Tim Garland, Geoffrey Keezer: Mezzo

Saxophonist Tim Garland and pianist Geoffrey Keezer have collaborated numerous times since their days in Storms/Nocturnes, the trio they formed with Joe Locke in 2001. The duo bring their 25 years of partnership, shared understanding, and experience sharply into focus on Mezzo. The nine-track album was captured live in New York in a single five-hour session.

Keezer has performed in a variety of configurations since the age of 18, when he was the pianist for Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers. A world- class performer, he has worked with artists as varied as Wayne Shorter, Christian McBride, Art Farmer and Diana Krall. Garland is equally lauded, a Grammy Award winner whose international career flourished with his work with Chick Corea, Bill Bruford and the Lighthouse Trio. Beyond jazz boundaries, Garland has fulfilled diverse commissions from several of the world's top orchestras.

This is Garland's first major release without his tenor saxophone. Instead, the focus falls on the rare mezzo-soprano saxophone, after which the album takes its name. Believed to be one of only 20 such instruments in existence worldwide, it makes Mezzo the first jazz album to feature this instrument. Pitched between soprano and alto, the mezzo-soprano offers a distinctive tonal character that Garland explores across seven tracks, with two additional pieces featuring soprano sax.

The album features four new Garland compositions, one from Keezer and four intriguing covers. First among these is Corea's "La Fiesta," where Garland gives the mezzo-soprano saxophone a full workout, he and Keezer darting and dancing in counterpoint for nearly eight delightful minutes. Other covers include a striking rendering of Erik Satie's "Gnossienne No. 1," a single-take version of Cole Porter's "Every Time We Say Goodbye" and inspired interplay on Mulgrew Miller's "Carousel," with Garland moving to soprano sax.

Garland's contemplative composition, "A Prayer At Winter," provides an opportunity to hear the mellow tones of the mezzo-soprano at a slower pace, while "Out Of Towner" is one of the album highlights with superb sax runs combining with Keezer's dramatic piano lines. Keezer's inventive "Ghost In The Photograph" adds a touch of mystery to the duo's interplay.

Whether a listener chooses to follow the saxophone or piano lines, or simply luxuriate in their improvisational dialogue, there is much here to savor in the duo's exhilarating musicianship. The album closes with "The Waves Between," a track inspired by Esra Kizir Gokcen's artwork featured on the cover. The bittersweet, folk-tinged melody provides another triumph on a striking, intimate and flawlessly executed album.