“This music [jazz] is about magic and capturing spirits.” –Cecil Taylor

“Jazz had the Spirit from its birth. Gospel music is in its genes.” –Kurt Elling

“Music at its most evolved transcends language, culture, genre and even time itself.” –Geri Allen

As a gifted composer and improviser who stretches the envelope while respecting tradition, Geri Allen has already made an indelible mark on modern jazz. In particular, her new release, Timeless Portraits and Dreams (Telarc), seems a natural follow-up to Zodiac Suite Revisited by bringing together the spiritual roots of jazz and her trademark innovative compositions and arrangements. It was, in fact, Allen’s intent to highlight the spiritual, historical and artistic connections that define jazz. This week marks the official release and celebration of this unique recording, with Geri Allen and her trio on stage at the Village Vanguard, August 22-27.

A product of the great jazz tradition of Detroit, Geri Allen studied with Marcus Belgrave, earned a degree in jazz studies at Howard University in Washington, DC (where she met husband, trumpeter Wallace Roney), a master’s degree in ethnomusicology at the University of Pittsburgh, and studied jazz piano in New York with the great Kenny Barron. In the 1980s she was a member of the M-Base Collective; in the early 90s she worked with Ornette Coleman. She has since released a series of acclaimed recordings as leader (including 2004’s Life of a Song with Dave Holland and Jack DeJohnette and, earlier this year, Zodiac Suite Revisited with the Mary Lou Williams Collective) while teaching at Howard University. In 1996 she became the first woman to be awarded the Jazzpar Prize in Denmark, the only international jazz award.

Timeless Portraits and Dreams is a uniquely structured set of original compositions, spirituals and classic jazz tunes that form a cohesive, 14-part suite “about jazz connections,” the common denominator being “one source: The Most High” as Allen states in her extensive liner notes. The core trio includes Allen with a legendary rhythm team of bassist Ron Carter and drummer Jimmy Cobb. Guest artists include vocalists Carmen Lundy and George Shirley (who stars on a bonus track rendition of “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” included on a separate disc); tenor saxophonist Donald Walden, husband/trumpeter Wallace Roney, and the voices of the Atlanta Jazz Chorus. In addition to the four Allen compositions (one which is briefly repeated as the closing track to the main disc), the suite includes three spirituals (including the “bonus”), a piece from a Fellini film score, and compositions from Lil Hardin Armstrong, George Gershwin, Charlie Parker, Mary Lou Williams, Antoine Roney and Ron Carter. And somehow this seemingly incongruous mélange of time and style becomes a seamless, logical whole through Allen’s deft arrangements and sequencing.

The opening pairs a brief majestic piano solo on the traditional “Oh Freedom” and the trio’s rendition of brother-in-law Antoine Roney’s “Melchezedik.” Allen’s arrangement of the latter, with its complex and rich chords, has blues/gospel elements reminiscent of some of Keith Jarrett’s early work. Like a small-scale concerto (and not solo as erroneously listed on the cover playlist), the piano is primary, the bass and drums ever present with subtle pulse and with occasional support from the chorus. This form deviates with a dark fluttering solo from Carter, a sustained ostinato from Allen in the background, and Allen’s tingling closing passage. “Portraits and Dreams” is a straight post-bop original, a short Allen composition with melodic and harmonic twists and chime-like clusters, the trio focused as an interactive unit. Vocalist Carmen Lundy gives the spiritual “Well Done” a blues-soaked resonance matched by Ron Carter’s basslines. Allen follows solo on Nino Rota’s “La Strada” from the Fellini film, its dark lines and harp-like cascades connecting as much to European classical traditions as to American jazz roots.

