The first three of the eight distinctive ‘refractions' of the suite "Flying Toward The Sound" pay homage to Allen's three piano inspirations Cecil Taylor, McCoy Tyner, and Herbie Hancock, a blend of scored and improvised abstracted passages. Refraction I: "Dancing Mystic Poets @ Twylight," opens with a suggestion of the feeling of the dance which remains crucial to Taylor's sense of drama. This opening refraction, connoting her takes on Tyner ("Flying Toward the Sound") and Hancock ("Red Velvet in Winter"), is more cinema than snapshot, a moving lens focused on the varied ephemera of creativity and ultimately Allen's own richly insightful originality.
Ms. Allen supports Flying Toward the Sound with solo performances at museums, cultural centers, and concert halls both in the US and abroad. Her concert length solo piano presentation will share the stage with beautiful film projections created by famed photographer, filmmaker and performance artist Carrie Mae Weems. Weems collaborated closely with Allen over the past year to create a very personal, poetic and surreal filmic statement centered on themes from Geri Allen's life as an African American woman, musician, daughter, mother and teacher. A glimpse of the film imagery from the live shows is included as enhanced content on the CD in the form of three short video segments set to Allen's compositions: "Flying Toward the Sound", "Red Velvet in Winter" and "Faith Carriers of Life".
'The music of Flying Towards The Sound transports the listener deep into Professor Allen's exceptional artistry. Liner notes by distinguished jazz scholar Farah J. Griffin further illuminate the journey of an artist and "a culture that celebrates flight as a metaphor for freedom." - The evocative CD package, drawn from the companion art films by Weems, provides visual counterpoint to the metaphors of flight built into the music, which unfolds from track to track, a seamless overlay of composition and interpretive improvisation, flexible in tempo, always maintaining the composers keen feel for rhythm suggested or articulated.
On March 8, the official premier CD/DVD release event for Flying Toward The Sound will be presented by the originating curatorial staff of the University of Michigan Museum of Art, UMMA, the School of Music Theater & Dance, and the Department of Jazz and Contemporary Improvisation at the University of Michigan. The CD/DVD will be made available to the audience the evening of the performance, through the UMMA museum store. The CD/DVD will be available released internationally March 30t
