When „The Printmakers“ was released in 1984 it was the debut recording of Geri Allen and the first release on Minor Music. Actually she motivated me to finally realize a longtime dream and was the right new musician I had been waiting for to get started.
Over the next ten years we had a strong cooperation resulting in her first four albums as a leader and featuring all her abilities as a pianist, keyboardist, composer and bandleader from solo to larger ensemble projects. Also she was featured on recordings of Fred Wesley, Maceo Parker, Dwayne Dolphin, Ravi Coltrane and Andy Bey. These were supported by European tours I set up for her.
Today these four albums have stood the test of time and were the basis of many more great projects she recorded for a variety of other international labels.
We stayed in touch over the years. I remember long conversations we had in Berlin in 2012 when she was staying there for several engagements. We also talked about the changes in the recording industry and the value of uncompromising creative music in an environment of a societies which take commercial success as the measure for artistic success. She insisted on the importance of what she and I had been doing and gave me strong support and inspiration, something known these days as resilience.
As I heard the news that Geri Allen had passed away in June 2017, we were born just three months apart, I was shocked at first and it took me quite a while to gain a new perspective. Between then and now I really began to fully appreciate her artistry, her vision, her commitment to teach and support young musicians, her wonderful warm personality and her friendship.
During the corona period I decided to start a new label with a longtime partner to begin a new cycle. So 2024 saw the first release on “Rhythm ´n` Flow” of another outstanding young talent, the pianist Lawrence Fields who had been born 40 years ago, around the time Geri and I had met. I was not surprised when he told me about her appreciation of Geri as a person and musician who he had the chance to meet and learn from personally.
Instead of spending money on a big promotion campaign to celebrate the 40th anniversary of Minor Music I realized the idea to have musicians – and I had talked with many of the most talented on today’s scene about this for a few years with great resonance – who have been not only been influenced but also personally involved with Geri to produce a few concerts to focus and honour Geri´s music and present them to young audiences at a various clubs in Germany and Austria which had been supportive to Geri over the many years of her career. And it worked out: there was an outstanding interest and appreciation of Geri´s compositions played by really talented musicians of today. I am really thankful to Anke Helfrich, Lawrence Fields and all the others offering their best to make this a success. I hope it will carry the message on and be followed by other artists.
Stephan Meyner