When the Kaeshammer family moved to Canada, the teenage pianist's standout performance at the 1996 TerrifVic Jazz Party in Victoria signalled the arrival of a new Canadian jazz star. Breathtaking shows throughout that summer's Canadian jazz and blues festival circuit stirred up more interest.

In December 1996, Kaeshammer released Blue Keys, a solo piano CD debutthat garnered critical raves for the musician's "prodigious technique and thunde- rous left hand bass lines on a repertoire of brilliantly reshaped trad jazz and blues classics."