Geri Allen 'Timeless Portraits And Dreams' album

Pianist Geri Allen’s 2004 Telarc debut, The Life of a Song, garnered well-deserved praise from all corners. The New York Times called it “her best in years,” while JazzTimes called her compositions “fresh” and “distinctive.” ICE compared her playing to that of Bill Evans and Herbie Hancock, but suggested that her original compositions “were inspired by deeper, more personal connections.” These deep and personal connections are at the core of Geri Allen and her music. Timeless Portraits and Dreams, her new Telarc release set for retail on August 22, 2006, is far more than just another installment in her twenty-year body of work. An amalgam of original compositions, jazz standards and spirituals, the album is Allen’s acknowledgement and affirmation of the artistic, historical and even spiritual connections that have made jazz the powerful cultural force that it has become over the past century.

“Jazz embodies all that is the best in us,” says Allen. “Because it is a clear reflection of who we are, jazz can also reflect the wide range of human strengths and frailties. In jazz, we have complete freedom of expression…At its best, we move out of the way and become vessels ready to receive, vulnerable, and open to divine influence.”

Allen is joined on Timeless Portraits and Dreams by a stellar group of supporting players. Rounding out the core trio are bassist Ron Carter and drummer Jimmy Cobb. In addition, the roster of special guests includes vocalists Carmen Lundy and George Shirley (the first African-American tenor to sing at the Metropolitan Opera), trumpeter Wallace Roney, tenor saxophonist Donald Walden and the Atlanta Jazz Chorus (under the direction of Dwight Andrews).

The set opens with the distinctive “Oh Freedom/Melchezedik,” a medley arranged by Allen (the first tune in the medley is a spiritual, the second was penned by saxophonist Antoine Roney). Allen’s syncopated piano chord blocks on the opening spiritual segue into a more rhythmic and melodic groove that is underscored by Ron Carter’s occasional bass passages weaving in and out of the subtle backdrop of color provided by the Atlanta Jazz Chorus.

“Portraits and Dreams” is a midtempo straightahead jazz number that features Allen’s piano working in solid tandem with her trio. The rhythm and tempo are fluid, but the piece holds together thanks to the consistent underpinning provided by Carter and Jimmy Cobb.

The brief but powerful “I Have a Dream” opens with Walden’s smoky sax lines alongside Allen’s seemingly effortless piano work. Backed by the Atlanta Jazz Chorus, George Shirley delivers impassioned lyrics adapted from the words of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Allen’s rendition of George Gershwin’s classic “Embraceable You” is gentle and melodic, filled with embellishments that are always tasteful. Allen’s rendition of the tune was inspired by Herbie Hancock’s version first aired on his 1998 opus, Gershwin’s World. Carter and Cobb are ever present in this quiet track, but never obtrusive. Immediately following is a spirited take on Charlie Parker’s “Ah-Leu-Cha,” energized and filled with a rhythmic tension that perfectly offsets the preceding Gershwin tune.

The home stretch includes the title track, “Timeless Portraits and Dreams,” a composition penned by Allen with rich vocals by Carmen Lundy. The lyrics deftly compare dreams to rivers and streams – some small and others big, sometimes moving separately and sometimes flowing together, always moving toward tomorrow regardless of obstacles.

The album also includes a bonus disc that features tenor George Shirley delivering a stirring rendition of “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” the hymn by James Weldon Johnson and John Rosamund Johnson. Written in the 1920s and perhaps the best known of the Johnson brothers’ collaborations, “Lift Every Voice” became known in subsequent decades as the “Negro National Anthem.”

Whether the context is spiritual or secular, Allen adheres to the premise that there is a transcendental element in jazz – one that conjures portraits and dreams that connect both performer and audience to each other, to the past and to the future.

“It is the intention behind the note that distinguishes a music’s spirituality,” she says. “It is the intention behind a thought, a word, a song, or an improvised expression that frames the performance. It is within this reality that Timeless Portraits and Dreams lives, and why each musical portion, along the ‘journey’ which is this recording, belongs together as cohesive parts of the whole.”

Geri Allen’s Timeless Portraits and Dreams (CD-83645) is due at retail on August 22, 2006.

