Despite his Midwest upbringing, Geoffrey has long held a fascination for global folk traditions, resulting in such projects as Falling Up (MaxJazz 2003) with Hawaiian slack-key guitarist Keola Beamer and Yasukatsu Oshima with Geoffrey Keezer
(JVC Victor 2007), focusing on the music of Okinawa’s Ryukyu Islands.
And he is currently at work writing an arrangement of a Korean folk
song for a chamber group in San Diego. But Keezer’s interest in
Afro-Peruvian music is quite recent, dating back to a big band
performance at a jazz festival in Peru in 2004 and sharing the stage
with a group of Peruvian musicians. Previously, he recalls, “I had only
heard the music of the Andes, you know, the guys with pan flutes and
drums that play on street corners in major cities...But I was totally
unaware of Afro-Peruvian music, the music of coastal Peru... What makes
Afro-Peruvian music so intriguing to me is the unique combination of
cultures found in Peru, which in turn influence the music. In Peru
you've got descendants of Amerindians, Spanish, African, even Chinese
and Japanese… Peru's cultural crossover with Africa predates America's,
and many more of the African elements are retained in the music than in
jazz.” Thus began Keezer’s quest to compose music inspired by Peruvian
traditions and to record the project through ArtistShare. His first
such adventure as leader (Keezer earlier recorded a duo album on
ArtistShare with Jim Hall), he was enthused about the options available
through the audience participation format. “The ArtistShare business
model offers unprecedented personal access to the artistic process.
It's like seeing the bonus material to a DVD before the movie comes
out.” Through Áurea (a type of
Peruvian lily), Keezer assembled an array of familiar and new
collaborators who would participate in varying combinations: Hugo
Alcázar, Peruvian percussionist who handles the trapset for Peruvian
trumpeter Gabriel Alegria’s band; Nigerian bassist Essiet Essiet;
Argentinean vocalist Sofia Koutsovitas; and American musicians, drummer
and trio-mate Jon Wikan; alto/soprano saxophonist and frequent cohort
Steve Wilson; guitarists Mike Moreno and Peter Sprague; and tenor
saxophonist Ron Blake. Geoffrey’s wife Susan Wullff, bassist with the
San Diego Symphony, adds her bowed voice to two tracks. “I wanted to
form a band where I could do a lot of different things,” says Keezer.
“Essiet Essiet (bass) and I played together in my first professional
gig, Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers. Besides being a great
bassist and team player, I chose Essiet for Áurea because
he's from Nigeria and is well versed in West African Highlife music. I
wanted to explore the African side of Afro-Peruvian music a little
more, so some of our music is coming from that vantage point. Steve
Wilson and I have worked together off and on for the past 15 years or
so, in many contexts.” The
addition of Koutsovitas was important on multiple levels. “She's from
Argentina, and writes all her own music that draws on many South
American influences,” notes Geoffrey, [She is] very knowledgeable on
all the different musics of South America and she has several other
projects going with musicians from Colombia and Peru.” In fact, it was
Sofia’s influence that expanded Aurea from exclusively Afro-Peruvian to
include traditional Argentine music as well. Noted Keezer in an
interview with All About Jazz, “She gave me a massive download
of all this folkloric music from all over South America...Argentina is
mostly known for the tango, but actually there's a huge element in
their folkloric music [that is] of African influence, very similar to
Afro-Peruvian music. Video
clips available on the ArtistShare site document Keezer’s education as
he interacts with bandmates who grew up with the traditions that
inspire the new music. Koutsovitas notes that there are thousands of
rhythms from Colombia alone. Áurea was
released on ArtistShare in December 2008, a journey of about four years
spanning much of the western hemisphere. Five compositions are Keezer’s
contemporary creations drawing on South American traditions, while
three were written by contemporary Argentine composer/songwriters. “A
great deal of the music was composed prior to recording,” notes
Geoffrey. “There are of course sections of each piece where
improvisation takes over, where the composed tidbits serve only as
guidelines to individual player's improvisation; but on the whole each
song was pretty thoroughly mapped out in advance. The exceptions would
be the trio pieces (‘La Flor Azul’ and ‘Vidala De Lucho’) where we just
used the basic structure of the song and created an arrangement
collectively.” While the music is of course the main event, the experience of Áurea
is incomplete without the context provided by interviews and video
clips of rehearsals and discussions available through ArtistShare. Like
its namesake, Áurea unfolds and blossoms with engaging
melodies, danceable rhythms filled with energy and open spaces filled
with joy. Long attracted to basslines, Keezer’s strong left hand gives
length and elegance to the bass phrases that infuse his compositions,
while the four tracks that feature Koutsovitas are filled with
horn-like harmonies, even without horns. At least to these ears, at
times there’s a trace of Bach in these tunes, toccata and fugue- like
journeys on the keys, enveloped in traditions that were surely far
removed from 17th century Europe! Whether melding swing with
post bop, Africa with South America, or Okinawa with Wisconsin,
Geoffrey Keezer proves time and again that respect for cultural
tradition is an asset, not a hindrance, in seeking an original voice in
music. Like a sonic sponge, Keezer immerses himself in folk tales and
folk arts, in history and geography, soaking up “something really old”
and wringing out new compositions and arrangements that allow his
listeners to peer through that “window of rhythm” and into a poet’s
soul. Among a growing list of projects seeking to infuse American jazz
with traditions of other cultures, Áurea is surely one of the most honest and satisfying.
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