DIE US-AMERIKANISCHE JAZZ-PIANISTIN GERI ALLEN IST GESTORBEN

Die am 12. Juni 1957 in Detroit (Michigan) geborene US-amerikanische Jazz-Pianistin, Komponistin, Musikethnologin und Hochschullehrerin Geri Allen (Bild) ist am 27. Juni 2017 in Philadelphia (Pennsylvania) gestorben.

Foto: Pablosecca, 2008 – CC-Lizenz: Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported – Zur Datei: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Geri-allen-by-pablo-secca.jpg

It is with a heavy heart that we announce our beloved and brilliant Geri Allen passed away in the afternoon of June 27. In a career that spanned more than 35 years, Geri gifted us with her impeccable playing, composing, arranging and empowering young musicians everywhere by acknowledging the past and bringing the music forward with her innovative projects and her educational acumen.

http://geriallen.com/

Botschafterin der Community

Geri Allen, diese aussergewöhnliche Jazzpianistin, erlag am Dienstag, dem 27. Juni, zwei Wochen nachdem sie ihren sechzigsten Geburtstag gefeiert hatte, dem Krebs.

Stefan Hentz

https://www.nzz.ch/feuilleton/nachruf-botschafterin-der-community-ld.1303398?reduced=true

Geri Allens Spiel war alles andere als «lieblich», «elegant» oder was sonst einige unter «weiblichen Zugängen» zum Jazz verstehen. Dunkel rollende Arpeggien, große Gesten, kompliziert ineinanderfließende, durchaus atonale Läufe, behaupteten große Autorität vom ersten Ton an, glühten auf geheimnisvolle Weise. Aber all das floss immer wieder in Grooves, wie auch Allens von seiner ganzen Grundanlage her eigensinniges Spiel immer so gerade noch mainstreamtauglich blieb.

Jan Künemund

http://www.spiegel.de/kultur/musik/zum-tode-geri-allens-mit-eigensinn-und-groove-a-1154945.html

Sie gehörte zu den bedeutendsten Pianisten des Nachkriegs-Jazz und wurde nicht nur von ihren Kollegen wie eine Ikone verehrt.

Ssirus W. Pakzad

https://www.br-klassik.de/aktuell/news-kritik/geri-allen-gestorben-jazz-pianistin-nachruf-100.html

Perhaps more than any other pianist, Ms. Allen’s style – harmonically refracted and rhythmically complex, but also fluid – formed a bridge between jazz’s halcyon midcentury period and its diffuse present.

She accomplished this by holding some things constant: a farsighted approach to the piano, which she used both to guide and to goad her bandmates; an ability to toggle between artistic styles without warping her own sound; and a belief that jazz ought to interact with its kindred art forms across the African-American tradition.

Giovanni Russonello

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/27/arts/music/geri-allen-dead-jazz.html

Allen was still active as a performer as recently as this spring, when she toured Europe with fellow pianist McCoy Tyner. Her most recent recording as a leader was 2013’s Grand River Crossings: Motown & Motor City Inspirations (Motéma). Last year, Motéma released Perfection by the Murray, Allen and Carrington Power Trio.

Jeff Tamarkin

https://jazztimes.com/news/geri-allen-dies-60/

In addition to her varied and commanding work as a leader, Allen made her mark as a venturesome improviser on notable albums with the saxophonist-composers Ornette Coleman, Oliver Lake, Steve Coleman and Charles Lloyd; drummer Ralph Peterson, Jr.; bassist Charlie Haden and drummer Paul Motian; and many others. Her recent collaborations with drummer Terri Lyne Carrington, in separate trios featuring bassist Esperanza Spalding and tenor saxophonist David Murray, found her in a ceaselessly exploratory mode, probing new harmonic expanses and dynamic arcs.

Anastasia Tsioulcas

http://www.npr.org/sections/therecord/2017/06/27/534409838/geri-allen-pianist-composer-and-educator-dies-at-60

Audios / Videos:

Franco Ambrosetti & Geri Allen – Peace (Live at Estival Jazz Lugano 2011)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gRw9KRpTVBA

Franco Ambrosetti & Geri Allen – Blues for my friends (Live at Estival Jazz Lugano 2011)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e8mIAujq7cA

Geri Allen, Esperanza Spalding, Terri Lyne Carrington – jazz in marciac – unconditional love

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XHs-pNjC4eo

Geri Allen Trio, Dark Prince

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=42X2rb60_Mk

Geri Allen, Charlie Haden & Paul Motian: Live in London (1991)