Photo by Andrea Canter

A year ago, when he recorded a live session at the Dakota Jazz Club in Minneapolis, it seemed unlikely that pianist Geoffrey Keezer could top Geoffrey Keezer. Serving as Art Blakely’s last pianist at age 18, joining veteran keyboard masters Harold Mabern, James Williams, and Mulgrew Miller a few years later as the Contemporary Piano Ensemble, and now holding a resumé including work with the great late Ray Brown and (currently) David Sanborn and ten recordings, Keezer has more than lived up to the predictions of his prodigious youth in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. Well established (though barely into his mid 30s) as a performer and composer, Keezer’s Dakota session of September 2004 still stands out in memory as one of the most compelling performances on the stage of this gem of Midwestern jazz venues. Having first played the Dakota as a high schooler in the late 1980s, it seems that each return “home” brings out the best in Geoffrey Keezer and his trio, and this week’s two-night stand in celebration of Wildcrafted: Live at the Dakota (MaxJazz) affirmed this trend.

Through four sets, Geoffrey Keezer, Mike Pope (replacing bassist Matt Clohesy), and Terreon Gully treated enthusiastic audiences to sophisticated reworkings of Ellington and Strayhorn, modern jazz translations of Bjork, Bowie, Lennon and Hendrix, a turn on Maria Schneider and Harold Mabern, and some hauntingly beautiful, “wildcrafted” originals. And while the dates were billed as “CD Release” celebrations, only about half the tunes in any one set were drawn from the new recording. As usual at a Keezer gig, his material combined new explorations of previously recorded tunes as well as new territory. The results ranged from sublime to electrifying, with energy building across the two nights to an explosive and scintillating final set.

Photo by Andrea Canter

Most of the playlist appeared twice over four sets, but as Keezer reminded us, jazz is never the same, and indeed, each performance was a new creation, a new collaborative project among three empathetic partners. While at times a fantasy blend of Bud Powell, Bill Evans, Herbie Hancock, and McCoy Tyner, Geoffrey Keezer has evolved a singular style of intellectually abstract lyricism woven over exotically complex rhythms and

Photo by Andrea Canter

Keezer’s originals displayed his many-faceted musical persona. He offered a new tune (on the first night), “Fractured,” featuring breaks in rhythm and a particularly melodic and “fractured” bass solo from Pope; the very lovely “The Kindest Soul,” Keezer’s tribute to his late mentor James Williams; the “Monk Meets Ellington” flavored “Mirrim” which proved to be not only a showcase for Keezer’s speed and power but also a tour de ferocity for Gully; and the flowing lava of “Breath of the Volcano,” filled with ominous undertones, a steamy exchange between piano and drumkit, and Pope’s longest solo of the night. One of his more lyrical compositions, Keezer’s “Tea and Watercolors” was inspired by a visit to Vancouver, and the title aptly reflects the liquid movement of the music. Like tea brewing or paint flowing, the music changed hue and texture, and on each hearing, the artists created a wash from a different portion of the palette.

Keezer added electronic elements to the melodic “Koikugari Bushi”, Sadao China’s composition based on an Okinawan folksong; Keezer noted that the title is roughly translated as “Burning Love.” Appearing on the CD and covered twice at the Dakota, this haunting piece featured Keezer accompanying himself, left hand on Fender Rhodes, right hand on acoustic piano, a sparse bassline under a complex melody reflecting its Asian roots. Pope provided a lyrical solo, while Gully, mallet in one hand and brush in the other, reprised Keezer’s internal duet. The use of dual keyboards also created an other-worldly tone to the trio’s cover of Maria Schneider’s “Gush,” further enhanced by Mike Pope on electric bass. The resulting bubbling techno-sonics were reminiscent of recent forays by the Esbjorn Svensson Trio (EST), with whiffs of Evans, Jarrett and Tyner emanating from the keyboard corner. Bjork’s “Venus as a Boy” also benefitted from Keezer’s dual keyboarding, which on the first night began as a futuristic “Flight of the Bumblebee” ride that dissolved into a roiling funky beat, with Gully seemingly able to shift dynamics mid-hit.

One of the longer selections, both nights, was a pairing of John Lennon’s “Across the Universe” and “Give Peace a Chance,” neither of which was readily recognizable thanks to Keezer’s elastic deconstructions. David Bowie’s “Life on Mars” also received an elegant reworking, which Keezer explained as taking a modern tune and rearranging it in an older style, in this case that of Bud Powell.

Photo by Andrea Canter

Terreon Gully contributed an original tune that ignited the audience, particularly in the last set. “Tanktified” began with a rockish whine from Keezer’s Rhodes that boiled and bubbled beneath the acoustic line as Gully initiated a strong beat with hints of clavé. Hitting the keys like a boogie-woogie master on Speed, Keezer took off with Gully in hot pursuit, the drummer ultimately breaking loose like a marathon runner breaking away from the pack, going at full throttle before a sudden drop to a more mortal level. Some new sounds emerged from the keyboard on the second go-round, as Keezer offered closing riffs from Pluto and beyond.

Two showstoppers on Wildcrafted were equally engaging on the return to the Dakota. Benny Goodman’s “Stompin’ at the Savoy” was so disassembled that even some of us familiar with the new recording were mystified as to its identity during the first set on the second night. Keezer has recorded this tune before, but not with this level of wild abstraction.Ellington’s “Black and Tan Fantasy” similarly has appeared earlier in Keezer’s discography, but with more swing and less “fantasy.” Here, as on Wildcrafted, Keezer’s arrangement merges blues, stride, and post bop deconstruction. Keezer suggested touches of Earl Hines chasing the gospel-like souls of Phineas Newborn, early Keith Jarrett, and contemporaries Cyrus Chestnut and Eric Reed, yielding his trademark unpredictability—music informed by disparate influences of tradition and modernism, converging as a whole greater than the sum of its parts.

Keezer treated the audience to only one solo over the four-set gig, Strayhorn’s “Lush Life.” First recorded by the pianist in 1997 as a solo track on Turn Up the Quiet, Keezer at that time wrote in the liner notes that “one could play this piece their whole life and never get to the bottom of it.” On this occasion his explorations featured a rhapsodic introduction, exquisite ornamentation, and harp-like riffs—Rachmaninoff meets Strayhorn. Sticking with another standard as the last set encore, the trio closed with a glistening, spiraling rendition of “All the Things You Are.” Pope submerged his lines deep and low, while Gully’s brushwork inserted hesitations that moved the groove forward until the trio pushed the melody into an all-out dissemblage with a kiss of funk, Keezer’s left hand doing much of the talking. With a few quick licks from “Salt Peanuts,” the trio wrapped up a magnificent two-night stand, celebrating not only a new recording, but also the joy and passion they shared with each other and, gratefully, with their audience.

Photo by Andrea Canter

Wrote Geoffrey Keezer in his online journal (July 2005), “Jazz is music made awake, with open eyes and ears.” Here in Minneapolis, the Geoffrey Keezer Trio opened our eyes and ears—as wide as the universe of jazz itself, assimilating the sounds of the 21^st century atop a hearty foundation of tradition. We eagerly await his return.

For more information and tour dates for Geoffrey Keezer, visit his website at www.geoffreykeezer.com. Visit the Jazz Police review of Wildcrafted and an exclusive interview with Geoffrey Keezer.

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