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43rd Annual Jazz Seminar Concert

Date

November 2, 2013 - 8:00pm

The University of Pittsburgh Annual Jazz Seminar and Concert culminates on Saturday, November 2nd with a gala concert in Carnegie Music Hall. Internationally renowned pianist and composer Geri Allen, Pitt’s new director of the Jazz Studies Program and associate professor of music, continues the legacy of Professor Emeritus of Music Nathan Davis, the former director and founder of the Pitt Jazz Seminar and Concert, who retired this summer.

Performers taking part this year include Allen, piano; Brinae Ali, tap percussionist; Marcus Belgrave, trumpet; Randy Brecker, trumpet; Vincent Chandler, trombone; Ravi Coltrane, saxophone; Kenny Davis, bass; Carmen Lundy, vocalist; Russell Malone, guitar; Kassa Overall, drums; Ernie Watts, saxophone; and Jeff “Tain” Watts, drummer, all performing under the direction of pianist Allen.

The Nov. 2 concert is a one-of-a-kind performance, given the diverse playing styles and unique nature of the show. Tickets are $25 for orchestra seating, $20 general admission, and $10 for students with a valid ID. They are available for purchase during regular business hours at the box office of the William Pitt Union, 3959 Fifth Ave., Oakland, and from noon to 5 p.m. Mondays through Fridays at the University of Pittsburgh Stages box office in the lower level of the Stephen Foster Memorial, Forbes Ave. and Bigelow Blvd., Oakland. Tickets may also be purchased at www.music.pitt.edu/tickets or by calling 412-624-PLAY (7529).

The Honorable William R. Robinson, District 10 representative to the Allegheny County Council and former Pennsylvania state representative, will serve as the evening’s master of ceremonies.

About Geri Allen

Geri Allen first heard jazz in her home in Detroit, growing up listening to her father’s Charlie Parker records. She learned under some of the best in Cass Technical High School, Detroit’s magnet school for music, where she became skilled in composing and arranging.

Allen was one of the first to graduate from Howard University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in jazz studies. It was at Howard where she began to embrace ethnic music from all cultures and it has greatly influenced her work. She met Davis through one of her instructors who had studied under him. And after graduation, while studying under Kenny Barron in New York City, she was encouraged by Davis to attend Pitt to earn her master’s degree in ethnomusicology in 1982.

Since then, Allen has performed and collaborated with a long list of jazz greats, including Davis, the Ornette Coleman Quartet, Ron Carter, Tony Williams, Betty Carter, Charles Lloyd, Marcus Belgrave, and many others. Currently, she is director of the Mary Lou Williams Collective. She also is touring with drummer Terri Lyne Carrington and bassist Esperanza Spalding in the ACS Trio.

Her song “Unconditional Love,” was included on Carrington’s Grammy Award-winning album Mosaic. The album received the 2012 Grammy Award for Best Jazz Vocal Album of the Year. Allen has released a number of recordings under her own name. Timeline (Motéma Music, 2010), which features her tap/quartet, received an NAACP Image Award nomination. A Child is Born (Motéma Music, 2011) is a compilation of traditional Christmas carols, hymns, and original music in a jazz setting. And her most recent release, Grand River Crossings (Motéma Music, 2013), is a solo piano-driven exploration of the music of Motown and the Motor City.

Howard University has honored Allen with its Benny Golson Award, while Spelman College bestowed its African Classical Music Award on her 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 also is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship in composition.

Allen recently was commissioned by the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra to compose Stone and Streams for the orchestra’s 2013-14 season, commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech, which he delivered in Washington, D.C., on August 28, 1963.

Prior to accepting her new position at Pitt, Allen was assistant professor of music at Howard University; professor at New England Conservatory of Music; and, most recently, clinical associate professor and Harold Haugh Award recipient at the School of Music Theatre & Dance, Department of Jazz and Contemporary Improvisation, University of Michigan.

Allen performed as a guest musician at the Pitt Jazz Seminar and Concert in 1994, 2000, and in 2011, when she was honored with the University of Pittsburgh Jazz Seminar Committee Award.

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