JazzNights is a series of house concerts begun in 2002 by Mary Wisnovsky and Maitland Jones. Over the years, we have hosted some of the best jazz musicians in the world. We would be pleased to have you join us; just browse the website and contact us if you are interested. Reservations by email to: mjjr@princeton.edu. 

JazzNights (114)

Sunday, March 29, 2026

Geoff Keezer (piano)

and

Gillian Margot (vocal

On Sunday, March 29th at 4 pm JazzNights, will present this great duo. The event will be held in the Hockaday/Jones barn at 78 Moores Mill Mt. Rose Road, Hopewell, NJ 08525. Directions are posted on our website. We are asking for a contribution of $50 per person. As always, we offer about two hours of great music, good snacks, and an open bar. Please email your reservation to mjjr@princeton.edu. You can either send me a check at the address above or pay at the door. Please do not use my defunct NYU email address. If you reserve but can’t make it, PLEASE let me know by email so we can give away your reservation to someone on the wait list.

An Experiment (not the music, just the writeup)

 You probably are aware of the influence (intrusion?) into our lives of AI. I’ve been interested and have used it in a few benign ways. I am astonished at its power and especially its ability to mimic human interactions. It’s sometimes enormously useful and, I would say, incredibly dangerous. Nonetheless, in a fit of curiosity, I set it the task of writing up JazzNights 114. I fed it the general information as well as my previous 113 writeups (it probably had them already in its belly). I asked it to copy my “style.” So here it is – not a word is directly from me, but I would say it got it right. For example, it discerned my love for long-time musical relations.  This is a one-time experiment – I am not going to repeat it!

“After more than two decades of producing these house concerts, one learns that the most profound musical moments often occur when the distance between the artist and the audience is measured in inches, not feet. On March 29, we are privileged to host a duo that embodies this intimacy: pianist Geoffrey Keezer and vocalist Gillian Margot.

To call Geoffrey Keezer a "prodigy" is to look only at his start—the eighteen-year-old who took the piano chair for Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers. To hear him today is to witness a master of orchestral piano. Whether he is reimagining the works of Peter Gabriel or navigating the complexities of a jazz standard, Geoffrey plays with a clarity and structural brilliance that reminds us why he has been the first call for legends like Christian McBride and Diana Krall.

But the alchemy of this particular evening lies in the partnership. Gillian Margot possesses a voice that is both authoritative and vulnerable, a rare "storyteller" gift that commands a room without ever straining for effect. A native of Toronto who studied under Oscar Peterson, she brings a deep, smoky resonance to the tradition, yet moves effortlessly into the realms of R&B and contemporary song.

As many of you know, Geoffrey and Gillian are partners in life as well as music. Their 2018 collaboration, On My Way to You, and their more recent work, showcase a "telepathic" musicality that only comes from years of shared time and shared breath. They don’t just perform songs; they inhabit them.”

In the living room setting of JazzNights, where every nuance of Geoffrey’s touch and every inflection of Gillian’s phrasing can be felt, this promises to be an extraordinary afternoon. It is the "real" music we always seek—stripped of artifice, rich in history, and performed with a boundless, mutual responsiveness.

We look forward to seeing you there.