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| Birth Name(s) : John Beasley |
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Full John Beasley Biography
Declining an oboe scholarship from the Julliard after high school because of his stronger love for jazz, Beasley went on to play, tour and record with some of the who’s who in music, including Miles Davis, Freddie Hubbard, Chick Corea, Queen Latifah (MD), Christian McBride, Steely Dan (MD), James Brown, Carly Simon, Jon Hassel, Chaka Khan, Spice Girls, Jessica Simpson, Clint Black, to name a few. Recognizing Beasley's talent for composing and arranging, major recording artists have added Beasley's original piano sound and music to their projects. While touring with Miles Davis, Beasley was inspired to release his first of eight solo recordings, which was produced by Steely Dan’s Walter Becker.
Highly regarded as a composer, at the young age of 24, Beasley started writing music for Paramount, Disney, and MGM's television shows, namely: Cheers, Family Ties, Star Trek and Fame. He also wrote the Touchstone TV logo, which is still used today. His first brush with Hollywood films was as a pianist and synthesist on film scores for film luminaries such as Thomas Newman, Dave Gruisin, Alan Silvestri, and Carmine Coppola in box office hits: WALL-E, Finding Nemo, Erin Brockovich, Godfather III, A Bug's Life and Austin Powers: The Spy who Shagged Me.
With the popularity of reality shows, Beasley, started working as Musical Director or Arranger on some of the top music and dance shows, including American Idol, Pussycat Dolls Presents, The Search for the Next Doll, America’s Got Talent and Singing Bee. On Season 4 of American Idol, Beasley was Associate Musical Director overseeing the 12 female finalists. He arranged the selected songs and coached and rehearsed the contestants for their performances. To his credit, Carrie Underwood took the title and went on to earn a GRAMMY and be a
No. 1 country music sensation.
Today, Beasley, continues to release new music, tour with his band, juggle studio work (commercials, TV and films), conduct workshops, produce other artists, perform and produce music award specials, work on music reality shows, and tour with Queen Latifah as her Musical Director. His eighth album, Letter to Herbie, a tribute to 2008 GRAMMY winner, Herbie Hancock, which features Christian McBride, Jeff “Tain” Watts and Roy Hargrove was released April 2008 and has been topping the JazzWeek Charts.
Jazz pianist John Beasley embarks upon a supremely inspired effort with his new album, Letter to Herbie, taking its cues from both the philosophies and compositions of music great Herbie Hancock. The 10-song CD features Beasley reshaping classic works from across several decades of Hancock's catalog while also contributing originals that bear the stamp of his ideologies. Beasley is primarily showcased in a trio format flanked by first-call bassist Christian McBride and propulsive drummer Jeff “Tain" Watts, with special guest trumpeter Roy Hargrove sitting in on a few numbers and the addition of flautist Steve Tavaglione, percussionist Luis Conte and guitarist Michael O'Neal adding color to a few others.
Due for release in March 2008, John Beasley's Letter to Herbie is also the inaugural release for the exciting new creative artists venture Resonance Records.
“The idea of interpreting the music of Herbie Hancock was brought to me by George Klabin (President of Resonance Records)," Beasley shares. “My first reaction was, 'no way!' Herbie was one of my first idols and I didn't want that bulls-eye on my back. But over the next few days I thought about how much Herbie has inspired me." One day while teaching a summer music camp, Beasley found himself on a break at the piano where he stumbled upon a brilliant juxtaposition of the Hancock gems “Maiden Voyage" and “Tell Me a Bedtime Story." It was at that “a-ha" moment that he discovered it was possible for him to do something of significance with Hancock's music. He called his new piece “Bedtime Voyage" and soon after set about the daunting task of fleshing out the rest of what would become Letter to Herbie. “I picked some songs thinking not about how Herbie would play them, but how I would play them," Beasley states.
Determined to find fresh interpretations, Beasley flipped Hancock's slickly winding 1980 fusion composition “4AM" (which originally featured the rare pairing of electric bassist Jaco Pastorius and drummer Harvey Mason) into an accelerated and swingin' straight ahead whirl. He took a brief boogaloo soundtrack cue titled “The Naked Camera" from Hancock's score to Michelangelo Antonioni's “Blow Up" (1967) and transformed it into something that - thanks to McBride's bass line - sounds like Eddie Harris' “Listen Here...Gone Reggae." Beasley took a striking rhythmic turn from Hancock's post-bop masterpiece “Eye of the Hurricane" (1965) and emphasized it in a thrilling new Afro- Cuban arrangement. And the trance-inducing “Vein Melter" from Hancock's funk-jazz fusion classic Headhunters (1973) gets a dub-inspired makeover.
The fact that John Beasley has long been influenced by Hancock is proven in that two of his original compositions were fully conceived before he was even contemplating the direction of his latest album. “I wrote '3 Finger Snap' a few years ago," he shares. “It happened to have a 20-bar form that unintentionally mirrors Herbie's tune 'One Finger Snap' (1964), so it fit in perfectly here. It's the same story with 'Hear and Now' which has a feel similar to Herbie's 'Dolphin Dance' (1965). I got lucky with those I guess."
Beyond compositional similarities, Hancock's influence on Beasley stretches into the legend's groundbreaking penchant for bullish, boundless chameleon-esque musical exploration - be it overtly pop and dance oriented music, music from other parts of the world and music in the artistic industries of film, television and even commercial advertising. Hancock, along with contemporaries such as Quincy Jones and Stanley Clarke, explored all of these areas and more, and Beasley eagerly followed in those footprints.
Beasley's own credits are vast and impressive, including work with jazz giants Miles Davis and Freddie Hubbard, pop and R&B superstars James Brown and Chaka Khan, Quiet Storm pioneers Michael Franks and Lee Ritenour, jazz vocalists Diane Reeves and Al Jarreau, rockers Steely Dan and Johnny Lang, progressive folkies Kenny Rankin and Rickie Lee Jones, the explosive Latin strains of “El Negro" & Robbie Ameen and the seductive Brazilian music of Sergio Mendes and Tania Maria. Beasley has also graced his share of film and television sound stages at the service of “American Idol", “Fame," Finding Nemo", and “Erin Brockovich," among many others. Among his most recent gigs was serving as Musical Director for rapper-turned-singer Queen Latifah, leading a big band for her 40 US city tour.
“Guys like Herbie paved the way for young musicians like me to be open to doing lots of other things and still play jazz. I once accompanied (new wave/pop singer) Cyndi Lauper on a show called “Women Rock" and she was way into her music. Any artist who has that kind of passion, I'm there!" John Beasley's kindred passion is apparent not only in his fine work with others, but in his previous albums as a leader (released in America as well as Japan) which range from solo piano improvisations to jazz ensembles.
Letter to Herbie marks a proud launching point for Resonance Records, the Los Angeles-based recording division of the Rising Jazz Stars Foundation, a 501(C)(3) non-profit organization. As a program of the foundation, Resonance is able to structure its economic resources in a manner that frees it from many of the limitations that exist in the normal jazz record business. With the funding capability and other economic participation afforded by the use of the 501 (C)(3) structure, commercial concerns take a backseat to its primary purposes - enabling extraordinarily talented artists to create their best possible audio and video recordings while developing valuable opportunities to display their artistry to new and wider audiences.
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