Tim Garland and Geoffrey Keezer launched their album Mezzo at the Turner Sims Concert Hall, Southampton, Friday 27 February, 2026. The album’s title refers to the custom made mezzo-soprano saxophone played by Tim Garland.
It’s quite big news, and I think there will only ever be 20 hand-made ones, and I have number 19 and Joe Lovano has number two.”
Tim Garland talking to Stuart Nicholson for the Into Mezzo article for Jazzwise magazine issue 315 March, 2026 edition).
The evening opened with To The One Who Flies with beautiful lyricism, energy, soaring notes and captivating use of tonal dynamics. However, what really stands out is the sound of the mezzo-soprano sax. Despite knowing it is a sax its different sound, tone and range is something quite breathtaking. Then you couple this with Geoffrey Keezer’s wonderful piano accompaniment and you just know that this gig is going to be something special.
A Prayer At Winter and Out Of Towner do nothing to diminish the sentiment of the last sentence of the previous paragraph. The former a breathy ballad with dark notes from Keezer at the piano. The latter, a dedication to guitarist Ralph Towner who died January 2026, gave full range to both instruments with the interplay between Garland and Keezer giving testament to the idea of playing for each other.
Eric Satie’s Gnossiene No. 1 began with Garland playing his tenor sax directly into the Steinway piano bed causing the strings to reverberate and, thereby, produce the most wonderful musical hum that added tonal colour, and texture, to that of the sax. Keezer’s piano playing was sublime, as was the jazz sound around Satie’s melodic line.
I had thought that Satie’s piece would be the stand out number of the first set but I have to say that, in my opinion, the Geoffrey Keezer composition Daly Avenue (not on the Mezzo album) surpassed it. The tune was bright and punchy with an identifiable American feel to it and the applause for Keezer’s solo was well deserved.
Set two opened with The Waves Between and Tim Garland brought our attention to the album art work, to which this tune has a strong connection. As with other number heard this evening it is the interplay that stands out’ the soaring, weaving sax sound underpinned by contrasting piano lines.
Carousel, written by Mulgrew Miller, is musically onomatopoeic with the tune ebbing and flowing to great effect. Ghost In The Photograph segued into the Ralph Towner number Beneath An Evening Sky (this can be found on the 1985 album release Slide Show with Ralph Towner on guitar and Gary Burton on vibraphone). This made for a fascinating sound and I have to say that the second part of the combined tune has a different feel and colour to the original, which I very much enjoyed.
The last tune of the second set was the Chick Corea number La Fiesta, a light, bright and breezy number played with finesse and energy. But, of course, the evening did not end there. The encore piece was the Cole Porter classic Every Time We Say Goodbye and the audience lapped it up. Geoffrey Keezer set out the melody slowly and deliberately before Tim Garland took over and brought the warm toned sax in to play. This was an enchanting cover of a well-known, masterly composition.
This gig will live long in my memory; not just for the exceptional playing or the new and glorious sound of the mezzo-soprano sax but for the way these two musical artists “played for each other” (a concept put into words for me by bassist Alyn Shipton) and afforded me the privilege to sit in on from the comfort of the auditorium.
Set list, Set 1: To The One Who Flies; A Prayer At Winter; Out Of Towner; Gnossiene No. 1; Daly Avenue.
Set 2: The Waves Between; Carousel; Host In The Photograph/Beneath An Evening Sky; La Fiesta; Every Time We Say Goodbye (encore).
Musicians: Tim Garland (mezzo soprano, soprano and tenor sax), Geoffrey Kezzer (piano).
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