John Beasley (musician)
| John Beasley | |
|---|---|
| Birth name | John Daniel Beasley |
| Born | September 28, 1960 |
| Origin | Shreveport, Louisiana, United States |
| Genres | Jazz, Blues, Soul, R&B, Funk, Afro-Cuban, Latin, Classical, Rock |
| Occupations | Composer, Producer, Arranger, Pianist |
| Instruments | Piano, keyboards, |
| Labels | Resonance Records, Windham Hill Jazz, EWE Japan |
| Associated acts | Queen Latifah, Wall-E, Miles Davis, Chaka Khan, Steely Dan |
| Website | Official website |
John Beasley (born September 28, 1960[1]) is an American composer, pianist, producer, and arranger who has recorded and performed with musicians such as Miles Davis, Steely Dan, Chaka Kahn, James Brown, Spice Girls, Dianne Reeves, Ry Cooder, Chick Corea and Sérgio Mendes, Freddie Hubbard, John Patitucci, Queen Latifah, and Ivan Lins.
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[edit] Origins
Born in Shreveport, Louisiana, Beasley is third generation musician who was raised in a house filled with music. His grandfather, Rule Oliver, played trombone in territory bands and was a junior high school band director for 50 years in Arkansas. His mother, Lida Beasley, is a brass instrumentalist. For most of her career, she taught music at various public schools and colleges, along with being band director and conducting operas.
Growing up around musicians, Beasley learned how to play trumpet, oboe, drums, saxophone, and flute, mostly because of his mother's need for wind instrumentalists for her bands. His father, Rule Curtis Beasley (b. 1931), is a pianist and bassoonist, who played with the Fort Worth Symphony.[2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10] Rule Beasley also was a professor of music composition at University of North Texas College of Music and at Santa Monica College, where he taught many musicians performing today.
Beasley created a drum set with garbage can lids and kitchen pots and pans when he was around two years old. His grandfather started bringing him drum parts, which he put together, and had a drum set from age four to high school. Beasley began piano lessons at age seven and stopped taking formal lessons when he started high school. In six grade, he had private lessons with a university oboe teacher which lasted three years. He taught himself to play the sax, flute, and trumpet and began playing for the John Adams Junior School and Santa Monica College orchestras that his mother led. He was also in the state choir but quit because he got bored.
Beasley started writing music in junior high school. After his father bought him a Bobby Timmons record, he wanted to play jazz. In Grade 7, he formed a jazz band with high school-aged friends. Always mesmerized by inner melodies and day dreaming, on family camping trips he packed his score pad to compose and arrange.
As soon as he graduated from high school, he started 'gigging'; playing in bars when he was too young to get entry as a customer. Fearless about learning and performing, in just a few years he was touring around the U.S. and internationally with Sérgio Mendes and Freddie Hubbard.
[edit] Career
At age 14, Beasley wrote a jazz piece for the University of North Texas Jazz Band. Jimmy Lyons, founder of the Monterey Jazz Festival, heard Beasley's piece and recommended him for a scholarship at the Stan Kenton summer jazz camp. The Stan Kenton Orchestra performed Beasley's composition at the camp, and then added it to its repertoire that year.
Declining an oboe scholarship from the Juilliard, Beasley went on to tour and record with Miles Davis, Steely Dan, Carly Simon, Barbra Streisand, Baaba Maal, Queen Latifah, Christian McBride and the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, Chaka Khan, James Brown, and John Pattituci to name a few. Recognizing Beasley's talent for composing and arranging, major recording artists have added Beasley's original sound and music to their projects.
At 24, Beasley started writing music for Paramount, Disney, and MGMs television shows, including 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 playing on film scores for film luminaries such as Thomas Newman, Dave Grusin, Alan Silvestri, and Carmine Coppola in box office hits such as WALL-E", "Finding Nemo, Erin Brockovich, The Godfather III, A Bug's Life, and Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me.[11] He composes pro bono for films and podcasts for Nobel Peace Prize winning Doctors Without Borders. Along the way, Beasley has written award winning commercials for ad agencies in the US and Germany for over 20 years. While touring with Miles Davis, Beasley was inspired to release his first of seven solo recordings.
Today, Beasley, continues to juggle his studio work on hit reality/game shows such as American Idol, Pussycat Dolls Present:, America's Got Talent, and Singing Bee, along with touring as Musical Director for Queen Latifah, conducting workshops, playing on TV/Films, producing other artists, and writing new music.
His eighth album, Letter to Herbie, a tribute to 2008 Grammy winner, Herbie Hancock, featuring Christian McBride, Jeff "Tain" Watts, and Roy Hargrove was released in April 2008 and has already topped the Jazz Music Charts. In 2009, he released Positootly!.[12] In 2010 he appeared in a Web-TV simulcast.[13]
[edit] References
- ^ U.S. Public Records Index, Vol 1 (Provo, UT: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc.), 2010.
- ^ E. Ruth Anderson (1928– ), Contemporary American Composers, A Biographical Dictionary, first edition, G.K. Hall & Co., Boston (1976)
- ^ E. Ruth Anderson (1928– ), Contemporary American Composers. A biographical dictionary, second edition, G.K. Hall & Co., Boston (1982)
- ^ International Who's Who in Music and Musicians' Directory, eighth edition, International Who's Who in Music, Cambridge, England (1977)
- ^ Adrian Gaster, International Who's Who in Music and Musicians' Directory, ninth edition, International Who's Who in Music, Cambridge, England (1980)
- ^ International Who's Who in Music and Musicians' Directory, 10th edition, International Who's Who in Music, Cambridge, England (1984)
- ^ Who's Who in American Music: Classical, R.R. Bowker, New York (1983)
- ^ Who's Who in Entertainment, Second edition, 1992-1993, Marquis Who's Who, Wilmette, Illinois (1992)
- ^ Who's Who in Entertainment, third edition, 1998–1999, Marquis Who's Who, New Providence, New Jersey (1997)
- ^ Who's Who in the West. 21st edition, 1987-1988, Marquis Who's Who, Wilmette, Illinois (1987)
- ^ http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1707406/
- ^ http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=34033
- ^ http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/news.php?id=48649
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