Grammy winner Spalding, who Allen says “expresses freedom through virtuosity and sheer musicality, and a depth of understanding the nuance of language.”

Spalding makes Carrington “feel like the future of jazz is in good hands.”

Spalding, in turn, sings the praises of her fellow performers.

She says Allen stretches the boundaries of a listener’s comfort zone, and “with every bar, every project, every composition or arrangement, it’s expanding exponentially — the colors, the textures, the rhythms.”

Of Carrington, she says, “It’s inspiring to be around someone who can execute, on a high level, the craft you’re pursuing. As a player, we challenge each other. She’s so in the moment, so versatile. Just like Geri.”

The plethora of strong female instrumentalists in jazz is “indicative of the times,” Carrington adds.

“Women are following their passions. It’s a simple thing, really: Follow your passion and your dreams, do what you want to do. Try to create value in life. The rest comes together and falls into place.”


YOU SHOULD KNOW
———————————————

GERI ALLEN

AND CARRIE MAE WEEMS: SLOW FADE TO BLACK

Celebrate Brooklyn, Prospect Park Bandshell,

Ninth St. and Prospect Park West, Brooklyn. Opens

Friday at 7p.m.; performance starts at 8p.m.

Free.

Home Base: USA /NJ

Genre: Contemporary Jazz and Tap

Category Entered: Live Performance Album

Work Submitted: Geri Allen & Timeline

Artists Featured: Kenny Davis (Acoustic Bass), Kassa Overall (Drums), Maurice Chestnut (Tap Dancer)

Label: Motema Music

URL: www.GeriAllen.com

Influences: Herbie Hancock, McCoy Tyner, Cecil Taylor, Hank Jones, and Billy Taylor.

What is Jazz to you? 
  
Time line represents the continuity between the drum and the dance in jazz, The time step, and the swing in jazz in tap are like a good marriage. I believe we have our own unique voice, but with great respect for both the jazz and taplegacy, which are one really. We celebrate the feeling that makes you want to jump up and dance with the raw “live” expression of spontaneous improvisation. We play Bebop.

Why did you choose to submit this work to The 10th IMAs? 

  

Motema is a great company, and Jana Herzen must have submitted for us.

Did you use any unusual effects or instruments in this recording? 

This is a pure “live” recording.

Were there any happy accidents while in the studio, or did everything go as planned?  

Jeremy Edwards our wonderful engineer created a seamless sounding recording even though the performances were taken from two different concerts.

Did fans help you fund this project? 

No

Who’s sitting in your audience? 

People of great intelligence who, enjoy the spontaneous journey.

What makes your fans unique? They still come out to hear “live” music, and express themselves. They know they are a part of the journey, and that we need them before anything can happen that’s really special.

Are there any songs you wish you wrote? Yes many!

What artists are you listening to that would surprise your fans? Vijay Iyer and Craig Taborn, and JD Allen.

What is your dream show lineup? 

  

The Music Of The Spheres …

What is your guilty pleasure on the road? 

Fine local cuisine.

Any close calls or mishaps while on tour?

  

I stood up from sitting on my piano bench during a sound check with Mary Wilson and the Supremes in Sydney, and stepped into a 20 foot pit, and yes I lived to tell you about it.

Do you have any rituals before you go on stage? 

I warm my hands in water before I go on. It really calms my stage fright.

Should music be free? 

  

Musicians need to make a living too.

Are digital singles vs. full albums the future of music?  

Full albums allow for a complete experience. I am very excited to say that Motema is releasing a new vinyl LP of “Flying Towards The Sound”, my solo piano recording.

http://www.wnyc.org/story/142793-geri-allen-on-piano-jazz/

Geri Allen On Piano Jazz
Friday, June 24, 2011
NPR
By Grant Jackson
 
On this episode of Piano Jazz, pianist Geri Allen joins host Marian McPartland for a set of mostly original compositions from two of the most accomplished women in jazz. Allen starts the program by bringing her celestial touch to two of her original tunes. "Avatar," a searching and sentimental piece inspired by Alice Coltrane, features shimmering chords, while the sparkling "Brilliant Veracity," in D-flat, brings out the synesthete in Allen.

"I think the keys have a system where they can be visual — certain keys have certain colors," Allen says.

