Geoffrey Keezer has toured with David Sanborn, Chris Botti, Joe Locke and Christian McBride and worked with vocalist Denise Donatelli, receiving Grammy Award nominations, and releasing albums influenced by Hawaiian, Okinawan, and Afro-Peruvian folk traditions.
22 Facts About Geoffrey Keezer
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In 2013 Geoffrey Keezer released his first solo piano album in 13 years, Heart of the Piano.
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In 1989, after attending Berklee College of Music for one year, Geoffrey Keezer joined Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers, becoming the last pianist to join the band.
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Geoffrey Keezer composed and arranged original music for the group, with which he remained until Blakey's death in 1990.
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Geoffrey Keezer served as musical director and arranger from 1994 to 1995.
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In 1997, Geoffrey Keezer became a member of bassist Ray Brown's trio.
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Geoffrey Keezer toured the world with Brown, performing at clubs and major festivals in North America, Japan, Europe and the Middle East.
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Geoffrey Keezer traveled many times to Japan, where he played with Ray Brown Michael Brecker, Pat Metheny and Kenny Burrell.
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From 2000 to 2009 Geoffrey Keezer performed on keyboards and piano in the Christian McBride Band.
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In 2004, Geoffrey Keezer traveled to Lima, Peru, to play with Maria Schneider.
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That same year, Geoffrey Keezer received a grant from Chamber Music America to develop a new jazz work.
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In 2009, Geoffrey Keezer joined the band of fellow Art Blakey alumnus Wayne Shorter, subbing for an injured Danilo Perez.
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Geoffrey Keezer played at the Playboy Jazz Festival and at festivals in Ottawa and Montreal as a member of the Wayne Shorter Quartet.
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Geoffrey Keezer's albums include the solo piano recording Zero One, as well as Sublime: Honoring the Music of Hank Jones, a series of duets with pianists Kenny Barron, Chick Corea, Benny Green and Mulgrew Miller.
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In 2010, Geoffrey Keezer was nominated for his second Grammy Award, for Best Instrumental Arrangement Accompanying Vocalist, for the track "Don't Explain" on Denise Donatelli's When Lights Are Low.
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From 2012 to 2013, Keezer played concerts in Hawaii and across North America as part of the "Malama Ko Aloha" tour featuring Hawaiian slack-key guitarist Keola Beamer and native American flute player R Carlos Nakai.
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Since 2016, Geoffrey Keezer has frequently performed with his wife, vocalist Gillian Margot.
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Geoffrey Keezer appeared on German television in 1989 with Art Blakey.
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Geoffrey Keezer appeared on Japan's NHK in 2005 during their coverage of that year's Tokyo Jazz Festival.
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In 2012, Geoffrey Keezer played on ABC's Good Morning America and The View in a band with Chris Botti and country star Vince Gill.
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Geoffrey Keezer is a jazz faculty member at the Juilliard School.
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Geoffrey Keezer has taught master classes at the Brubeck Institute, the Royal Academy of Music, the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz, The New School, the Stanford Jazz Workshop, Indiana University, Michigan State University, the Jazzschool, Jazz Aspen, the Amsterdam College for the Arts, the Guildhall School of Music and The Hartt School of Music.