Jazz Articles about Geri Allen

Geri Allen: Journey to the Light

by Greg Thomas
August 27, 2009

Geri Allen's playing and compositional efforts manifest a stylistic flexibility grounded in her absorption of the lessons of the masters of the jazz idiom, and her desire to innovate upon that legacy. As an apprentice during high school and college, and then as a journeywoman, Allen has kept company with musical legends. She just returned from a very successful European tour with “Timeline," a jazz quartet which integrates tap dance into its core arrangements; ...

Geri Allen Trio with Maurice Chestnut at Oberlin Conservatory of Music

by Matt Marshall
February 23, 2009

Geri Allen Trio with Maurice Chestnut Finney Chapel, Oberlin Conservatory of Music Oberlin, OH February 12, 2009

On the evening of Feb. 12, a whiff of novelty hung over Tappan Square on the campus of Oberlin College, even though an unseasonably early thaw had already been driven from town by returning icy winds. But pianist Geri Allen was in Oberlin, set to perform at Finney Chapel with her quartet of piano, bass, drums ...

Spirituality in Jazz

by Joel Roberts
February 21, 2007

The ties between jazz and the church, especially the African American church, run deep, going back to the music's formative years and continuing to the present, as three recent releases by jazz pianists attest.

Geri Allen Timeless Portraits and Dreams Telarc 2006 On Timeless Portraits and Dreams, Geri Allen expresses her religious faith as part of a broader vision of what jazz means to her. Backed by the peerless rhythm section ...

Geri Allen: Timeless Portraits and Dreams

by Woodrow Wilkins
November 9, 2006

There's a certain purity, perhaps innocence, about jazz that's played without the bells and whistles of modern technology and untainted by commercial trappings. When that purity is combined with superb songwriting, you have the makings of a recording that will never sound old. So it is with Timeless Portraits and Dreams. A native of Detroit, Geri Allen began taking piano lessons at age eleven. She graduated from Howard University with a degree in jazz studies, and she ...

Geri Allen: Timeless Portraits and Dreams

by AAJ Italy Staff
October 31, 2006

Eleganza e raffinatezza sono le parole d’ordine di questo Timeless Portraits and Dreams, ultima fatica discografica di Geri Allen in trio (e che trio, Ron Carter al contrabbasso e Jimmy Cobb alla batteria!). Per la verità durante l’ora abbondante di musica, compresi i quattro minuti di un bonus disc?!, al trio della pianista di Pontiac si aggiungono di volta in volta il sax tenore di Donald Walden, la voce di Carmen Lundy, la tromba di Wallace Roney e l’Atlanta Jazz ...

The Mary Lou Williams Collective: Zodiac Suite: Revisited

by AAJ Italy Staff
February 20, 2006

Questa è un'opera importante, destinata a lasciare una traccia profonda nella discografia jazzistica del 2006. Nel riproporre la Zodiac Suite di Mary Lou Williams, la pianista Gery Allen e i suoi compagni del Mary Lou Williams Collective hanno scelto di concentrarsi sulle doti squisitamente pianistiche dell'autrice piuttosto che su quelle d'arrangiamento. Due potevano essere le strade da seguire: la celebre versione orchestrale presentata nel '45 alla Town Hall di New York o l'originaria incisione sempre di quell'anno per la Ash. ...

Geri Allen: The Life of a Song

by Francis Lo Kee
June 29, 2005

It's great to hear Geri Allen cut loose and play with abandon on this mostly trio effort (Mal Waldron's “Soul Eyes has trumpet, sax, and trombone briefly added). Hailing from Detroit and admittedly influenced by the Motown sound and feel, Allen plays with a refreshingly honest direction and immediacy. This particular trio, with Jack DeJohnette and Dave Holland, has history backing singer Betty Carter on her '93 recording Feed the Fire.

“LWB's House (The Remix) sounds Latin rhythmically, though not ...