Lauded Composer Finishes Residence

Core classes are notorious for having long, unexciting lectures and mind-numbing sections. Given this context, Literature and Arts B-82, “Sayin’ Something: Jazz as Sound, Sensibility and Social Dialogue,” stands out for its guest lecturer this week. Geri Allen, an award-winning pianist and composer, is one of the most prominent female musicians in jazz today.

Allen is finishing up a week-long residency at Harvard consisting of educational discussions, performances, and hands-on practice. The Music Department originally invited her to participate in the lecture with funding from the Blodgett Distinguished Artists’ Series, but the performer turned out to be in high demand.

“Everyone was interested in her being here,” says Music Department Chair Ingrid Monson, who also teaches Literature and Arts B-82. “We always coordinate with the OFA [Office for the Arts at Harvard], who wanted her to do a Learning from Performers event.”

Renowned trumpeter Marcus Belgrave mentored Allen in her hometown of Detroit; since then, she has played and recorded with a seemingly endless list of notable and diverse musicians—Bill Cosby, Steve Coleman, Betty Carter, Ravi Coltrane, and Marianne Faithfull, to name but a few. Allen has also put out a dozen albums. Most recently, the Walt Whitman Arts Center and Meet the Composer commissioned her to write “For the Healing of the Nations,” a jazz piece in tribute to the victims and survivors of Sept. 11.

As part of the OFA-sponsored program, Allen participated in a “Musical Conversation” moderated by Tom Everett, the director of Harvard Jazz Bands. Her residency culminates Saturday in a concert with the Harvard Jazz Bands in tribute to famed swing composer Mary Lou Williams. As Everett puts it, “We are sort of piggyback riding on a Music Department program here.”

Serving as the musical director of the Mary Lou Williams Collective and having portrayed her in the 1996 movie “Kansas City,” Allen has a history of affinity for Williams.

“All of her work...is a great inspiration for me. All of her stuff gives me a great sense of place in the world—as a young woman musician especially,” she says.

Noah L. Nathan ’09, student manager of the Monday Jazz Band, also notes the bond between Allen and Williams.

“Mary Lou Williams is one of the pioneering women in jazz—she lived at a time when the only women in jazz were vocalists and she was a pianist. Geri Allen is one of the most prominent female artists today,” says Nathan.

Though gender may unite them, style distinguishes Allen from Williams. While critics characterize Allen as a post-bop or even avant-garde composer, they tend to associate Williams with swing and boogie woogie. Both artists, however, have a remarkable musical flexibility.

“The question is, how does Allen justify in playing in both these styles, which seem like an entirely different language?” says Williams. “Allen manages to retain her roots and a sense and knowledge of tradition but also stretches this to create real innovation.”