Geoffrey Keezer

Class of
1989
Position
Jazz Pianist
Biography

Jazz pianist Geoffrey Keezer ’89, a two-time Grammy nominee, has built a successful career by creating unusual and compelling music with a wide range of artists, from singers such as Diana Krall '83 to bassists such as Christian McBride, and rock stars such as Sting. Since his teenage days playing with Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers, Wisconsin native Keezer has toured all over the world, playing with giants of jazz like Joshua Redman, Pat Metheny '96H, and Wayne Shorter ‘99H.

Keezer, a two-time Grammy nominee, has approximately 20 albums to his name as a bandleader. TIME Magazine has described his work as containing “more than enough virtuosity and sheer musical wit and intelligence to weave all of his apparently disparate strands of influence into an original and compelling whole.”

Keezer has traveled all around the world, performing and gathering inspiration for future projects. He has taught numerous master classes at schools and universities such as the Brubeck Institute, the Royal Academy of Music, the New School, and the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz, among others. He has received Grammy nominations for his album Áurea (ArtistShare)—nominated in the best Latin Jazz Album category—and for his work on Denise Donatelli’s When Lights Are Low.