Geri Allen, Timeless Portraits and Dreams - 58m 28s

Tracks & Durations

1. Oh Freedom	1:52
2. Melchezedik	7:06
3. Portraits and Dreams	2:27
4. Well Done	5:22
5. La Strada	4:21
6. I Have a Dream	2:23
7. Nearly	4:27
8. In Real Time	5:40
9. Embraceable You	2:48
10. Ah-Leu-Cha	4:51
11. Just For a Thrill	4:21
12. Our Lady (for Billie Holiday)	5:59
13. Timeless Portraits and Dreams	5:05
14. Portraits and Dreams, Reprise	1:38

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Review

Geri Allen's earlier 2006 album, Zodiac Suite: Revisited, a fine effort recorded under the banner of the Mary Lou Williams Collective, celebrated the legendary pianist by rescuing one of her major works from obscurity. On Timeless Portraits and Dreams Allen widens her scope, as she is wont to do, to bridge jazz, spirituals, and classical music. She performs lyrical solo pieces and jazz classics, demonstrates the art of the trio with Miles Davis alumni Ron Carter and Jimmy Cobb, backs the exceptional jazz singer Carmen Lundy with a vocal chorus, and features classical tenor George Shirley with the chorus on "I Have a Dream," written by Williams after Martin Luther King's assassination. Most projects like this have a tendency to veer off in different directions, but "Timeless Portraits and Dreams" hangs together beautifully, rooted in Allen's humanistic aims as a writer and musician and her comfort in varied settings. The seamlessly programmed CD also features her husband, trumpeter Wallace Roney, on an upbeat tribute to Billie Holiday, "Our Lady." On a single-song bonus disc, Shirley performs the song regarded as the black national anthem, "Lift Every Voice and Sing." --Lloyd SachsPianist Geri AllenÂ's 2004 Telarc debut, The Life of a Song, garnered well-deserved praise from all corners. The New York Times called it Â"her best in years,Â" while JazzTimes called her compositions Â"freshÂ" and Â"distinctive.Â" ICE compared her playing to that of Bill Evans and Herbie Hancock, but suggested that her original compositions Â"were inspired by deeper, more personal connections.Â"

These deep and personal connections are at the core of Geri Allen and her music. Timeless Portraits and Dreams, her new Telarc release set for retail on August 22, 2006, is far more than just another installment in her twenty-year body of work. An amalgam of original compositions, jazz standards and spirituals, the album is AllenÂ's acknowledgement and affirmation of the artistic, historical and even spiritual connections that have made jazz the powerful cultural force that it has become over the past century.

Allen is joined on Timeless Portraits and Dreams by a stellar group of supporting players. Rounding out the core trio are bassist Ron Carter and drummer Jimmy Cobb. In addition, the roster of special guests includes 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 (under the direction of Dwight Andrews).

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