Geri Allen (born June 12, 1957 in Pontiac, Michigan) is an American composer/pianist educator jazz pianist, raised in Detroit, Michigan, and educated in the Detroit Public Schools. Allen has worked with many of the greats of modern music, including Ornette Coleman, Ron Carter, Ravi Coltrane, Tony Williams, Dave Holland, Jack DeJohnette, Betty Carter, and Charles Lloyd. She cites her primary influences to be her parents, Mount Vernell Allen Jr, and Barbara Jean Allen, and her primary musical influences to be, mentors Marcus Belgrave, Donald Waldon, and Betty Carter, as well as pianists, Herbie Hancock, Mary Lou Williams, Hank Jones, Alice Coltrane, Cecil Taylor, Thelonious Monk, McCoy Tyner, Bud Powell and mentor, Dr. Billy Taylor. Allen is an Associate Professor of Jazz and Contemporary Improvisation in the School Of Music Theatre & Dance, at the University Of Michigan.
Read more about Geri Allen: Biography
Famous quotes containing the word allen:
“‘The key is in the window, the key is in the sunlight at the
window—I have the key—Get married Allen don’t take drugs—the key is in the bars, in the sunlight in the window.
Love,
your mother’”
—Allen Ginsberg (b. 1926)