"It's something about the vibrations," McPartland replies. "I've talked to other musicians who also say that certain keys have certain colors. But D-flat is one of my definite favorites."

McPartland performs two of her own compositions, "Stranger in a Dream" and "Threnody." The first is a smoldering arrangement tinged with longing that continually circles back to its theme. In "Threnody," she states a strong thesis over a waltz-like rhythm, the chords painted in broad brushstrokes as McPartland's right hand improvises a solo line.

The two pianists get together for some improvised interplay in "Free Piece." They twist and crawl through a creepy bass line, locking into a Dolphy-esque groove for a few bars before pitching over the left-hand side of the keyboard. They then release the piece high overhead, soaring on the pedals and decay, as pealing vamps on both pianos finally tiptoe to a delicate close.

"Thank You, Madam" is Allen's dedication to Mary Lou Williams, who is also one of McPartland's musical heroines. When she and husband Jimmy McPartland first came to New York after a stint in Chicago, Marian made a point of seeking out Williams.

"You really captured her," McPartland says. "I would like to have the sheet music on that one."

The pair close the program by stretching out over a Charlie Parker blues groove, "Another Hairdo" — or, in the words of McPartland, "An-oh-thah Hahr-do."

Recently, McPartland recalled the session fondly.

"She is very likeable and amusing," McPartland says. "We got along very well, and I thought we played together well, especially on the 'Free Piece.' And she's doing great things now with her university students."

More About Geri Allen

Pianist, composer and educator Geri Allen was born in Pontiac, Mich., and grew up in Detroit. Her father, though not a musician himself, was a major jazz fan, and so Allen grew up listening to musicians such as Charlie Parker, as well as the Motown music that was popular at the time. She began playing piano at age 7 and showed sufficient promise to be accepted to the city's famous arts magnet school, Cass Technical High School, which has produced such notable jazz musicians as Ron Carter, Donald Byrd and Regina Carter.

Studying with trumpeter Marcus Belgrave at Cass gave Allen the necessary foundation to pursue jazz at Howard University in Washington, D.C. After earning a degree in Jazz Studies there, Allen went on to earn her Masters in Ethnomusicology at the University of Pittsburgh. In 1982, she made the move to New York City and began studying with bop legend Kenny Barron. Allen also found musical camaraderie amongst some of the city's more experimental artists, such as saxophonist Oliver Lake and alto sax player Steve Coleman, whose M-Base collective was attracting some of the best young artists on the scene.

Allen released the first her of her 13 albums as a leader in 1981. Her complete discography includes more than 100 releases, on which she has collaborated with such artists as Ornette Coleman, Betty Carter, Charlie Haden, Ron Carter, Paul Motian and Me'Shell Ndegeocello. Her most recent release, Timeless Portraits and Dreams (2006), features Ron Carter, Jimmy Cobb, Carmen Lundy and Don Walden.

In addition to her recording and performing career, Allen is also active as a jazz educator. She has taught at the New England Conservatory, The New School in New York and her alma mater, Howard University, where she has received the Distinguished Alumni Award. Allen currently teaches at the University of Michigan School of Music, Theater And Dance, as an Associate Professor of Jazz and Contemporary Improvisation.

Originally recorded June 3, 2008. Originally broadcast Nov. 25, 2008.

Copyright 2011 National Public Radio. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.
Source: NPR

Tags:

jazz blues
studio sessions

The Mary Lou Williams Collective with Geri Allen

Iridium; Thu 4--Sun 7

NYC

By Time Out editors  

May 4 2006

Geri Allen

 

Pianist Geri Allen is a natural candidate to reinterpret the music of Mary Lou Williams (1910--1981), but not for the obvious reason—that both are women known for getting busy on piano. Put simply, not many of their contemporaries (of either gender) placed such a premium on bringing innovation into the mainstream. Williams was the lady whose arrangements swung several major big bands in the ’30s (Andy Kirk’s, Benny Goodman’s), after which she established the bebop salon in the ’40s that helped launch, among others, Dizzy Gillespie and Thelonious Monk. (Still pushing it in the ’70s, she duetted with Cecil Taylor at Carnegie Hall.) Similarly, Detroit-bred Allen is the most dynamic pianist to come of age in the ’80s, carving out a niche for herself well beyond the neoclassicists who insisted that jazz be retro. 

