“Jazz is music made awake, with open eyes and ears.” –Geoffrey Keezer, July 2005

Photo by Andrea Canter

On September 12, 2004, Eau Claire, WI native son Geoffrey Keezer and his new trio performed three sets at the Dakota in downtown Minneapolis, recording live for the MaxJazz label. Over the course of the evening, the pianist and his ensemble treated the audience to 21^st century sophistication anchored in 20^th century accessibility, timeless musicality, and incendiary inspiration. The results of this incredible evening (Wildcrafted: Live at the Dakota) will be unveiled when the Geoffrey Keezer Trio takes a break from their fall tour with David Sanborn to perform at the Village Vanguard in New York City (October 18-23) and “back home” at the Dakota (October 24-25). Click here for an exclusive Jazz Police Interview with Geoffrey Keezer.

About Geoffrey Keezer

While hinting at a fantasy blend of Bud Powell, Bill Evans, Herbie Hancock, and McCoy Tyner, Keezer has evolved a singular style of intellectually abstract lyricism woven over exotically complex rhythms and harmonies. Barely into his mid 30s, his highly regarded discography, unique compositions, and acclaimed performances in a variety of configurations command the attention typically reserved for the living legends of jazz.

A child prodigy, Geoffrey Keezer grew up surrounded by musicians and music educators (father Ron Keezer headed the jazz band program at the University of Wisconsin–Eau Claire), and first performed at the Dakota when he was only 16, three years before his stint with Art Blakey’s last edition of the Jazz Messengers. He has since forged an amazing career at such an early age, including 9 previous recordings as leader, touring as a very young collaborator with James Williams, Mulgrew Miller, Donald Brown, and Harold Mabern in the Contemporary Piano Ensemble in the early 1990s, and recent tours and recordings in the company of such heavy hitters as the late Ray Brown, Christian McBride, and Jim Hall. For this live recording, he harnessed the energy and virtuosity of two rising comets on the jazz sky, acoustic bassist Matt Clohesy and drummer Terreon Gulley.

Photo by Andrea Canter

Crafting Wildcrafted

That a major label such as MaxJazz chose the Dakota for a live recording of an established performer like Keezer was a coup for owners Lowell Pickett and Richard Erickson, but hardly far fetched, given the acoustics, the “hometown” crowd, and the club’s reputation as a magnet for the best in the genre. If anything, this venue was overdue for a series of “Live” releases. Keezer, too, was due for a live recording, 12 years following his only other in vivo effort, at Toronto’s Montreal Bistro in 1993 (Trio, Sackville, a leaderless collaboration with vibist Steve Nelson and bassist Neil Swainson). Notes Keezer regarding Wildcrafted, “I'm happy that I've been able to capture some good live playing again, with more life experience informing my playing. Maybe a little more grown up.”

Of all of his working groups, this new trio may prove to be Keezer’s most empathetic partners. As an ensemble, they create a multi-layered sonic feast, a rich stew that simmers, hits a rolling boil, steeps and steams, or slowly bubbles as the creative flame directs the heat. Gulley is one of the most dynamically versatile drummers of a generation packed with virtuoso timekeepers (Matt Wilson, Nasheet Waits, Eric Harland, Ari Honig, Brian Blade…it’s a long list!). Equally effective with sticks, mallets, or brushes, he creates shimmering backdrops, well-placed cherry bombs, rumbling echoes, and clattering rimshots, whether weaving a heavily textured netting around the melody or blowing holes in the improvisational fabric, all with the drive of the Energizer Bunny. Australian native Clohesy has a big tone and frenetic fingers, easily matching Gulley’s fire and durability, whether walking, running, or fleetly popping.

Mike Pope, Photo by Andrea Canter

Wildcrafted: Live at the Dakota, may be the most energetic and cohesive recording of Keezer’s already distinguished career. The unusual title seems fitting when considering its origin, described in MaxJazz’s promotional material as “harvested from nature in a conscious, ethical and sustainable way.” Keezer further describes the sense of “wildcrafted”: “Imagine walking in the forest and encountering a jazz trio playing among the trees…leaving notes to resonate throughout the woods for future generations…wildcrafted live music.” In this context, Wildcrafted indeed meets its promise, an elegantly organic offering to the present and future listener.

The Music

The playlist offers a combination of new compositions and arrangements as well as a few tunes Keezer previously recorded, the latter providing an opportunity to briefly examine the evolution of his work. The opening track, “Stomping at the Savoy,” appeared on Keezer’s Turn Up the Quiet (1997, Columbia). On the earlier arrangement, the melody was presented up front via Joshua Redman’s tenor sax, providing a more abstract interpretation than did Keezer’s piano. Eight years later with the new trio, Keezer totally deconstructs the melody, which is all but unrecognizable until the final segment; his fingers swat the keyboard as if chasing a big gnat with hand-over-hand runs. Gulley provides the most over-the-top drum sequence of the set—renaming the tune “Stomping at the Dakota.”

