StLJN Saturday Video Showcase: Spotlight on Geoffrey Keezer

This week, let's look at some videos featuring pianist Geoffrey Keezer, who's coming to St. Louis to perform on Thursday, December 13 at the HQ of pianist Peter Martin's Open Studio, which is in the Centene Center for the Arts, 3547 Olive St. in Grand Center.

Originally from Eau Claire, WI, Keezer, 48, was something of a teenage phenom, joining Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers when he was just 18 years old. Since then, he's gone on to work with many well-known musicians and singers, including Christian McBride, Joe Locke, Denise Donatelli, Joshua Redman, Ray Brown, Art Farmer, Benny Golson, Chris Botti, David Sanborn, Jane Monheit, Wayne Shorter, Sting, and more.

Keezer also has recorded regularly as both a sideman and a leader, with his most recent album being a trio effort, On My Way To You, released earlier this year. For his show at Open Studio, he'll be accompanied by NYC-based drummer Jon Wikan and St. Louis' Bob DeBoo on bass.

Today's post includes a half-dozen videos featuring Keezer leading a trio, starting up above with a performance of the Thelonious Monk composition "Brilliant Corners," featuring bassist Benjamin Shepherd and drummer Christian Euman and recorded on June 17, 2018 at Sam First in Los Angeles, CA.

After the jump, you can see four more performances from the same session, including versions of Jimi Hendrix's "May This Be Love,"Stevie Wonder's "These Three Words," and two medleys - one combining the Jerome Kern/Oscar Hammerstein standard "All The Things You Are" with Earth Wind and Fire's "Serpentine Fire," and the other joining the Beatles' "Across The Universe" and John Lennon's "Give Peace a Chance."

The last video is a complete performance recorded February 24, 2015 at Auer Hall on the campus of the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University, in which Keezer is accompanied by IU jazz faculty members Jeremy Allen on bass and Steve Houghton on drums.

For more about Geoffrey Keezer, check out his conversation from 2017 with fellow pianist (and Wisconsin native) Ethan Iverson, published on Iverson's blog Do The Math; and read a review of  a Keezer performance earlier this year in Philadelphia, via AllAboutJazz.com.

You can see the rest of today's videos after the jump...