Allen’s playing is so riveting on the Mary Lou Williams Collective’s debut disc, Zodiac Suite: Revisited (Mary), that it streamlines some of the eclectic murkiness from Williams’s 1945 original. The album is a tad uneven, though, in spite of Allen’s skillful shuttling among trio, duo and solo lineups. The parts in which she makes Williams’s stretched, sometimes dissonant harmonic language seem gregarious (“Libra,” “Gemini”) are where the warmth is. To add combustion, this week Allen has a superior rhythm section (bassist Kenny Davis and drummer Andrew Cyrille).—K. Leander Williams

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geri_Allen

Geri Allen
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Background information

Born    June 12, 1957 (age 57)
Pontiac, Michigan United States
Genres    Jazz, post-bop, blues music, funk, gospel
Occupation(s)    Musician
Professor
producer
Instruments    Piano
Years active    1982–present
Labels    Motema Music
Polygram
Storyville
Blue Note
Telarc
Associated acts    Timeline
Website    www.GeriAllen.com

Geri Allen (born June 12, 1957 in Pontiac, Michigan) is an American composer, educator, and jazz pianist, raised in Detroit, Michigan, and educated in the Detroit Public Schools. Allen has worked with many of the greats of modern music, including Ornette Coleman, Ron Carter, Ravi Coltrane, Tony Williams, Dave Holland, Jack DeJohnette, Betty Carter, and Charles Lloyd. She cites her primary influences to be her parents, Mount Vernell Allen Jr, and Barbara Jean Allen, and her primary musical influences to be mentors Marcus Belgrave, Donald Waldon, and Betty Carter, as well as pianists Herbie Hancock, Mary Lou Williams, Hank Jones, Alice Coltrane, Cecil Taylor, Thelonious Monk, McCoy Tyner, Bud Powell, and mentor Dr. Billy Taylor. Allen is an Associate Professor of Music and the Director of the Jazz Studies Program at the University of Pittsburgh.

Contents

1 Biography
2 Discography
2.1 As leader/co-leader
2.2 As sidewoman
3 References
4 External links

Biography

Allen received her early music education at the Cass Technical High School in Detroit and the Jazz Development Workshop, where her mentor was the trumpeter/teacher Marcus Belgrave.[1] In 1979, Allen earned her bachelor's degree in jazz studies from Howard University in Washington, D.C. She studied under composer Thomas Kerr, and pianists Raymond Jackson, John Malachi, Fred Irby, Arthur Dawkins, and Komla Amoaku. After graduation, she moved to New York City, where she studied with the veteran bop pianist Kenny Barron. From there, at the behest of the jazz educator Nathan Davis, Allen attended the University of Pittsburgh, earning a master's degree in ethnomusicology,[1] returning to New York in 1982, and began touring with Mary Wilson and the Supremes. In the mid-1980s, Allen became a charter member of both the Black Rock Coalition and the Brooklyn M-Base movement[1] a collective including saxophonist Steve Coleman, and other significant contributors. Allen played on several of Coleman's albums, including his first, 1985's Motherland Pulse, and Coleman also played on her composition "The Dancer" on the LP, In the Middle (released in 1986), which featured veteran tap dancer Lloyd Story. Allen also composed "The Glide Was in the Ride", performed by The Steve Coleman Group, listed on the New Smithsonian Collection of Classic Jazz.

Allen's own first album, The Printmakers, with Anthony Cox and Andrew Cyrille, from a year earlier, showcased the pianist's more avant-garde tendencies. In 1988 came Etudes, a cooperative trio effort with Charlie Haden and Paul Motian. In 1995, she was the first recipient of Soul Train's Lady of Soul Award for jazz album of the year for Twenty-One, featuring Tony Williams and Ron Carter, and the first woman, and youngest person to receive the Danish "Jazz Par Prize". Allen continued to push the improvisational envelope with Sound Museum, a 1996 recording made under the leadership of Ornette Coleman. The Gathering followed in 1998. The Life of a Song was recorded with veterans Dave Holland on bass and Jack DeJohnette on drums. Her 2010 album Flying Toward the Sound was rated one of the Best Of 2010 on NPR, Downbeat, All About Jazz, and the Village Voice's Jazz Critics' Poll that year.[2] "Timeless Portraits and Dreams" featured NEA Jazz Masters Jimmy Cobb and Ron Carter, as well as opera icon George Shirley singing "Lift Every Voice and Sing", saxophonist and mentor Donald Walden, vocalist Carmen Lundy, and the Atlanta Jazz Chorus under the direction of composer/multi-reedist Dwight Andrews.