Mary Lou Williams penned both melody and lyrics for “I Have a Dream,” informed by the words of Martin Luther King and arranged here by Carmen Lundy. Donald Walden’s tenor sax sets up the powerful tenor vocal of George Shirley in what Allen describes as the “centerpiece” of the recording, perhaps conceptually if not musically. Ron Carter’s “Nearly” is an intricately woven blues, with Allen threading around the blues form over the composer’s assertive bassline and Cobb’s ever-subtle percussion. The Allen/Roney collaboration “In Real Time” features one of the lions of modern trumpet, a direct descendent—not imitator-- of Miles. Together in performance as well as composition, the piano and trumpet trade the lead while mirroring each other’s role as instrumental lyricist and pacesetter, simultaneously grounded in tradition and pushing ahead. A strong bass statement brings resolution.

Three jazz classics with new interpretations follow: Drawing upon Herbie Hancock’s arrangement from his Gershwin’s World effort, Allen gives “Embraceable You” an abstract reading that fits the introspective character of the suite and magnificently unites two wells of inspiration of different eras. A brief experiment based on one chorus of Hancock’s harmonic improvisation, Allen’s gorgeous lines and chord sequences are lushly offset by Carter’s counterpoint and Cobb’s gentle brush strokes. Allen’s arrangement of Charlie Parker’s “Ah-Leu-Cha” is based on the counterpoint of two horns as recorded by Parker with Miles Davis, in this case her two hands serving as horns over a furiously walking bass and constantly driving percussion, with Cobb’s solo serving as the track’s epicenter. Connecting back a few more decades, Allen rearranges Lil Hardin Armstrong’s “Just for a Thrill,” noting that the wife of Louis Armstrong was the first to “liberate the left hand of the pianist.” The melodic improvisation seems to set both hands at liberty, with support from Carter and Cobb subtle and sure.

The final tracks showcase Allen’s compositional skills. Noting that Billie Holiday “was elegant and refined in her approach to the blues,” Allen conveys a similar approach on “Our Lady (For Billie Holiday).” The composer further explains that she has tried to capture some of the phrasings of Holiday and Lester Young. Carter exudes his own brand of elegance, and Wallace Roney adds a muted flair for the last 45 seconds, bringing “Our Lady” out of its blue revelry and approaching a more other-worldly statement. Allen composed both music and lyrics of “Timeless Portraits and Dreams” for voice, piano and chorus (here with Carmen Lundy and the women of the Atlanta Jazz Chorus) as part of a commissioned work, “For the Healing of Nations,” a suite dedicated to the victims of September 11^th. (The full work will be premiered on September 10^th at the Walt Whitman Arts Center in Camden, NJ.) Lundy opens with a passionate call to “hold onto our dreams” over Allen’s majestic chords, which flow into elegant single lines. The lyrics, and music, like the entirety of the recording, speak about connections—“dreams are floating streams… bridges…peace and love, our lives connected.” The main disc closes with a brief, exquisite reprise of “Portraits and Dreams.”

The “special bonus disc” is a bit puzzling in this format, sitting alone as a displaced coda. The main disc has ample space to include the magnificent grand finale of “Lift Every Voice and Sing” – if indeed this is intended to be connected to Allen’s suite. A separate disc for less than four minutes of music seems wasteful in many respects. Allen indicates that the profound voice of tenor George Shirley singing “our Black national anthem” has “pride of place on its own CD.” Perhaps the performance and spirit indeed justify the separation but I suspect that the unfortunate outcome may be that listeners don’t bother to pop the second disc into the CD player to hear one track. I-pod technology, of course, may allow high tech listeners to do what Allen would not—simply make this track fifteen. It seems consistent with her purpose in connecting past and present, despair and hope, peace and love.

With or without track 15, Timeless Portraits and Dreams may be Geri Allen’s most personal and eloquent fusion of composition, arrangement and performance genius to date.

The Geri Allen Trio, with Darryl Hall on bass and Jimmy Cobb on drums, will perform at the Village Vanguard in Manhattan (178 Seventh Avenue South), August 22-27, sets at 9 and 11 pm, third set at 12:30 am on Friday/Saturday. Visit www.villagevanguard.com. Timeless Portraits and Dreams will be officially released on August 22^nd.