Geri Allen

Associate Professor of Jazz Piano & Improvisation Studies
gaallen@umich.edu
734-764-5599

Education:
B.A. (Jazz Studies and Piano), Howard Univ.
M.A. (Ethnomusicology), Univ. of Pittsburgh

Geri Allen is an internationally known award-winning composer and pianist. Since 1982, she has recorded or performed with musicians as diverse as Charles Lloyd, Donald Walden, Bill Cosby, Mal Waldron, Sir Simon Rattle,Vernon Reid, Clark Terry, George Shirley, Ron Carter, Me'ShellNdegeocello, Dewey Redman, Jimmy Cobb, Mary Wilson and The Supremes, Marcus Belgrave, Tony Williams, Betty Carter, Marian McPartland, Charlie Haden, Hal Wilner, Mino Cinelu, Ruth Brown, Billy Taylor, Oliver, Marianne Faithful, Wayne Shorter, Joan Rivers, and Oliver Lake among many others.

Professor Allen has released a number of recordings under her own name including The Nurturer, Eyes in the Back Of Your Head, Homegrown, The Printmakers Twenty One, Maroons, The Gathering and most recently, the ambitious, critically acclaimed  double CD Geri Allen: Timeless Portraits and Dreams.

Professor Allen has been the recipient of numerous recent honors, including but not limited to Key to the City of Detroit and the City of Cleveland, the Benny Golson Award form Howard University, 2007 Composer and the African Classical Music Award from Spelman College.  Ms. Allen also distinguished herself as the  first woman and youngest person to win the Danish Jazzpar prize.

A Detroit native,  and a graduate of  Detroit's  famous magnet music school, Cass Technical High School, also attended Howard University, where she also served as Assistant Professor of Music. During that period the University honored her with both the Distinguished Alumni and Distinguished Professor Awards.

Professor Allen also holds a Master's Degree in Ethnomusicology from the University of Pittsburgh, where she studied with Dr. Nathan Davis, Dr. K Nketia, John Blacking, and Dr. Bell Yung.

She came to the School of Music, Theatre & Dance after teaching at New England Conservatory, The New School in NYC, and spending 25 years actively participating as a performing and recording artist who continues to be part of the Who's Who in Jazz on the NYC Jazz Scene today.

In addition to her individual performances and recordings, Ms. Allen has also participated in a number of notable collaborations including performances on Miles: Cool and Collected, a CD anthology of  Miles Davis's work from 1956 to 1984. Tenure in Ornette Coleman quartet form 1991 -1995, culminating in the celebrated Sound Museum CD, and The Mary Lou Williams Collective, for which she serves as musical director. Allen played the role of Mary Lou Williams in Robert Altman's, film Kansas City, and contributed original music for  the Peabody Award winning documentary Beah: A Black Woman Speaks, director, Lisa Gay Hamilton. Allen also continues to perform and collaborate with her husband  Jazz Master, Wallace Roney.

Ms. Allen's work as a composers has garnered numerous awards from SESAC as well as commissions from Lincoln Center, Music Theatre Group, American Music Theatre Festival, Stanford University,  and most recently from Walt Whitman Arts Center and Meet The Composer who commissioned "For The Healing Of The Nations",  a Sacred Jazz Work, which was composed in tribute to the victims and survivors of the 9/11 tragedy, which premiered September 10th, 2006.

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