A live jazz club album yet again this year captures the spirit of jazz so much more directly than many studio albums can ever achieve.
There's so much life and playing wisdom here. Nothing short of dazzling Live at Birdland recorded at the New York club contains not only a walk down the road less travelled of some of Chick Corea and Wayne Shorter's huge back catalogues of work but also includes some Keezer tunes that fit right in.
It's not surprising this understanding manifests itself given the empathy the now 53-year-old pianist Geofffrey Keezer who hails from Wisconsin has with these two departed masters given that he played with both of them during his own stellar career and shares many points of intersection in terms of approach and jazz lineage. No stranger to UK audiences ex-Jazz Messenger Keezer toured with the Scottish National Jazz Orchestra last year.
As for the American's playing mates at Birdland where he returns next month for dates he's with bass icon John Patitucci and the drummer here is ex-Betty Carter master Clarence Penn whose own album Behind the Voice was released recently by Seattle label Origin.
Classic late-period Wayne Shorter Quartet bassist Patitucci also played significantly much earlier in his own career in both Chick Corea's Elektrik and Akoustic bands. JP's arco work on 'Eternal Child' is formidable to state the blindingly obvious.
It's an album that unusually in audio form includes the liner notes by Wayne Shorter biographer Michelle Mercer running like a mini-audiobook as spoken word at the end. Keezer's first live trio album in many years these selections are drawn from six nights of performance at the NYC club famously named for Charlie Parker.
Keezer, above, playing Hank Jones' 'Time Warp' more than 20 years ago when he duetted with Chick Corea who passed away in February 2021.
Keezer duetted on the Telarc album Sublime: Honoring the Music of Hank Jones. And you can feel the closeness both there and on Live at Birdland. Just issued this MarKeez release also includes Chick Corea’s 'High Wire – The Aerialist,' Shorter Phantom Navigator piece 'Flagships' - Corea actually fleetingly appears on this 80s album on the piece 'Mahogany Bird' as does Patitucci on the same track - and tender Keezer tune 'Song of the Canopy.'
The version of Shorter 1960s Speak No Evil classic 'Dance Cadaverous' covered in recent years in a piano-vocals versions by Sachal Vasandani and Romain Collin and Keezer tune 'Madame Grenouille' from his late-1990s album Turn Up the Quiet are our pick of a very fine album that is full of formidable musicianship and in so many places touches the heart.
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