‘Flying Toward the Sound’
Robin D.G. Kelley, historian
Geri Allen’s music is like the Caribbean Sea. No matter where you dip your toes, it is warm, blue, alive, and prone to occasional hurricanes. Dip your ear into any Geri Allen recording and you’ll fall in love. Geri, whom I came to know not only as a brilliant pianist/composer but as a scholar/teacher, drew on her encyclopedic knowledge of the music to produce a wholly original sound. Few musicians could do what she did. Her facility, rhythmic precision, harmonic ingenuity and pure soulfulness would have made Tatum, Monk and Jimi Hendrix sit down and take notice. While she brought energy and dynamism to any ensemble, I chose “Flying Toward the Sound,” the title track to her eight-part solo piano suite, inspired by Cecil Taylor, McCoy Tyner and Herbie Hancock. It is a journey beautifully told. Complete. There is nothing else to say. Dive in.
▶ Listen on Spotify, Apple Music and YouTube
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‘Timeless Portraits and Dreams’
Carmen Lundy, vocalist
When Geri first gave me the chart for this tune, she said, “Here, Carmen,” in her lovely, gentle way, though there was always that intense, fire-burning soul of hers shining through too. The depth of the conception jumped out at me: What starts out as a plaintive little phrase grows into so much more. The harmony is full of polychords, where you’ve got two harmonies layered on top of each other, adding an expansion and a depth to things. And she had clearly written it for me, in the truest part of my voice — so that every note is coming out of me without any struggle. There is such complexity and authenticity in her understanding of this music; I call it her jazzness, or sometimes just her highness. And then, she added a lyric that beautifully re-expresses this already completely revealed composition! She’s talking about “timeless portraits and dreams”: a portrait is a rendering of something that already exists, and a dream is something that we want to bring into existence. “In tomorrow’s world / Let joy and love run free.”
▶ Listen on Spotify, Apple Music and YouTube
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‘Unconditional Love’
Milena Casado, trumpeter
I still remember the first time I heard Geri Allen live with ACS Trio alongside Terri Lyne Carrington and Esperanza Spalding at the Jazz in Marciac festival. It was such a pivotal and inspiring moment for me. That concert has stayed with me ever since, especially the moment they performed Geri’s composition “Unconditional Love,” from her album “The Life of a Song.” I couldn’t stop listening to it afterward. “Unconditional Love” is one of my favorite compositions. The melody and harmony are so beautiful, and the movement within the music, as well as the interplay between the trio, are amazing. I love listening to it and performing it too; it gives me a sense of belonging, and acceptance. There is something so honest and vulnerable about it. It is a special composition for me, and it has become the soundtrack to many important moments in my life.
▶ Listen on Spotify, Apple Music and YouTube
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‘Tears of a Clown’
Vernon Reid, guitarist
Geri Allen was a completely original voice on the piano, an original voice as a composer, and an original voice as an improviser. One side of Geri that I adored was her enormous pride to be a Michigander — and her love for Motown music was a major part of her identity as a musician, even as she went headlong into jazz. When she was in her mid-20s, I remember she auditioned to be in the band of Mary Wilson. I’ll never forget: She was so nervous, but when she aced this audition she was in seventh heaven. It meant so much to her, to work with one of the original Supremes. I would point any listener to Geri’s album “Grand River Crossings: Motown and Motor City Inspirations,” from later in her career. This record was very close to her heart. And her amazing version of “Tears of a Clown” is a great point of entry into this side of her artistry.
▶ Listen on Spotify, Apple Music and YouTube
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‘Well Done’
Kassa Overall, drummer and producer
I decided to highlight Geri Allen’s recording of “Well Done,” featuring Carmen Lundy, from her album “Timeless Portraits and Dreams,” for a very personal reason. Geri Allen was the first person to take me to Europe as a professional musician. Though I was still immature, and making mistakes I didn’t know existed, she held me close and made sure I was heading in the right direction, both musically and personally. During that first tour in the summer of 2007, we played “Well Done” every set. And the experience always got me. Being up there with the masters of that time playing on such a high level, emoting such pure feelings of love and peace, I would tear up every time. These moments of clarity sustained me throughout my career. Geri Allen was a master of emoting and expression. When conveying the ideal of universal love and connection, she was a pure channel. We are lucky to have had her on the planet.
