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| The Geri Allen Trio at the Village Vanguard The Geri Allen Trio (Geri Allen, piano; Kenny Davis, bass; Mr. Jimmy Cobb, drums) performing at the Village Vanguard Tuesday Through Sunday (October 2 - October 7). Geri will be playing music from her current Telarc CD Timeless Portraits and Dreams. Whether Geri Allen performs solo, in a classic trio setting, or in a larger group, her music is typically lush yet elusive, expansive and abstract, lyrical while imbued with tensile strength, sophisticated modernism, essences of gospel, swing, and the blues. As a composer and improviser, leader or collaborative accompanist, she draws from the virtues and beauties of the American jazz tradition and enriches it in return. But her music truly transcends category through its expressive immediacy, originality, nuance, and universality. Since arriving in New York City in 1982, she has produced a treasury of performances and recordings, working with revered masters, uncompromising avant-gardists, and up-and-coming innovators while remaining distinctly herself. Her nimble fingers spinning harmonic and rhythmic complications from melodic basis create suspenseful listening. But she is also community-minded and family-grounded, making a sense of the connections and continuities linking generations significant to her style and substance. Geri Allen portrayed Mary Lou Williams in Robert Altman's 1996 film Kansas City, embodying the soulful, pioneering woman whose contributions as a jazz player, writer, educator, and advocate were, as Duke Ellington said, “perpetually contemporary.” Williams remains Allen's hero--she has become musical director of The Mary Lou Williams Collective, and has recorded Williams's ambitious Zodiac Suite--a tribute paid to one jazz giant from another. Geri Allen's position within the international jazz clan now equals Williams's; her ongoing energy and curiosity promise more great things to come. write your comments about the article :: © 2007 Jazz News :: home page |