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Geri Allen Quartet at the Kimmel Center
by Victor L. Schermer
Geri Allen QuartetJazz Up Close Celebrates Thelonious Monk SeriesKimmel Center for the Performing Arts, Perelman TheaterPhiladelphia, PA December 4, 2010 Once, when asked to define “jazz," Count Basie simply replied, “Tap your feet." At this December, 2010 concert, the fourth member of pianist Geri Allen's quartet turned out to do just that. Maurice Chestnut is a brilliant youthful tap dancer who works with a variety of music ensembles. In this concert performance at Philadelphia's ...
Continue ReadingGeri Allen & Timeline: Live
by AAJ Italy Staff
L'idea di coniugare tip tap e jazz frulla nella testa di Geri Allen da parecchio tempo visto che, come rivela nelle note di copertina, da molti anni si interessa a questo connubio e aggiunge tasselli a questo progetto. E' un progetto che troviamo nella sua forma compiuta in questo CD, registrato dal vivo all'Oberlin Conservatory of Music in Ohio, e che forse qualcuno avrà anche visto dal vivo in Italia nella passata stagione (nel maggio scorso la band ha suonato ...
Continue ReadingGeri Allen: Flying Toward the Sound
by AAJ Italy Staff
Un impegno ambizioso sul piano espressivo, che solo una autentica fuoriclasse come la Allen poteva affrontare. Seguendo le tracce di alcuni suoi modelli pianistici (Taylor, Hancock), la lunga suite contenuta in questo disco assume la forma di un vero ritratto - musicale e non - che rivela la composita personalità di un'artista colta ed impegnata sul piano civile. Otto sono le “refrazioni" musicali, legate da un unico filo conduttore: il tema del volo come simbolo di libertà all'interno di un ...
Continue ReadingGeri Allen: Solo and Quartet
by Joel Roberts
Geri Allen Flying Toward The Sound Motema Music2010 Geri Allen & TimelineLiveMotema Music2010 One of the most accomplished jazz pianists of her generation, Geri Allen has long made music that combines the traditional and the avant-garde, the cerebral and the soulful, the restrained and the raucous. Her impressive resume includes '80s collaborations with Steve ...
Continue ReadingGeri Allen: Geri Allen & Timeline Live
by Mark F. Turner
Remember the time when jazz and dance were simpatico partners? Where swing and tap were intertwined with lively music and sweltering choreography in joints, halls, and clubs. Probably not, but pianist Geri Allen does, as she reflects on those past golden moments and dares to create new ones with Geri Allen & Timeline Live. Allen's Timeline consists of an extremely versatile group that includes veteran bassist Kenny Davis (who has performed with Cassandra Wilson, Don Byron), the exciting ...
Continue ReadingGeri Allen: Flying Toward The Sound
by Mark F. Turner
One of modern jazz's foremost pianists, Geri Allen exhibits a musical profundity that is coupled by lyricism and soul. Whether leading a trio of esteemed peers--Charlie Haden and Paul Motian--at that landmark venue, Live at the Village Vanguard (DIW, 2000), or giving homage to the obscure jazz matriarch, pianist Mary Lou Williams, with Zodiac Suite: Revisited (Mary Music, 2006), Allen is a composer/musician constantly gravitating towards new endeavors. Such is the case with Flying Toward the Sound ...
Continue ReadingTineke Postma: The Traveller
by David Adler
On Dutchwoman Tineke Postma's fourth outing, The Traveller, the young saxophonist leads a top-tier American lineup of Geri Allen (piano), Scott Colley (bass) and Terri Lyne Carrington (drums). Far from being overwhelmed, Postma holds her ground and even challenges the band with a set of strong original material, plus “Adagio 13," an adaptation of a string quartet movement by Heitor Villa Lobos. In particular, The Traveller finds Allen in brilliant form--swinging hard, turning static harmony inside out, ...
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