Geri Allen died today of cancer. She was 60. Ms. Allen was a pianist of uncommon technical achievement and fluency and inspired a generation of younger pianists. Recently a resident of Pittsburgh, Ms. Allen grew up in Detroit, where she began piano lessons at age seven. While at Cass Technical High School she studied with the trumpeter and Detroit jazz mentor Marcus Belgrave. One of her early trios included bassist Anthony Cox and drummer Andrew Cyrille. In the course of her career she collaborated with major musicians, among them Ron Carter, Tony Williams, Charlie Haden, Ornette Coleman, Dave Holland, Jack DeJohnette, Ornette Coleman and Terri Lyne Carrington.
For a comprehensive obituary of Geri Allen, see David Adler’s remembrance posted by the New Jersey jazz station WGBO. The piece contains two videos of Ms. Allen in performance, one with an extensive interview.
Geri Allen, RIP
This was a shock, and I haven’t been able to get it out of my mind, I heard Allen live four times, counting a performance with Wallace Roney’s band at Iridium, but I’m sorry to say that the last time was in 2001. I’d always meant to hear her again, and I was often tempted to head up to New York in December to catch her again at what seemed like her annual stay at the Vanguard. Money being no object, I would have gone every year, but I’ve often remembered the gorgeous “Come Sunday” with which she opened her first set way back in 2001.
One of my favourite players. I can’t think of anything she did that didn’t have some value for me. Love her work with Haden and Motian, particularly the “Segments” release. Just looking at the cover for that CD which causes me to realize with a start that they are all gone now. Hard to believe.Time marches on and we lose great artists with alarming regularity, it seems.
It’s great to have the recorded legacy to fall back on, but I always held out hope that I would see some of them live and in the flesh. I never got to see Geri, Charlie or Paul live and now I never will.
Sigh inserted here. RIP to a great lady.
Just two weeks before Allen’s death, the pianist Ethan Iverson posted a rumination about her early work and the influence it has had on younger pianists. Iverson posted his piece at about the same time as this site was hosting a discussion about whether jazz has changed, and one of Iverson’s thoughts about Allen is relevant to that discussion:
The constant in Allen’s playing was its explorative curiosity, both harmonic and historical, and in all sorts of contexts. Iverson’s piece winds up with this:
Perhaps we are in the middle of a long-term broadening of the role of the piano in jazz. If we are, historians may conclude that it all began with Allen.
Fascinating thoughts from Ethan Iverson. Thanks for the post, Peter.
Sometimes it takes the perspective of time to realize that someone was a game changer. I don’t think there greater evidence that someone fits that role than the impact that he, or she, has on other players.