The Night Beat with Doug Crane celebrates National Piano Month

September is National Piano Month! And with it comes Doug’s annual jazz piano programs.

This year we’ll be featuring outstanding albums by four stellar female jazz pianists: Geri Allen, Junko Onishi, Renee Rosnes and Eliane Elias.

First up on September 10, it’s “Twenty One”, a trio album recorded by Geri Allen in 1994 with drummer Tony Williams and bassist Ron Carter. Half of the twelve tracks on the album are originals written by Geri, the other half are well-known jazz standards.

Born in Pontiac, MI, in June 1957, Geri began piano and violin study at the age of 7. She earned her Bachelor’s Degree from Howard University’s jazz program in 1979 and was awarded a Master’s Degree in Ethnomusicology from the University of Pittsburgh in 1982. 

Geri was one of the prime musicians in what was known as the M-Base Collective in the mid-1980s. It included drummer Anthony Cox, bassist Andrew Cyrille, and her then-husband, saxophonist Steve Coleman.

Geri taught at the New England Conservatory of Music, the University of Michigan, and at the time of her passing in 2017 an Associate Professor and Director of Jazz Studies at the University of Pittsburgh.

“Twenty One” is the last of three albums Geri recorded for Blue Note. Produced by Teo Macero, it has too long been overlooked for the masterpiece it is. Some critics and jazz musicians compare it favorably with McCoy Tyner’s fabled series of Super Trio projects from the 1970s. One of those features McCoy in the company of Tony Williams and Ron Carter, the same drummer and bassist heard on “Twenty One”.

Geri and Tony prove perfect foils for each other as one continually pushes the other forward. Tempos aren’t frantic, but a listener can’t escape thinking that some of the tracks are hanging on by a thread and that Geri and Tony (plus Ron, too) are having a lot of fun in the recording studio.

There’s more to say about Geri, her time working with vocalist Betty Carter, appearing as pianist Mary Lou Williams in Robert Altman’s 1996 movie Kansas City, her recordings with Charles Lloyd, transcribing and offering a definitive performance of Mary Lou Williams' “Zodiac Suite”…

Tune in Wednesday, September 10, at 8 p.m. for Geri Allen’s “Twenty One” on The Night Beat with your host Doug Crane.

Music that Doug listened to while writing the above included “Twenty-One” and a live duet performance in a Paris jazz club that Geri recorded on September 5, 2012, with guitarist Kurt Rosenwinkel. It was issued on Motema Records in 2023 as “A Lovesome Thing”.