The Geri Allen All Star Band includes pianist and 2008 Guggenheim Fellowship Award recipient Geri Allen; clarinetist/composer and 2007 USA Gund Foundation Fellow Don Byron; saxophonist/flutist/composer Legacy Award recipient Oliver Lake; bassist Dwayne Dolphin who performed on Nancy Wilson's Grammy Award winning R.S.V.P. cd; and drummer Jeff "Tain" Watts, recipient of 5 Grammies for Best Jazz Instrumental Performance. and 1993 Guggenheim Fellowship Award and 2006 Melon Jazz Living Pianist Geri Allen stands on the cutting edge of New York's improvisational scene and is, according to Musician, "one of the most original stylists to emerge on the instrument in the past 25 years." Like pianists Randy Weston and McCoy Tyner, she has tapped her ancestral roots to create a sound that connects American jazz with African folk music.
