Geri Allen is a jazz pianist and composer from Detroit, Michigan who began her musical education at the iconic Cass Technical High School. After studying under a number of regarded musicians and composers, she moved to New York City in the early 1980s and found a niche audience in Brooklyn. Along with the like-minded musicians she surrounded herself with, Allen formed a musical collective around the alto saxophonist Steve Coleman, whom she would go on to work with for the rest of the decade while also finding time to release her debut album as leader, The Printmakers, in 1984. She has since enjoyed a lucrative career as a band leader and as a celebrated side-woman.
