Los Angeles, CA. (Top40 Charts/ Resonance Records) - What do
James Brown, Miles Davis,
Queen Latifah, Al Jarreau, Rickie Lee Jones, Steely Dan,
Sergio Mendes, "American Idol", "Fame" and "Finding Nemo" Have In Common? They Have All Called Upon the Keyboard and Arranging Talents of John Beasley
Do Not Miss the Rare Los Angeles Appearance of Beasley's All-Star Quartet for Three Very Special Evenings at the Jazz Bakery
The shows will include music from John Beasley's 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 Herbie's ideologies. Beasley is primarily showcased in a trio format on the CD 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.
For the stand at the Jazz Bakery, Beasley brings together a band of A-list improvisers...three of the most in-demand players in the last four decades of jazz music. Renowned bassist Buster Williams has played with a plethora of jazz illuminaries including Bobby Hutcherson, Chick Corea, Dexter Gordon, Miles Davis (Beasley is also a Miles alumni), Nancy Wilson, Sarah Vaughan, Woody Shaw and countless others.
Bennie Maupin is a fixture in the Los Angeles jazz scene where he now makes his home. His highly personal bass clarinet sound helped define such classic jazz recordings as Miles Davis' Bitches Brew, Jack Johnson, Big Fun and On the Corner, as well as recordings by Herbie Hancock's Mwandishi band, and the Headhunters.
The multi-woodwind player has also recorded with Chick Corea, Horace Silver, McCoy Tyner, Lee Morgan, Freddie Hubbard, Jack DeJohnette, Andrew Hill, Eddie Henderson and Woody Shaw, to name only a few. Jeff "Tain" Watts first rose to national prominence as a seminal member of Wynton Marsalis's early bands and has been drummer with Branford Marsalis' acclaimed quartet for over two decades while being one of the most recorded and distinctive players on the jazz scene today.
This rare combination of players promises to be one of the most incendiary evenings of music in town this year.
Released on April 8, 2008, John Beasley's Letter to Herbie was the inaugural release for the exciting new creative artists Los Angeles-based venture Resonance Records and is being considering in numerous Grammy categories this year.
"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 fusion composition "4AM" (which originally featured the rare pairing of electric bassist Jaco Pastorius and drummer Harvey Mason in 1980) 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, a third generation Louisiana musician, 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.
John 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 Dianne 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" and "Fame," and "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.
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.
JOHN BEASLEY QUARTET
at The JAZZ BAKERY
Thursday thru Saturday, DECEMBER 4-6, 2008
3233 Helms Ave. Los Angeles, CA 90034
310-271-9039
8pm & 9:30pm - $25
John Beasley - piano
Bennie Maupin - woodwinds
Buster Williams - bass
Jeff "Tain" Watts - drums
