If Flying Toward The Sound (2010) paid homage to Cecil Taylor, McCoy Tyner and Herbie Hancock, and A Child Is Born (2011) honoured the influence of family and spirituality, this beautiful final chapter in Geri Allen’s trilogy of solo piano recordings for Motéma – subtitled Motown and Motor City Inspirations – sees her celebrate her home town of Detroit and its iconic label. With a track list that includes beautifully detailed reworkings of ‘Stoned Love’ and ‘Inner City Blues’, what’s fascinating about the album as a whole is how the settings range from the almost reverential to the almost abstract. With Allen’s varicoloured pianism vibrating between the familiar and the unfamiliar in a really exciting way, at times you really have to do close listening to hear the original. ‘Wanna Be Startin Somethin’ provides the dazzling opener, a joyous dance of interweaving lines, and there are equally memorable arrangements of ‘Tears of a Clown’ and a heartbreaking ‘Save the Children’. Fellow Detroit musicians Marcus Belgrave (trumpet), Allen’s mentor at the Jazz Development Workshop who recorded with the pianist on her 2002 album The Detroit Experiment, and David McMurray (sax) guest on four of the album’s 15 tracks.

Jazzwisespoke to Geri Allen about the album

The way you layer the different lines in ‘Wanna Be Startin Somethin’ is incredible.

I wanted to find the spirit of the dance that was already in the original piece. That’s a big part of the piece, just the rhythm. And the rhythm is so great in that song. There are all these details to work out: where to improvise, where to focus on melody. From piece to piece it was really different. And I stuck pretty literally to the melody on this one.

How big a role did the music of Motown play in terms of forming your own musical language?

It’s interesting, because I think that it has a real big part. In some of the compositions I’ve written it just comes out. These songs are in all of us in a certain kind of way. They provide kind of a backdrop for these memories: home, and what that meant growing up. Being a kid running around in the neighbourhood with your friends.

You talk about ‘the dance’. How important is the relationship with the pulse for you?

Huge, actually. When I make a commitment to the pulse – and this is my bebop background – I just really want to honour it. Then there’s the ability for the music to really be free. Then I like to honour that too.

What’s the significance of the album title?

It’s named after one of the major arteries in Detroit. It was a street that I crossed my whole life: growing up, going to school, going to jazz clubs. My high school was on that street, Cass Tech High School. It’s got a history of musicians going there: Greg Phillinganes, Alice Coltrane, Donald Byrd and Ron Carter. In a personal way, that street has meant a lot to me.

And you record once again with trumpeter Marcus Belgrave.

He has been an amazing source, a creative muse for musicians in Detroit. He took the time to mentor many of us and was so inspiring. I have so much to thank him for – for that openness and that willingness to cross genre.