Geri Allen's Blog

Tap Dance Frenzy

2009-06-10T08:54:00.000-07:00

Geri Allen Trio at The Hague Jazz

Click here to watch.

Geri Allen Trio Live - Village Vanguard

2008-11-19T06:09:00.000-08:00

Dec 02 - Dec 07
GERI ALLEN TRIO
Kenny Davis-b, Kassa Overall-d

Click here for the VV schedule and to buy tickets .

Conversation with Jazz Pianist, Geri Allen & Farah J. Griffin -10/24

2008-10-22T11:59:00.000-07:00

Geri Allen, celebrated jazz pianist, composer, bandleader, producer and educator will sit down for a one-on-one conversation with Professor. Farah J. Griffin, Director of the Institute for Research in African-American Studies and Associate Director of the Center for Jazz Studies at Columbia University as part of Professor Allen's musical residency this fall which will culminate with a concert, "New Songs, New Life: The Geri Allen Project in Concert on Saturday, October 25, at 7:30pm at Columbia University Miller Theatre (116th Street and Broadway).

Click here for more information.

Geri Allen at the Village Vanguard

2008-10-22T11:33:00.000-07:00

DECEMBER 2008

Dec 02 - Dec 07
GERI ALLEN TRIO
Kenny Davis-b, Kassa Overall-d

Click here for the Village Vanguard website.

Click here for tickets.

Geri Allen signs with Motema Records

2008-10-22T11:26:00.000-07:00

"I am literally thrilled to be a part of Motema Records. This new relationship provides me a fresh and artistically supportive vehicle for the creation of three separate solo piano projects born from my having received the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship for 2008-2009."

Geri Allen

Geri Allen plays Fazioli Pianos

Click here to explore Motema Records.

A Night of Jazz for Obama

2008-10-22T11:25:00.000-07:00

S.O.B.'s PRESENTS A NIGHT OF JAZZ FOR OBAMA

Ticket Prices are:
$30 General Admission
October 7, 2008
Doors Open: 7:00pm
Show Time: 8:00pm

S.O.B.'s
204 Varick Street at West Houston
New York, NY 10014 212.243.4940

ARTISTS: Progressive soul singer MAIYSHA, R&B Legend ALYSON WILLIAMS, Latin jazz star CLAUDIA ACUNA, Afro-latin jazz leader ARTURO O'FARRILL, Jazz legend GERI ALLEN and special guests.

Click here for more information.

Video: Geri Allen Trio - Dark Prince

2008-10-21T12:47:00.000-07:00

Monkathon - Coast to Coast Piano Marathon

2008-10-21T12:27:00.000-07:00

Luce Group in association with Klavierhaus presents:
Monk at 91 Coast to Coast Piano Marathon
New York • Los Angeles • Boston • Philadelphia

Click here for more on the Monk Piano Marathon.

More Summer Dates for Geri Allen

2008-05-19T07:00:00.000-07:00

June 17, 2008
JVC Jazz Festival / Tribute to Alice Coltrane
Ravi Coltrane, Saxophone
Geri Allen, Piano
Charlie Haden, Bass
Jack De Johnette, Drums
Ethical Culture Theatre - New York City

August 31, 2008
Detroit Jazz Festival
Ravi Coltrane, Saxophone
Geri Allen, Piano
Charlie Haden, Bass
Jack De Johnette, Drums

Click here for all of Geri's upcoming tour dates.

Schedule Change for Geri Allen

2008-04-24T08:34:00.000-07:00

Geri's Village Vanguard dates have changed to December 2 - 7, 2008.

GERI ALLEN Awarded Guggenheim Fellowship

2008-04-13T21:35:00.000-07:00

April 7, 2008

GERI ALLEN Awarded Guggenheim Fellowship

Guggenheim Fellows are appointed on the basis of stellar achievement and exceptional promise for continued accomplishment. One of the hallmarks of the Guggenheim Fellowship program is the diversity of its Fellows, not only in their fields of endeavor but in their geographic location and ages.

Geri A. Allen, associate professor of music, for music composition. Allen's project celebrates humanity and embraces the continuity of innovation as personified by three artists - pianist-composers Herbie Hancock, McCoy Tyner and Cecil Taylor.

Allen Says:

I am grateful to the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation for honoring me and my work today with this prestigious award.
Every artist dreams of the chance to freely create unimpeded. As a working mother of three children, this honor
Encourages me, and will give me the freedom to create what I hope will be my best work.

