Geoffrey
Keezer’s peers and elders have considered him a master of the piano trio
function since he burst on the scene as a 17-year-old wunderkind in 1988, when
he made the first of 22 albums as a leader or co-leader. Surprisingly, Keezer
has devoted few of those dates to the piano-bass-drums format, as he does on
his latest, the self-released On My Way to You, serving as a major contribution
to the idiom.
Throughout
the dazzlingly intense proceedings, Keezer upholds a remark Christian McBride
made in 2005 on the occasion of Keezer’s previous trio recording, Wildcrafted:
Live At The Dakota: “Of all the pianists from our generation, Geoffrey is the
one I always have to listen to twice,” McBride told DownBeat. “I’m not always
sure it’s him, because he never repeats himself. Technically, I don’t believe
there’s anything on the piano he can’t play. And in terms of interpretation, he
comes up with the most brilliant ideas that you could ever think of.”
For On My
Way to You, Keezer convened bassist Mike Pope, a member of his sparkling co-led
quartet with vibraphone master Joe Locke, and drummer Lee Pearson, his bandmate
in Chris Botti’s high-profile group for many years. They perform on nine
selections, five of them with the individualistic, communicative singer Gillian
Margot, whose last album, Black Butterfly, inspired the L.A. Jazz Weekly to
remark that “her honey-toned voice delivers hints of a young Aretha Franklin.”
That vibration comes through on the penultimate track, a Keezer-Margot duo on
Ewan MacColl's “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face,” before Keezer concludes
with solo ruminations on the Beatles’ “Across The Universe,” then summons the
trio to join him on John Lennon’s “Give Peace A Chance.”
Throughout
the proceedings, Keezer applies his formidable technique, harmonic knowledge,
rhythmic ingenuity, abiding soulfulness, and rigorous logic to conjure fresh
approaches to new and old standards and several originals. Stevie Wonder’s
“These Three Words,” a gospel-influenced pop ballad written for the soundtrack
of Spike Lee’s Jungle Fever, is addressed as a 3/4 waltz. Keezer drew on John
Coltrane’s anthemic “Dear Lord” as inspiration for the double-time swing feel
he superimposes on Jimi Hendrix’s psychedelic ballad, “May This Be Love,” from
the 1967 album Are You Experienced?.
Keezer
interpolates a plugged-in nod to Miles Davis’ early ‘70s funk-jazz hit “On The
Corner” in the middle section of his quirky, irreverent arrangement of
Thelonious Monk’s “Brilliant Corners,” and then, over a drum'n'bass beat,
uncorks a turbulent, precise piano solo that never strays far from the melody.
He slows the pace on a highly reharmonized, phantasmagoric treatment of the
oft-played American Songbook chestnut “All The Things You Are,” gradually
building a steamy groove that propels a transition into Earth, Wind and Fire’s
“Serpentine Fire.”
On the
collaborations with Margot, Keezer touches on elements of love, longing and
desire. As an example, consider how Keezer’s nuanced touch complements Margot
as they navigate the ascendant arc of “Red Leaf,” an elegiac, affirmative song
on which he collaborated with author Michael Perry, a fellow Wisconsin native.
Piano and voice achieve an uncanny mind-meld on the co-composed “You Stay With
Me” — Margot projects her magnificent contralto to equally compelling effect
both when conveying her tender, sensuous lyric and then improvising in dialogue
with the piano during the latter section. They also co-wrote the percolating
“Guanajuato” (named for the Central Mexican city where they performed a duo
concert several years ago), on which the protagonists engage in a protracted,
intuitive musical conversation.
“Writing
music together with someone is relatively new for me,” Keezer says. “I’ve
always been fiercely autonomous as a composer. But I’m at a place now where
collaborating is highly productive and rejuvenating.”
Stream
Tracks from On My Way to You
Keezer
credits the “direct influence” of singer/pianist Shirley Horn on the way he and
Margot — complemented by poignant strings — stretch out the tempo and find
space between the beats on the title track (a 1988 song by composer Michel
Legrand and lyricists Alan and Marilyn Bergman). He describes their duo on “The
First Time Ever I Saw Your Face” as “another chance to explore how much space
is possible in music.
“I feel this
is my most mature album,” Keezer says. “At least one definition of what it
might mean to be mature was to feel I didn’t have to fill up all the space. I
learned that lesson playing with people like Jim Hall, who continually, night
after night, would ask me to play less and less.”
In
everything that he plays herein, Keezer refracts lessons gleaned during the
first decade of his career on stints with Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers,
and combos led by Art Farmer, Benny Golson and J.J. Johnson, and the
end-of-the-‘90s Ray Brown Trio. On his own early recordings, Keezer convened
modern masters like Steve Nelson, Bill Pierce, Donald Harrison, Joshua Redman,
Charnett Moffett, Victor Lewis and Billy Higgins to navigate his challenging
compositions.
“When I got
to New York in the late ’80s, it was the clear mission of the pianists there to
play strong and hard, to give it up a thousand percent every time,” Keezer
says, summing up his animating principle. “Bands don’t play like that anymore.
Music has to change and that’s fine. But even though I’ve lived in California
for almost 20 years, I’m coming out of that late ’80s New York piano style for
sure.
“I’m not
trying to be anything other than just who I am as a musician. I’m comfortable
with it. I don’t mean comfortable in the sense of resting on my laurels, or
that I’m not interested in improving. I always want to get better. But this
feels like the best piano playing I’ve done on record. I think it’s my best
album to date.”
Upcoming
Geoffrey Keezer Trio Performances:
June 17 /
Sam First / Los Angeles, CA
June 27 /
The Rex / Toronto, ON
June 28 /
The Jazz Room / Waterloo, ON
June 29
& 30 / Rochester Jazz Festival / Rochester, NY
July 7 / The
Side Door / Old Lyme, CT
July 8 /
South / Philadelphia, PA
September 2
/ The Dunsmore Room / Minneapolis, MN
September 5
/ Jazz at Five / Madison, WI
October 4
& 5 / Drake University / Des Moines, IA
November 16
/ California Jazz Conservatory / Berkeley, CA
November 17
/ Sequoia Room / Fort Bragg, CA
Upcoming
Geoffrey Keezer Duo Performances:
July 1 - 5 /
Mezzrow / New York, NY
July 1: w/
Ingrid Jensen
July 2: w/
Steve Wilson
July 3: w/
Robin Eubanks
July 4: w/
Gillian Margot
July 5: w/
Donny McCaslin
Geoffrey
Keezer · On My Way to You
Release
Date: June 22, 2018
