Jazz Articles about Geoffrey Keezer

About Geoffrey Keezer

Album Review

Geoffrey Keezer has as a distinction being the penultimate pianist to perform in the Ray Brown Trio before the bassist’s death in 2002. He is a durable stylist with a big orchestral sound that he provided for the late Brown on recordings such as Live at Starbucks and Walk On . Mr. Keezer has also released well-received recordings as leader, such as Zero One and Sublime . His most recent release is one he was tapped for as the next ...

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Album Review

Geoff Keezer: Sublime: Honoring the Music of Hank Jones

Read "Sublime: Honoring the Music of Hank Jones" reviewed by C. Michael Bailey

by C. Michael Bailey
May 6, 2003

Thirty-two-year-old Midwesterner Geoff Keezer was one of the last pianists to work as a part of the Ray Brown Trio. Many writers that I have spoken with feel that he was the quintessential Ray Brown pianist. The late Mr. Brown favored double-fisted orchestral pianists with a jones for the blues but also a strong ballad sensibility. I have always favored the late Gene Harris, but Keezer might edge him out by a nose. Mr. Keezer’s previous recording Zero One was ...

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Album Review

Benny Golson: One Day, Forever

Read "One Day, Forever" reviewed by AAJ Staff

by AAJ Staff
May 1, 2001

Benny Golson’s latest Arkadia release, One Day, Forever, arose from a taping of some of Golson’s previous band members from the Jazztet: Art Farmer and Curtis Fuller. At the end of a European tour, they were so rushed they that they didn’t record long enough to fill an entire CD. Arkadia owner Bob Karcy kept the tape in the can, and he and Golson kept that recording in mind, in the intervening five years, during which Farmer passed. After Golson ...

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Album Review

Geoff Keezer: Zero One

Read "Zero One" reviewed by C. Michael Bailey

by C. Michael Bailey
May 1, 2000

Geoff Keezer was the last pianist in Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers, performing between 1988 and 1990. At age 17 he showed himself a capable hard bop pianist whose performance personality echoes that of Horace Silver, Bobby Timmons, and more recently, Benny Green. Since the demise of Blakey, Keezer has logged time for Sunnyside, Blue Note, DIW/Columbia and Sackville as a leader and accompanied the likes of Art Farmer, Roy Hargrove, Antonio Hart, and Ray Brown. Keezer shows up here with ...

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Album Review

Benny Golson: The Jazz Messengers: The Legacy Of Art Blakey

Read "The Jazz Messengers: The Legacy Of Art Blakey" reviewed by Jim Santella

by Jim Santella
September 1, 1998

Five former members of The Jazz Messengers plus drummer Lewis Nash make up this Art Blakey Legacy Band that has toured the U.S. recently and paid homage to the legendary teacher and leader. Tenor saxophonist Benny Golson, trumpeter Terence Blanchard, trombonist Curtis Fuller, pianist Geoff Keezer, bassist Peter Washington and drummer Nash perform compositions written by Messengers for that unit: Wayne Shorter wrote “One by One," Fuller wrote “A La Mode," Blanchard wrote “Oh, By the Way," Cedar Walton wrote ...

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Album Review

Geoff Keezer: Turn Up The Quiet

by John Sharpe
September 1, 1998

Turn Up The Quiet is an eclectic mix of standards, pop tunes and even, Japanese folk songs. Keezer hooks up with hot-shot sidemen Christian McBride (bass) and Joshua Redman (tenor) on three tracks, adds vocalist Diana Krall on three and goes it alone on three more. Krall's sultry, smoky rendition of The Nearness Of You, enhanced by a restrained Redman solo, almost steals the whole show. Krall is front and center again on the fantasy love song, Island Palace and ...

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Album Review

Benny Golson: Tenor Legacy

Read "Tenor Legacy" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
August 1, 1998

Benny Golson is back, this time with a salute to 10 legends of the tenor saxophone (including Benny himself, of course). It's such a daunting task that Golson has called for help, sharing the spotlight with tenors Branford Marsalis (on “Body and Soul," dedicated to Coleman Hawkins), Harold Ashby (on five tracks) and James Carter (on four), both of whom take part in a three-tenor conclave with Golson on the busy opener, Lester Young's “Lester Leaps In." Other celebrated tenor ...