spotlight WSMA Builds Grammy Nominees and
Modesty in Wisconsin Coral Graszer, WSMA Media Relations Intern
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As a little girl, I wanted to be nominated for a Grammy. I wanted to walk the red carpet in my gown, get called up on stage and thank my parents for bringing music into my life. But for Geoffrey Keezer, this isn’t a reality he wants, even though he has been nominated… twice. Not because he isn’t thankful to his parents, quite the opposite in fact. But Keezer did not start writing music for the awards, he did it for the love of music, to do something of value, and because he claims he could do nothing else: “My DNA is sort of pre- wired for music,” he explains.
Geoffrey Keezer, an Eau Claire native and world-renown jazz pianist, was recently nominated for his second Grammy and could not be more unaffected. “After doing this for more than half my life, it’s very gratifying to get the industry recog- nition. It’s a nice little honor to get, but it doesn’t mean all that much in the end. That’s not why I do this. I didn’t start with that goal.” Keezer explains that the real significance comes from the people he has worked with and the people who taught him about music in the first place.
Influences
Keezer has been playing jazz piano for 22 years and still remembers his initial influ- ences, his parents, both who are musicians, and music teachers who inspired him at an early age to pursue music. “[WSMA State Honors Jazz Ensemble] was really significant for me, because it was what I wanted to be doing.” Keezer attributes a lot of his success today to the Wisconsin
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school music programs, saying “The fact that programs were in place at all made it a lot more possible for me to get the experience [I did]… That’s why it’s so important to have these organizations.” Keezer talks specifically of the impact the Shell Lake Art Center had on him when he attended their extensive jazz camp. Keezer also makes clear that he is not the only musician to call Wisconsin his or her home state. “Lots of successful musicians [have come] out of Wisconsin and grown up with the music programs.”
In addition to remembering his first influ- ences, Keezer reflects on his collaborative projects and how they have helped him become a better musician. When asked which project has stood out as the most influential, he quickly responds, “I can’t single out just one… there have been so many.” Though he does drop a few names, heralding Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers as his first professional international gig, The Ray Brown Trio, and his nine year collaboration with The Christian McBride Band as “particularly meaningful.”
Finding Value in Music
Yet he admits that even as a critically acclaimed artist, it can be challenging at times to do what all musicians instinc- tively do. “We express our own individual soul [and at times] a collective soul of mankind. It is important as a musician to keep your conviction that what we do has value.” Keezer explains that “every other day I think about what I do and wonder if I have value.” Here is when he
Listen to samples of Geoffrey Keezer’s newest album by going to the online version of WSM.
places his faith in his music and hopes it will convey an importance to others. The awards, applause and fans serve as proof that it does.
When thinking about his CDs, Keezer says the process is “the same as writing a book, or putting together an art gallery. [I] find material that more or less fits together. Just like a poet, I try to find a thread [to connect my songs together].” Yet Keezer explains that he never sits down with the intention to compose a song start to finish. “Songs develop spontaneously from some kind of seed. It might be something I hear walking down the street or on the plane, but I have never written programmatically.”
His Latest CD: Mill Creek Road
While the Grammy nominations may not mean much to Keezer himself, they do to the music community and those who have supported him in the past and pres- ent. For that support, Keezer shows his gratitude. His latest CD, Mill Creek Road, was funded by his fans through a program called “Kickstarter,” and he intends to reward them for their support. Keezer ex- plains that “Kickstarter” is a program that allows fans to decide how much they want to contribute to his project and, depending on the support he is shown, he can add
~ Stacy Duren
Stay flexible in the classroom, regardless of how much (or little) experience you have, learn from your students, and always, always, always, celebrate diversity.
April 2011
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