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Geri Allen

Timeless Portraits and Dreams

Telarc

Album description
Pianist Geri Allen's Telarc debut, "The Life of a Song", received tremendous reviews across the board and made numerous critics "Best of 2004" year end lists.

Her new release is an amalgam of original compositions, jazz standards and spirituals. The theme is Allen's acknowledgement and affirmation of the artistic, historical and spiritual connections that have made jazz the powerful cultural force it has become over the past century.

For the new recording, Geri's trio consists of Ron Carter on bass and Jimmy Cobb on drums. Special guests include vocalists Carmen Lundy and George Shirley (the first African-American tenor to sing at the Metropolitan Opera), trumpeter Wallace Roney, tenor saxophonist Donald Walden and the Atlanta Jazz Chorus.

The album is a tribute to Rosa Parks and Coretta Scott King, so it is fitting that it includes the James Weldon Johnson and John Rosamund Johnson hymn "Lift Every Voice and Sing". This track is included on a bonus disc that is included with "Timeless Portraits and Dreams" at no extra charge.

"A sublime piano touch and improvisational sweep from Allen that can give even Herbie Hancock a run." (John Fordham – The Guardian)