In 2006, Allen was commissioned to compose "For the Healing of the Nations" a Sacred Jazz Suite for Voices, written in tribute to the victims, survivors and their families of the 9/11 attacks. The suite was performed by Howard University's Afro-Blue Jazz Choir, under the direction of Connaitre Miller. Oliver Lake, Craig Harris, Andy Bey, Dwight Andrews, Mary Stallings, Carmen Lundy, Nneena Freelon, Jay Hoggard, and other jazz musicians also participated. The poetry was contributed by Sandra Turner-Barnes.

Allen took part in a documentary film titled Live Music, Community & Social Conscience (2007) while performing at the Frog Island Music Festival in Michigan. A documentary film that looks at how music connects us to our humanity, and to each other regardless of borders, politics, culture economics, or religion. Allen contributed original music to the documentary film Beah: A Black Woman Speaks, directed by Lisa Gay Hamilton, which received a Peabody Award. Also, Allen contributed orchestrations to Andy Bey's "American Song" which was nominated for a Grammy Award. She was the recipient of a 2008 Guggenheim fellowship.[3] Allen's composition "Refractions" was released in response to her Guggenheim Fellowship in Composition, as "Flying Towards The Sound", along with three short art films by film maker/photographer, Carrie Mae Weems, for Motema Music in 2010. Geri Allen & Timeline Live, her second recording for Motema, featured bassist Kenny Davis, drummer Kassa Overall and tap dancer Maurice Chestnut, and was released simultaneously with Flying Toward The Sound.

Allen received the "African-American Classical Music Award" from the Women of the New Jersey Chapter of Spelman College, and also received "A Salute to African-American Women: Phenomenal Woman" from the Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity, Epsilon chapter at the University of Michigan, in 2008. Allen received a nomination in 2011 for the NAACP Image Award for Best Jazz Album, Geri Allen & Timeline Live. She was also nominated for both The 10th Annual Independent Music Awards in 2011 under the Live Performance Album category,[4] and for "Best Jazz Pianist", by the Jazz Journalists Association.

Allen performed this year[when?] in the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Monument Unveiling Concert, A Theatrical & Musical Celebration Honoring Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., MLK: A Monumental Life, presented in Constitution Hall, by Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc.

Allen previously served as an Associate Professor of Jazz & Contemporary Improvisation at the School Of Music Theatre & Dance, at the University Of Michigan,[5] and, as of July 2012, was a curator in New York City at the STONE.[6] In 2013, Allen returned to her alma mater, the University of Pittsburgh, as an Associate Professor of Music and to replace her retired former mentor, Nathan Davis, as the Director of the Jazz Studies Program at the university.[7]

Discography
As leader/co-leader

Year recorded    Title    Label    Personnel/Notes
1984    The Printmakers    Minor Music    Anthony Cox, Andrew Cyrille
1985    Home Grown    Minor Music    Solo piano
1986    Open on All Sides in the Middle    Minor Music    Racy Biggs, Robin Eubanks David McMurray, Steve Coleman, Jaribu Shahid, Tani Tabbal, Shahita Nurallah, Marcus Belgrave , Mino Cinelu, Lloyd Storey
1989    Twylight    Minor Music    Jaribu Shahid, Tani Tabbal, Sadiq Bey, Eli Fountain, Clarice Taylor Bell
1989    In the Year of the Dragon    JMT    Charlie Haden, Paul Motian
1989    Segments    DIW    Charlie Haden, Paul Motian
1990    The Nurturer    Blue Note    Marcus Belgrave, Kenny Garrett, Robert Hurst, Eli Fountain
1990    Live at the Village Vanguard    DIW    Charlie Haden, Paul Motian
1992    Maroons    Blue Note    Marcus Belgrave, Wallace Roney, Anthony Cox, Dwayne Dolphin, Pheeroan akLaff, Tani Tabbal
1994    Twenty One    Blue Note    Ron Carter, Tony Williams
1995-96    Eyes in the Back of Your Head    Blue Note    Wallace Roney, Ornette Coleman, Cyro Baptista
1996    Some Aspects of Water    Storyville    Henrik Bolberg Pedersen, Johnny Coles, Kjeld Ipsen, Axel Windfeld, Michael Hove, Uffe Markussen, Palle Danielsson, Lenny White
1998    The Gathering    Verve    Wallace Roney, Robin Eubanks, Dwight Andrews, Vernon Reid, Ralphe Armstrong, Buster Williams, Lenny White, Mino Cinelu
2004    The Life of a Song    Telarc    Dave Holland, Jack DeJohnette
2006    Timeless Portraits and Dreams    Telarc    Ron Carter, Jimmy Cobb, Wallace Roney, Donald Walden, Carmen Lundy, George Shirley, The Atlanta Jazz Chorus
2010    Flying Toward the Sound    Motéma    Solo piano
2010    Geri Allen & Timeline Live    Motéma    Kenny Davis, Kassa Overall, Maurice Chestnut
2011    A Child Is Born    Motéma    Solo keyboards with vocalists
2012    Grand River Crossings    Motéma    Marcus Belgrave, David McMurray
As sidewoman[edit]
[icon]    This section requires expansion. (May 2011)

