Geri Allen
Grand River Crossings: Motown & Motor City Inspirations
Motéma ****
Pianist Allen’s fourth album for Jana Herzen’s Harlem-based label Motéma, Grand River Crossings is a Detroit concept album named after the main street of the Motor City, one of the most revered cities in popular music, now in serious decline as a result of the ravages of the recession. Allen’s Motown journey began with hearing Marvin Gaye and on this new album she mixes her own compositions with iconic Motown moments primarily including interpretations of Smokey Robinson’s ‘Tears of a Clown’, through Stevie Wonder's ‘That Girl’, Holland-Dozier-Holland songs and Gaye himself. Mostly a solo album featuring her lyrical expressive opaque piano style there are guests dotted among the quite beautiful improvisations including the addition of hometown jazz icon trumpeter Marcus Belgrave wonderfully breathy and bluesy on Roy Brooks’ ‘The Smart Set’, and expansive on Belgrave's own composition ‘Space Odyssey’, while another Detroiter, gutsy saxophonist David McMurray, almost steals the show with a brief but magical neo-chitlin/R&B take on the Holland-Dozier-Holland tune synonymous with The Supremes, ‘Itching in My Heart’. Allen’s M-BASE days may be long behind her, but in some ways her experimentalism remains although I must confess I have lost track of her career a few times as some projects became that bit too introspective. But hearing her perform a few years ago with Dianne Reeves, Lizz Wright, and Angélique Kidjo in a Sing the Truth concert at London's Barbican made me think again. There’s nothing simplified or reductive here on Grand River Crossings; it’s serene but powerful at the same time (her composition ‘In Appreciation’ a considerable very real achievement), and the material has been arranged so intuitively that it’s almost as if it’s been recomposed, yet the spirit of each tune is kept intact. The third volume of her piano trilogy begun with Flying Toward the Sound Allen is at her most elemental and transcendental here. An album with a lot of heart. SG
Released on 9 September