GERI ALLEN QUARTET Continues Jazz Up Close Series Celebration of Thelonious Monk at the Kimmel Center, Dec. 4
NOVEMBER 11, 2010
“One of the most accomplished jazz pianists of her generation, Geri Allen has long made music that combines the traditional and the avant-garde, the cerebral and the soulful, the restrained and the raucous” —All About Jazz
The Kimmel Center’s Jazz Up Close series continues its season-long celebration of Thelonious Monk with a performance of pianist Geri Allen and her Quartet on Saturday, December 4, 2010 at 7:30pm in Perelman Theater. Her program highlights Monk classics, her own combination of hard post-bop swing and newer works from her 2010 solo piano debut, Flying Toward the Sound, composed during her Guggenheim Fellowship in 2008-09. An artist chat with Geri Allen and Jazz Up Close artistic advisor Danilo Pérez, will take place immediately following intermission from Perelman Theater stage.
Tickets for the Geri Allen Quartet are available from $32 to $38 by calling 215-893-1999, online at www.kimmelcenter.org, or at the Kimmel Center Box Office located on Broad and Spruce streets, Philadelphia, PA 19102, which is open daily from 10am to 6pm.
Highly collaborative, the Detroit-bred composer-pianist, Geri Allen, has worked with artists as diverse as Ravi Coltrane, Dianne Reeves, Lizz Wright, to Bill Cosby, Sir Simon Rattle, Meshell Ndegeocello, Jimmy Cobb, Joan Rivers, and Mary Wilson and the Supremes. Through the years, she has generated a unique sound all her own; at times avant-garde, she continues to dispel the past, present and future of jazz music in numerous recordings under her name: the ambitious and critically-acclaimed Timeless Portraits and Dreams (2006), The Life of a Song (2004), The Gathering (1998), Back of Your Head (1996), Twenty One (1994), Maroons (1992), The Nurturer (1990), Eyes in the Homegrown (1985), and The Printmakers (1984).
Allen has received numerous honors through the years including receiving the key to the city of Cambridge during Geri Allen Week at Harvard University, and the key to the city of Cleveland. Howard University, her alma mater, honored her with its Benny Golson Award, while Spelman College provided her with the African Classical Music Award in 2007. She was the first artist to receive the Lady Of Soul Award in Jazz, and was also the youngest person—and the first woman—to receive the Danish Jazzpar Prize.
She holds a master's degree in ethnomusicology from The University of Pittsburgh, and currently teaches as Associate Professor of Jazz Piano & Improvisation Studies at University of Michigan. She also continues to record and tour with tenor saxophonist Charles Lloyd.
Kimmel Center, Inc., a charitable, not-for-profit organization, owns, manages, supports and maintains The Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts, which includes Verizon Hall, Perelman Theater, Innovation Studio and the Merck Arts Education Center. Kimmel Center, Inc. also manages the Academy of Music, owned by the Philadelphia Orchestra Association, and the University of the Arts’ Merriam Theater. Our mission is to operate a world-class performing arts center that engages and serves a broad audience from throughout the Greater Philadelphia region. The 2010/2011 season is sponsored by Citi, and the Broadway 2010/2011 season is sponsored by Verizon, and American Airlines. For additional information, visit kimmelcenter.org. > index of news releases
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