Geoffrey Keezer

Geoffrey Keezer is a Grammy-winning pianist, composer, and arranger who came to prominence in 1989 as the last pianist to join Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers, where he played until Blakey's death the following year. Born in 1970 in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, into a family of music teachers, he began at the piano as a small child and was performing professionally as a teenager. Over the following decades he toured and recorded with figures including Ray Brown, Benny Golson, Joshua Redman, Christian McBride, and Joe Locke, building a reputation for harmonic depth and technical command across a wide stylistic range. In 2023 he won the Grammy for Best Instrumental Composition for the piece Refuge, the opening track on his album Playdate.