Geri Allen News

It is not often that a woman is given much elbowroom in contemporary music, no matter how good she may be.

What makes the Cape May Jazz Festival so interesting? Well, for one, there are those little yellow school buses you can catch to get to a venue at the very end of Beach Drive.

This month, over a dozen pianists will participate in a free concert, Thelonious Monk at 92, at the World Financial Center in lower Manhattan.

A short distance from Hitsville USA, where Berry Gordy created the Motown sound, shaping the history of American music and culture, and the Diego Rivera Court, where the artist's murals pay tribute to the workers whose hands made the auto industry a reality, sits Hart Plaza, Detroit's waterfront public space, where for 30 years, Detroiters and jazz ...

Oliver Lake returns to this weekend's Jazz Poetry Concert on the North Side. For New Jersey-based saxophonist Oliver Lake, a few things are sure after he gets up in the morning: he'll write some new music and perform it with some of the world's most forward-thinking jazz figures, and he'll be in Pittsburgh in the middle of September.

Jazz and dance were indivisible for about half a century, until modernism, beginning with bebop, downplayed the music's historic social functions in favor of creating an art pitched at listeners rather than dancers.

Though the Karriem Riggins Virtuoso Experience was one of the most anticipated bands at the 2009 Detroit International Jazz Festival, it was also one of the most mysterious.

The Detroit International Jazz Festival is taking its family-friendliness a step further this year.

Today, festival organizers announced the complete lineup and sponsors for the 30th Anniversary of the Detroit International Jazz Festival , Friday, September 4 through Monday, September 7, in downtown Detroit.

Greg Thomas is a long-time writer/editor and host/co-producer of Jazz it Up!, the web's first interactive jazz series.

TRIO 3, featuring saxophonist Oliver Lake, bassist Reggie Workman and drummer Andrew Cyrille, is joined by special guest Geri Allen on piano tonight and tomorrow at 8:30 and 11 p.m. 315 W. 44th St.; 212-581-3080. BLUE NOTE: Guitarist Larry Carlton, who played with the Crusaders in the '70s, performs today through Sunday at 8 and 10:30 p.m. 131 W.

TRIO 3, featuring saxophonist Oliver Lake, bassist Reggie Workman and drummer Andrew Cyrille, is joined by special guest Geri Allen on piano tonight and tomorrow at 8:30 and 11 p.m. 315 W. 44th St.; 212-581-3080. BLUE NOTE: Guitarist Larry Carlton, who played with the Crusaders in the '70s, performs today through Sunday at 8 and 10:30 p.m. 131 W.

SOURCE: The Cinarae Group One of the Best Performances of 2008 Laurence Donohue-Greene, Managing Editor, All About Jazz 'Pure musical symmetry" as three world-renowned musicians, Oliver Lake Reggie Workman and Andrew Cyrille , merge to apply a sparse yet tight, rhythmic concept to the totally open harmonics of the reeds, bass and drums.

One of the more compelling facets of jazz as a musical form is the pliability of its practitioners.

Geri Allen, a jazz pianist who studied at the University of Pittsburgh, will be the guest at this year's Jazz-Poetry Concert in the North Side on Sept.

Barbican Jazz plays host to three rapidly rising jazz stars, all making their London concert debut following impressive club shows over the past year.

A week or so ago I was invited to interview artist Carrie Mae Weems on the set of her new art/film project, Refractions , a collaboration with jazz artist Geri Allen .