Geri Allen Trio March 2, 2009

Geri Allen is perhaps the most celebrated jazz pianist of her generation, with a fleet, unforced technique, and the ability to move from tender to hard as nails as the mood requires. Her compositions can be disarmingly simple, but without sounding routine or familiar. Emerging as part of the 1980s Brooklyn jazz scene, she worked with Steve Coleman and Cassandra Wilson, and though Allen now plays more traditionally than the rest of the M-Base crew, she's kept a freewheeling improvisatory approach and an openness to R&B and rock approaches.