Biography

Hailed as “a jazz pianist who dares to follow an unmarked road” (The New York Times) and honored for “her extensive music education and a devotion to the swinging roots of jazz” (Los Angeles Times), pianist/composer Geri Allen is a true original. Rhythmically subtle yet startlingly provocative, Allen respects the jazz tradition, but refuses to be bound by it, and her original works journey into constantly adventurous areas, always seeking out new musical avenues.

“First and foremost, I’m trying to make good music – to serve the music and be the best musician I can,” says Allen. “Jazz in its purest state isn’t about boundaries. It’s about celebrating what has come before, while exploring your inner voice and being yourself.”

Geri Allen, a Detroit native, began piano lessons at age seven and continued for ten years. One of many important jazz pianists to emerge from that city's fertile music scene, Allen attended the famous magnet music school, Cass Technical High School. After graduating with a degree in jazz studies from Howard University in Washington, DC, she attended the University of Pittsburgh where she earned a master’s degree in ethnomusicology. Allen then moved to the jazz capital of the world, New York City.

“Detroit was an incubator for jazz talent and was such an important part of my development,” says Allen. “A lot of great musicians have benefited from their experiences there. I was also really affected by the Motown scene because those were the songs I heard as a kid.”

In addition to teaching as an Assistant Professor of Music at Howard and garnering such honors as that university’s Distinguished Alumni Award, the SESAC Special Achievement Award, and the Eubie Blake Award from the Cultural Crossroads Center in New York, Allen has amassed a stunning resume of musical collaborations. Since 1982, she has worked with musicians as diverse as Charles Lloyd (with whom she’s been touring for two years), Mal Waldron, Vernon Reid, Mino Cinelu, Mary Wilson and The Supremes, Tony Williams, Ron Carter, Oliver Lake and Betty Carter, among many others.

However, it’s Allen’s spectacular writing that has fueled her emergence as a jazz leader. The Nurturer, her first U.S. major label release (Blue Note) was issued in 1992. 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. Allen’s excellent musicianship was internationally recognized in 1996 when she was the first woman to win the coveted Danish Jazzpar prize. That same year, she participated in Ornette Coleman’s Sound Museum projects and also played the role of Mary Lou Williams in Robert Altman’s film Kansas City. On her 1998 recording, The Gathering (Verve), Allen proved herself equally adept in a larger group context.

Now married (to trumpeter Wallace Roney), a mother, composer, producer, educator and band leader, Allen’s ambitions remain the same as they were when she grew up in Detroit. “It’s important to be in the moment,” she says. “I’m still inspired by dance and movement, and through my music I want to connect with people to maintain a continuity between all generations.”

Allen joined the Telarc label with the 2004 release of The Life of a Song, her first new release in six years, with eight imaginative new compositions propelled by veterans Dave Holland on bass and Jack DeJohnette on drums. The New York Times called the album “her best in years,” while JazzTimes called her compositions “fresh” and “distinctive.” ICE compared her playing to that of Bill Evans and Herbie Hancock, but suggested that her original compositions “were inspired by deeper, more personal connections.”

These deep and personal connections are at the core of her new Telarc opus, Timeless Portraits and Dreams, scheduled for release in August 2006. An amalgam original compositions, jazz standards and spirituals, the recording is Allen’s musical acknowledgement and affirmation of the artistic, historical and even spiritual connections that have made jazz the powerful cultural force that it has become over the past century.

Allen is joined on Timeless Portraits and Dreams by a stellar group of supporting players. Rounding out the core trio are bassist Ron Carter and drummer Jimmy Cobb. In addition, the roster of special guests includes vocalists Carmen Lundy and George Shirley (the first African-American tenor to sing at the Metropolitan Opera), trumpeter Wallace Roney, tenor saxophonist Donald Walden and the Atlanta Jazz Chorus (under the direction of Dwight Andrews).

“Jazz embodies all that is the best in us,” says Allen. “Because it is a clear reflection of who we are, jazz can also reflect the wide range of human strengths and frailties. In jazz, we have complete freedom of expression…At its best, we move out of the way and become vessels ready to receive, vulnerable, and open to divine influence.”

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Geri Allen - Timeless Portraits And Dreams