Geoff Keezer: Sublime - Honoring The Music Of Hank Jones auf CD

* Direct Stream Digital
+ Kenny Barron, Chick Corea, Benny Green, Mulgrew Miller

Wenn von so genannten musikalischen Wunderkindern die Rede ist, so darf der Name Geoffrey Keezer keinesfalls fehlen. Bereits als Dreijähriger bekam der 1970 in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, geborene Musiker seine erste Klavierstunde. Das berühmte Berklee College Of Music absolvierte er später in der Rekordzeit von zwölf Monaten und bereits mit 18 Jahren war er Mitglied in der Band von Hardbop-Legende Art Blakey. Weitere Stationen waren die Gruppen um Christian McBride. Benny Golson, Harold Mabern, Steve Nelson, Barbara Hendricks, Diana Krall, Curtis Fuller oder das Trio von Ray Brown, die DMP Big Band sowie das Contemporary Piano Ensemble. Seit 1988 veröffentlicht Geoffrey Keezer auch Alben unter eigenem Namen. Sublime heißt sein neuntes und ist - der Untertitel Honoring The Music Of Hank Jones verrät es - dem großen Piano-Kollegen Hank Jones gewidmet. Von dem hat kein Geringerer als Oscar Peterson einmal gesagt: „Ich gebe gern Hank Jones die Ehre, von ihm abgeguckt zu haben, wie er als Pianist in einer Gruppe einem Solisten das Thema vorgibt.“ Jones, der mit so gut wie allen wichtigen Größen des Jazz spielte, liebte kleine Formationen. Und deshalb hat Geoffrey Keezer den Tribut an das große Vorbild auch als Solo-, bzw. Duo-Album konzipiert. Phantasievoll und zeitgemäß improvisiert er über zehn Jones-Kompositionen alleine oder mit prominenten Kollegen wie Kenny Barron, Chick Corea, Benny Green oder Mulgrew Miller. Das Ergebnis ist eine Sternstunde in Sachen Piano-Jazz.

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“While Hank’s style is firmly rooted in the stride piano tradition of his predecessors - Fats Waller, Teddy Wilson, and Art Tatum - he is utterly contemporary. He is both inheritor and creator of a legacy.” - Geoffrey Keezer, from the liner notes

Pianist Geoffrey Keezer’s Sublime: Honoring the Music of Hank Jones, pays tribute to a giant of jazz piano via a series of duets with some of the most prominent keyboardists in modern jazz: Kenny Barron, Chick Corea, Benny Green and Mulgrew Miller.

Inspired by the duo recordings of Jones and Tommy Flanagan, Keezer employs a similar approach here, delivering stylish but reverent takes on ten compositions, including “Hank’s Blues,” “Passing Time,” “Time Warp,” “Lullaby,” “Things Are So Pretty in the Spring,” “Alpha” and “Intimidation.” Setting out to record a program of Hank Jones music, nearly every song on Keezer’s Telarc debut was composed by Jones with the exception of “Favors,” a Claus Ogerman original that has virtually become Jones’ own since he introduced the tune into his repertoire. Sublime: Honoring the Music of Hank Jones also spotlights Keezer’s virtuosity and chamber music approach on two solo performances: the opener “Angel Face” and the title track.

Instead of attempting to present the complete scope of Jones’ work, Keezer chose compositions that would suit the individual tastes and talents of the other pianists. He comments, “Chick loves free improvisation. To provide a space for us to explore this while remaining true to Hank’s composition, we expanded the last two bars of the original melody of ‘Intimidation’ into a free-form introduction. ‘Favors,’ originally a medium-tempo modal swinger, is played with Kenny as a down-tempo R&B ballad. Mulgrew suggested ‘Alpha,’ and Benny chose ‘Things Are So Pretty in the Spring.’”

A brilliant improviser of modern music, Geoffrey Keezer was born in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, in 1970. When he heard his first Hank Jones record at age fifteen, he says, “I was immediately drawn to Hank’s light and even touch, his subtle shifts of color and texture, and his ultra-hip harmonic language, especially the unusual wide-open intervals in his left-hand voicings.” The gifted young pianist joined Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers when he was just eighteen and went on to spend three years with the Ray Brown Trio. He’s released a number of successful solo projects, including Here and Now in 1990, Turn up the Quiet in 1998 and Zero One in 2000. Jazz fans, fellow musicians and critics everywhere continue to marvel at Keezer’s maturity and creative vision.

The oldest of the illustrious Jones brothers, (which include Thad and Elvin), Hank Jones was once a protégé of the legendary Art Tatum. Over the last six decades, he’s played piano with jazz greats Ella Fitzgerald, Coleman Hawkins, Lester Young, Charlie Parker, Miles Davis and John Coltrane, and has garnered a wealth of acclaim and critical praise. Among the many labels that Jones has recorded for as a leader are Verve, Savoy, Epic, Capitol, Impulse and Concord.

Keezer concludes, “His albums are a virtual encyclopedia of jazz piano, and remain my guideposts to this day.” Sublime: Honoring the Music of Hank Jones is a reflection of an extraordinary career in jazz and a unique portrait of the artist - and teacher - Hank Jones.
(concordmusicgroup. com)

Rezensionen

H. Sterner in stereoplay 8 / 03: "Eine Piano-Platte für Genießer."