TRACK LISTING
1. Flying Toward the Sound
2. Red Velvet in Winter
3. Dancing Mystic Poets at Twilight
4. GOD's Ancient Sky
5. Dancing Mystic Poets at Midnight
l6. Faithful Carriers of Life
7. Dancing Mystic Poets at Dawn
8. Flying Toward the Sound (Reprise)
9. Your Pure Self...Mother to Son
RELEASE INFORMATION
Geri Allen overshadows most pianists in her generation, not by miles, but by worlds. Her latest album, a solo performance, provides such sensitivity and gentile finesse it feels like her hands are gliding over you and through you; surrounds you with technique and style unknown since the high points of McCoy Tyner's and Mary Lou Williams's piano inventiveness and brilliance.
Allen is the artistic director of the Mary Lou Williams Collective and is an Associate Professor of Jazz & Contemporary Improvisation at the School Of Music Theatre & Dance at the University of Michigan. Educated in both classical and jazz, respectively, Allen dares to dive into the deep end of many music forms; from performing with Mary Wilson and the Supremes to the complex forms of improvisational jazz with musicians such as Ornette Coleman, Paul Motian, Charlie Haden, Tony Williams and Ron Carter.
It's the introspective compositional style, brought about by the merging of a multitude of music genres, that makes "Flying Toward the Sound" a magnificent piece of art. Art in sound. Allen paints a picture of modern art in the style of modern jazz. Influenced by the legendary jazz pianist Mary Lou Williams, Allen continuously seeks challenges in music, creates swinging sounds, dynamic and innovative sounds. That's what "Flying Toward the Sound" is all about.
Ms. Allen coalesces the many musicians with whom she's performed; their ideas, their voices, meshing them together with her now highly mature abilities. "Flying Toward the Sound" is what Geri Allen indeed does. Using her piano as a magic carpet, Geri Allen flies into the stratosphere of jazz, giving jazz another definitive moment from which future musicians can learn. What beautiful sounds float through the air, reaching out to the listener, to me, demanding that I cease whatever I'm doing and turn my attention to the works of this living jazz piano legend. Geri Allen's climb to the peak of this enormous mountain of music and musicians has now arrived with this extraordinary album, "Flying Toward the Sound." Mary Lou Williams is surely smiling from the heavens as she looks upon her successor as one of the greatest of greats in jazz piano and composition. Put your headset on, get comfortable, and prepare to go on a musical adventure with Geri Allen at the helm. Soar with "Flying Toward the Sound."