| Classique, Jazz |
An Album for Summer Evenings and Thoughtful Listening
Best enjoyed on a warm summer evening, perhaps over tea on a quiet terrace, this album offers a seemingly classic formula: a voice steeped in operatic tradition, a solitary piano, and a repertoire of well-worn standards. The recipe is familiar. And yet, something about this recording feels remarkably fresh. There’s a certain charm, difficult to pin down, that deserves to be unpacked.
For those of us who, like the writer, have passed through the world of classical music, there’s something especially compelling in this high-wire act. It’s a performance without a net, where the vocalist is supported by nothing more than a masterful pianist. This stark setup requires musical arrangements to be less about structure and more about conversation, even creation, in real time, a dynamic exchange between two seasoned artists.
Margot and Keezer have been musical partners since 2014 and life partners since 2016, sharing a boundless curiosity for what Margot describes as “different styles, genres, grooves, atmospheres, and harmonic implications.” This philosophy explains the sheer breadth of the repertoire they’ve tackled together. “At our concerts, while signing CDs and vinyls, people kept asking, ‘Where’s the duo album?” Margot recalls. “Eventually we took the hint. We decided to record a collection of songs we love, whatever came to mind, really.”
Of course, this album won’t please everyone. Listeners devoted to stricter forms of jazz, or those with little patience for classical influences, may find themselves at odds with this particular sound world. The musical sources here are unambiguously rooted in both traditions. The Great American Songbook and the timeless jazz standards once performed by the genre’s giants are etched into the DNA of both artists.
Margot, who grew up in suburban Toronto, had already internalized the names of Sarah Vaughan, Billy Eckstine, Ella Fitzgerald, Nina Simone, Cleo Laine, and Dinah Washington by the time she entered kindergarten. “My mother played them constantly at home,” she says. “I was mimicking them, I could sing Lullaby of Birdland by heart at age six, the way my kid knows Raffi songs.”
Though trained as a classical pianist, Margot veered toward jazz after receiving a scholarship to study at York University, where she learned from bassist-pianist-vibraphonist Don Thompson, guitarist Lorne Lofsky, and pianist John Gittins, whom Oscar Peterson affectionately called his “technique teacher.” Peterson himself often sat on juries and occasionally gave masterclasses at the university.
This trajectory helps explain the kind of musical creation we now hear. “Oscar became a real champion of mine,” Margot says. “He encouraged me to keep singing and told me how important it was to stand my ground as a woman.” After graduating, she ventured into the world, booking her own gigs and forming her own band. “I’d go hear every American musician who came through town. I saw Ray Brown play with Geoffrey [Keezer], even though we didn’t meet then. Kevin Mahogany took me under his wing. Freddy Cole gave me lessons—he told me to establish myself in Toronto, and that New York would come in time, which it did.”
Residencies abroad kept her afloat financially, until Jeremy Pelt finally convinced her to move to New York to record. She had already collaborated there with Marcus and E.J. Strickland, back when Robert Glasper was still playing in their group. If, like us, you can appreciate the formidable vocal technique of Gillian Margot and the expressive, nuanced playing of Geoffrey Keezer, then you’ll find much to admire here. This album is not merely a collection of covers, it is a reverent, reimagined body of work, shaped by memory, skill, and deep musical empathy. For the right listener, it will feel like falling gently into a kind of wistful poetry, one that lingers long after the final note.
Thierry De Clemensat
Member at Jazz Journalists Association
USA correspondent for Paris-Move and ABS magazine
Editor in chief – Bayou Blue Radio, Bayou Blue News
PARIS-MOVE, April 30th 2025
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