Another interesting tune that Keezer has previously recorded (on Zone One), Bjork’s “Venus As a Boy” features a celestial introduction from Keezer’s Fender Rhodes coupled with lyrical piano line, shifting to two-handed piano chords and an off-kilter waltzing rhythm supported by sharp percussive accents and a deep bass vamp. The earlier recording (using only acoustic piano) has less of the futuristic vibe, while the new trio rendition with Fender Rhodes has more of the atmospheric elements of the original, but as an interplanetary fantasy more than a bubbling rock hit.

Ellington’s “Black and Tan Fantasy” is a Keezer favorite, first recorded in trio format on his 1992 release, World Music (DIW Columbia), and later on the much-praised solo effort, Zone One (Dreyfus, 1999). On the earlier recording, the piano was front and center, with more swing, more spacious allegiance to Tatum and Peterson—more true to Ellington’s early recordings; the solo recording reflects Keezer’s evolving development of more complex lines and harmonies, more substantial filling of space, with the effect of multiple voices despite the solo instrument, and more reminiscent of Powell and Tyner. Now on Wildcrafted, the trio arrangement maintains the underlying blues elements, but with more abstract embellishments a decade later, Keezer filling very nook and cranny as he carries the melody with the left hand and fills space with the right. Clohesy’s bass solo is a heavy-footed walking and note-bending interlude, while Gulley rips the air with his solo attack. Overall, the merging of blues, stride, and post bop abstraction make “Black and Tan Fantasy” one of the more engaging acts of session.

Terron Gulley, Photo by Andrea Canter

One more reworking is Keezer’s own tune, “Mirrim,” recorded on his first MaxJazz release, the mesmerizing Falling Up. Without the vibes of the earlier CD, the initial melodic line is presented here by Clohesy’s bass. Gulley is a non-stop percussion machine, nearly matched in intensity by Clohesy, and the trio’s mutual empathy is never stronger.

The rest of the recording is filled with varied delights from Keezer’s unrecorded playbook and recent creations: Keezer’s “Tea and Watercolors,” a bell-like melody with edgy accents from Gulley’s rimshots and chime-like interplay between piano and bass; a revived composition that Keezer dedicates to his late mentor James Williams, “The Kindest Soul,” with Keezer’s soloing here reminiscent of Brubeck or McPartland; another new Keezer effort, “The Ghost in the Photograph,” featuring a robust and ominously melodic bass solo supported by a subtle underlayment of percussion.

On many of his compositions and arrangements in recent years, Keezer pays homage to the folk melodies and harmonies of Japan, where he spends part of the year as a second home. For Wildcrafted, the trio tackles “Kikugari Bushi,” described by Keezer as a love song or song about lost love, richly introduced with an orchestral motif from the Fender Rhodes that soars above the bandstand. The closing track, Keezer’s “Breath of the Volcano,” is intended to capture the scene of the steam vents at the mouth of a Japanese volcano. Using both Fender Rhodes and piano, Keezer indeed creates the sensation of steam rising from the crater, while Gulley’s drums cite the rumbling thunder within, and Clohesy’s bass provides an ample meter of seismic activity.

In closing the session at the Dakota last fall, Keezer remarked on the importance of music in a world of uncertainty. “Good music,” he said, “it’s something to live for.” Further, in his running journal on his website, Keezer notes, “I think playing music helps to heal the world, little by little, in teeny steps.” Fortunately for anyone who seeks such salvation in jazz, the creative inspiration of the inventive compositions and deconstructions of Geoffrey Keezer and company has been beautifully captured as rendered on that September night at the Dakota.

The Geoffrey Keezer Trio (with Mike Pope on bass in place of Matt Clohesy) will celebrate the release of Wildcrafted: Live at the Dakota at the Village Vanguard in New York, October 18-23, sets at 9 and 11 pm. You can now reserve tickets online at www.villagevanguard.com. In Minneapolis, the celebration will take place over two nights at the Dakota, October 24-25, sets at 7 and 9 pm. Reservations are recommended—call 612-332-1010 or reserve online at www.dakotacooks.com. For more information and samples of music, visit www.geoffkeezer.com. Wildcrafted is scheduled for public release on October 25^th. Portions of this article were published in September 2004 on the Jazz Police website, www.jazzpolice.com and online by the Twin Cities Jazz Society in Coda, October 2005.