With Roy Brooks

Duet in Detroit (Enja, 1989 [1993])
With Betty Carter

Droppin' Things (Verve, 1993)
Feed the Fire (Verve, 1993)
With Ornette Coleman

Sound Museum: Hidden Man (Harmolodic/Verve, 1996)
Sound Museum: Three Women (Harmolodic/Verve, 1996)
With Steve Coleman

Motherland Pulse (JMT, 1985)
And Five Elements: On the Edge of Tomorrow (JMT, 1986)
And Five Elements: World Expansion (JMT, 1986)
And Five Elements: Sine Die (Pangaea, 1986) on one track only
With Buddy Collette

Flute Talk (Soul Note, 1989)
With Charlie Haden

Etudes (Soul Note, 1987)

 
The Montreal Tapes: with Geri Allen and Paul Motian (Verve, 1989 [1997])
The Montreal Tapes: Liberation Music Orchestra (Verve, 1989 [1999])
With Oliver Lake

Expandable Language (Black Saint, 1984)
With Charles Lloyd

Lift Every Voice (ECM, 2002)
Jumping the Creek (ECM, 2004)
With Frank Lowe

Decision in Paradise (Soul Note, 1984)
With Paul Motian

Monk in Motian (JMT, 1988)
With Greg Osby

Mindgames (JMT, 1988)
With Dewey Redman

Living on the Edge (Black Saint, 1989)
With Woody Shaw

Bemsha Swing (Blue Note, 1986 [1997])
With John Stubblefield

Bushman Song (Enja, 1986)
With Gary Thomas

By Any Means Necessary (JMT, 1989)
With Trio 3 (Oliver Lake, Reggie Workman & Andrew Cyrille)

At This Time (Intakt, 2009)
Celebrating Mary Lou Williams (Intakt, 2011)
With the Mary Lou Williams Collective

Zodiac Suite: Revisited (Mary, 2006)
References[edit]
^ Jump up to: a b c Bob Young and Al Stankus (1992). Jazz Cooks. Stewart Tabori and Chang. pp. 136–137. ISBN 1-55670-192-6.
Jump up ^ "Village Voice Poll". Retrieved 2011-04-02.
Jump up ^ "Guggenheim Foundation 2008 Fellows". John Simon Guggenheim Foundation. 2008. Archived from the original on 2008-08-22. Retrieved 2008-11-10.
Jump up ^ http://www.independentmusicawards.com/ima/artist/geri-allen
Jump up ^ "UM School of Music, Theatre & Dance - Geri Allen". University of Michigan. Retrieved 2008-12-07.
Jump up ^ http://thestonenyc.com/calendar.php
Jump up ^ Blake, Sharon (August 22, 2013). "43rd Annual Pitt Jazz Seminar and Concert Set for November" (Press release). University of Pittsburgh. Retrieved August 26, 2013.

External links

Official Website
Geri Allen at Motéma Music
Geri Allen at All About Jazz
Geri Allen at NPR Music
Jazz Conversations with Eric Jackson: Geri Allen from WGBH Radio Boston
Geri Allen at Rhapsody