"Refractions", my composition will celebrate the humanity and embrace the continuity of innovation in Jazz, as personified by three of the revolutionary
Pianist- composers: Herbie Hancock, McCoy Tyner and Cecil Taylor.
Jazz is a music of continuity and a direct outgrowth of the spirit of a people who rose, thrived and innovated in spite of impossible odds.
My new music will speak to freedom. Just as light passes through a prism and emerges in a new direction, I will allow the music of
Taylor, Tyner and Hancock to pass through me, in the hope that my new work will emerge at a different angle through the prism
Of my compositional imagination.

Click here .

Geri Allen Tour Schedule - 2008

2008-03-02T11:47:00.000-08:00

Geri Allen - ITINERARY 2008

February 21-24 Thurs.-Sun
IRUDIM 8:30pm & 10:pm
New York, New York
(David Weiss’s band)

February 26 Tuesday
MIDDLE TENNESSE STATE 7:30pm
T. Earl Hinton Music Hall
Middle, Tennessee
(Solo)

March 6-9 Thurs.-Sun
IRIDIUM
New York, New York 8:30pm & 10:30pm
(Oliver Lake – Trio 3)

March 29 Saturday
NJPAC 3: PM
One Center Street
Newark, New Jersey

April 17-20 Thurs – Sun
IRIDIUM
New York, New York
(The Headhunters)

April 24 -26 Tues – Wed
Greenville, North Carolina
(Solo residency) Play with faculty

August 26 – 27
RED SEA JAZZ FESTIVAL
Israel
(Terri Lynn Carrington)

October 23-25 Thurs - Sat
COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY
Residency
New York, New York

December 2 - 7 Tues – Sun
VILLAGE VANGUARD 9:00PM & 11:PM
New York, New York

*New dates will follow:

Click here for geriallen.com.

Geri to Play at MTSU

2008-02-03T20:50:00.000-08:00

Award-winning jazz pianist Geri Allen will perform a free and open concert at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 26, in the T. Earl Hinton Music Hall of the Wright Music Building on the MTSU campus.
"Allen is currently one of the top jazz pianists in the world,” said Don Aliquo, coordinator of jazz studies and professor of saxophone at MTSU. “She has been at the forefront of some of the most creative jazz to be performed in recent years.”
The evening event will feature Allen performing a solo piano concert. She will also be conducting a master class in conjunction with the concert.

Click here for the link on the MTSU Blog.

Lauded Composer Finishes Residence at Harvard

2007-12-10T18:39:00.000-08:00

Geri Allen is finishing up a week-long residency at Harvard consisting of educational discussions, performances, and hands-on practice. The Music Department originally invited her to participate in the lecture with funding from the Blodgett Distinguished Artists’ Series, but the performer turned out to be in high demand.

Click here for more info at the Harvard Crimson.

Caramoor Jazz Festival

2007-06-05T14:47:00.000-07:00

Caramoor Jazz Festival
Venetian Theater
Katonah, New York
Geri Allen Trio
Saturday July 28
4:00PM - 1 hour set

Click here for more info.

Geri Allen at the JVC Jazz Festival

2007-06-05T14:35:00.000-07:00

JVC Jazz Festival
www.festivalproductions.net
The Studio Museum in Harlem
144 W. 125th St.
New York, N.Y.

Trio plus Tap Dancer
Wednesday June 27 7:30PM - one ninety minute set

Click here for tickets and more information.

Showing Off Fleet Fingers and Flying Feet at NYTimes

2007-03-12T20:59:00.000-07:00

After taking the stage at Zankel Hall on Wednesday night, the pianist Geri Allen read a statement from a scrap of paper, claiming to be too nervous to extemporize. But her message was concise and clear: in celebration of Black History Month, the concert would begin with a traditional spiritual and end with an original composition dedicated to Rosa Parks.

Click here for the full review.

All About Spirituality in Jazz

2007-02-26T18:31:00.000-08:00

"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 of Ron Carter (bass) and Jimmy Cobb (drums), Allen performs a diverse set that includes her intricate original compositions, spirituals, jazz standards by Charlie Parker and George Gershwin, even a selection from a Fellini film."

Click here for the full review at All About Jazz.

Geri Allen Trio at Carnegie Hall

2007-02-21T10:53:00.000-08:00

Geri Allen Trio

Zankel Hall
Wednesday, February 28, 2007 at 8:30 PM

Geri Allen, Piano
Darryl Hall, Double Bass
Jimmy Cobb, Drums
with
Maurice Chestnut, Tap Dancer

The daring and imaginative pianist-composer Geri Allen and her trio both embrace and transcend the bounds of traditional jazz.

