Music
Geri Allen
1957–2017 · jazz pianist, composer, educator
Pontiac-born, Detroit-raised jazz pianist and educator, a Cass Tech graduate and protégée of trumpeter Marcus Belgrave, who became one of the most original pianists of her generation.
- Born
Pontiac, Michigan- Died
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
aged 60- Birth name
- Geri Antoinette Allen
- Detroit years
- 1957–1970s
- Field
- Music
01 / The Detroit story
The Detroit story
Allen was born in Pontiac and grew up in Detroit, the daughter of a school principal and a defense-industry administrator, and was educated in the Detroit Public Schools. She graduated from Cass Technical High School, the alma mater of Paul Chambers and Donald Byrd, and became a protégée of trumpeter Marcus Belgrave, studying in his Jazz Development Workshop and at the Detroit Metro Arts Complex. After Howard University and graduate work at the University of Pittsburgh, she emerged in New York in the 1980s as an inventive pianist who worked with Ornette Coleman and in a celebrated trio with Charlie Haden and Paul Motian. Belgrave appeared on her 1986 album Open on All Sides in the Middle. She taught jazz and improvisation at the University of Michigan for ten years and in 2013 became director of jazz studies at the University of Pittsburgh. She died in 2017, aged 60.
Highlights
- Graduate of Detroit's Cass Technical High School
- Mentored by Detroit trumpeter Marcus Belgrave
- Taught jazz at the University of Michigan for ten years
- Director of jazz studies at the University of Pittsburgh from 2013
02 / Their Detroit places
Their Detroit places 1
Where they lived, worked, performed and liked to hang out. Closed and demolished places stay here too, because they are part of the city's history.
Studied here · 1970s
Cass Technical High School
She graduated from Cass Tech, where she built the foundation Belgrave's workshop would refine. The school moved into its current building in 2005; the old building on Second Avenue was demolished in 2011.