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Geri Allen: The Life of a Song
by Jim Santella
Geri Allen's piano trio gives her plenty of room to navigate. With her first recording in six years, she's captivating and adventuresome in her approach. Allen, bassist Dave Holland and drummer Jack DeJohnette forge their reunion with broad strokes and sprightly melodies. A constant motion gives the session life. While the pianist's eight original compositions give her audience new horizons to study, she's made sure that the groove and synchronization of the mainstream remains close. The album's impressions include shades ...
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by John Kelman
It's a safe bet to say that any good album will not only bear repeated listens, it will benefit by them, as hitherto unheard layers are revealed and subtle nuances are brought to light. But Geri Allen's new release, The Life of a Song , demands to be heard more than once because there is such an overriding sense of joy in the making that it completely overshadows the other equally impressive aspects of the record. And that's not a ...
Continue ReadingGeri Allen: The Life of a Song
by C. Michael Bailey
A couple of things come to mind when listening to this recording. One is that all three of the principals were linked professionally to Miles Davis. The rhythm section of Dave Holland and Jack DeJohnette were part of Miles' monumental Bitches Brew sessions. Geri Allen's connection is a bit more out of the way in that she was active in a Miles tribute disc called Endless Miles . Like the Art Pepper collaborations with Davis rhythm sections of the middle ...
Continue ReadingGeri Allen Plays Mary Lou Williams
by Irene Javors
In conjunction with the exhibition, “Mary Lou Williams In Her Own Right," (Flushing Town Hall, Flushing, N.Y. through December 31, 2000), the Flushing Council on Culture and the Arts presented on Octobert 6, 2000, a concert by Geri Allen with Marc Johnson on bass and Billy Johnson on drums of the music of Mary Lou Williams.For the first time in fifty-five years, the full Zodiac Suite was performed in its piano version Ms. Allen's interpretation of William's twelve ...
Continue ReadingEndless Miles: A Tribute to Miles Davis
by Jack Bowers
A well--formed program of contemporary Jazz (for the most part anyway), presented for a good cause as well. A part of the net proceeds from Endlessmiles, recorded by a number of all--star groups at New York City's Birdland on May 26, 1998--the 72nd anniversary of the late trumpeter's birth--will be used to help establish an endowment for young musicians, the MilesDavis.com scholarship, to be administered by the International Association of Jazz Educators (IAJE). Two of the eight songs ...
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