Click here to buy tickets.

Jazz Festival quick take: Geri Allen Trio

2007-02-19T21:37:00.000-08:00

"Saturday afternoon's beautiful set by pianist Geri Allen as part of the Portland Jazz Festival proved that quiet jazz can have just as much -- perhaps even more -- power to take listeners to another place. In a 90-minute set, Allen, along with bassist Kenny Davis and drummer Jimmy Cobb, took several of her songs down to the faintest whisper, and the results were breathtaking. There's tremenous beauty to be found in stillness."

Click here to read the full review at OregonLive.com.

Carnegie Hall Presents the Geri Allen Trio at Zankel Hall on February 28

2007-02-06T06:46:00.000-08:00

"Carnegie Hall presents the Geri Allen Trio--with pianist Geri Allen, double bassist Darryl Hall, and drummer Jimmy Cobb--in Zankel Hall on Wednesday, February 28 at 8:30 p.m. The trio performs selections from Timeless Portraits and Dreams, Ms. Allen's 2006 critically-acclaimed release on the Telarc label. Timeless Portraits and Dreams--an amalgam of original compositions, jazz standards, and spirituals--is Ms. Allen's acknowledgement of the artistic, historical, and even spiritual connections that have made jazz the powerful cultural force it has become during the past century. This concert is presented in partnership with Festival Productions, Inc. as part of Carnegie Hall's The Shape of Jazz series."

Click here for the full link at All About Jazz.

International Association for Jazz Education

2007-01-14T12:51:00.000-08:00

The International Association for Jazz Education has published a great promotional brochure for Geri Allen. It includes some fabulous quotes from Geri's career and her most recent recording, "Timeless Portraits and Dreams". Including this one:

"Almost an omnibus work of the connection of the history of black-ness and music, with two Miles vets [Ron Carter and Jimmy Cobb] at her side, she weaves a spell mixing originals with classics that gives you an Ellingtonian feel to the whole thing. A work like this could not have been crafted without deep soul issues that needed to be laid bare. Geri Allen has a sure footed artistic statement here that, at the same time, has no dust on it.” — Midwest Record Recap

Click here to download the PDF.

Soul-Patrol.com - Best of 2006

2007-01-14T12:33:00.000-08:00

Timeless Portraits And Dreams was chosen as a Soul-Patrol.com - Best of 2006!

"As is our tradition we will give you our best of picks in the following categories: Live Performances, Classic Soul, Jazz, Funk, Rock n' Roll, Southern Soul/Blues, Nu Soul, Singles, Compilations, Books, DVD's. It's our way of honoring the very best of what we have reviewed during the course of the year 2006."

Click here to check out the Soul-patrol Best of 2006.

Timeless Portraits and Dreams

2006-11-09T05:37:00.000-08:00

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.

Click here for the full review at All About Jazz.

Geri Allen Trio - The Bakery 10.18.06

2006-10-20T06:59:00.000-07:00

Geri Allen Trio@The Bakery 10.18.06
By George W. Harris

Away from LA way too long, pianist Geri Allen showed the Bakery audience what it's been missing the past 2 years with an overwhelming performance that featured gospel-derived bop performed with alarming alacrity and fortitude.

Opening with music from her marvelous new disc "Timeless Portraits and Dreams", Ms Allen and her trio of Kenny Davis (bass) and Mark Johnson (drums) played the sentimental and spiritual "Oh Freedom/Melcezedik" with flexible dynamism and sympathetic interplay. On the bebop anthem "Ah-Leu-Cha", the band was hard driving, yet elastic. The snappy rhythmic brushwork by Johnson was so quick that it seemed like a slight of hand magic trick. Davis' nimble bass work bounced around Allen's inventive solos like bank shots in a shooting gallery. The clever call and response between all three on the freely funky "Our Lady" took the form of a musical relay race to see who could pass the baton the quickest, with all three reaching the bluesy finish line amazingly at the same time. Closing with a celebratory "In Appreciation", Ms Allen brough jazz to its church roots. With her piano supplying the down home gospel chords,Davis bringing the swaying rhythm to it's basic beat, and Johnson playing the cymbals like a Holiness tambourine choir, the band took the music to an ecstatic and volcanic climax. Allen's chords fed into Johnson's jaw dropping cross-handed drumming to create a cataclysmic finale that seemed timeless and eternally blissful. No one in the audience could believe the amount of energy being delivered from the stage. Such displays of musical vigor and spiritual vision are in short supply; Allen and her trio delivered the goods this warm autumn evening at the Bakery.