Download GRAMMY nomination: Best Jazz Instrumental Album

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JOHN BEASLEY PRESS KIT
GRAMMY-NOMINEE
PIANIST / COMPOSER / ARRANGER / MUSIC DIRECTOR
“Beasley, the one-time keyboardist for Freddie Hubbard and Miles Davis, reflects a variety of generational
influences, incorporating the emphatic chordal clusters of Herbie Hancock, the rhythmic quirkiness of Monk and the
lush intelligence of Art Tatum into a highly refined personal voice.” --LA Times
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An original artist with a highly expressive and personal style, John Beasley, a veteran pianist, composer,
and arranger, earned a 2011 Grammy nomination for his ninth album Positootly! (Best Jazz Instrumental
Album.)
John Beasley’s potent imagination can be heard in his recordings and playing. A prodigious performer
and a prolific composer working in many styles and genres, with musicians from the jazz, classical, rock
and pop music worlds, and on platforms including recordings, TV, film, video games and commercials,
his approach to composing and playing is intelligent and exquisitely realized, always acknowledging the
past while relentlessly exploring the present and future.
Beasley is a Louisiana native and third generation musician. His father is a pianist, bassoonist and
composer. His mother is a brass instrumentalist, band conductor and orchestrator. His grandfather was
a trombonist. Growing up around musicians, Beasley also learned how to play trumpet, oboe, drums,
saxophone and flute, mainly because of his mother's need for wind and brass instrumentalists for her
bands.
Declining an oboe scholarship from the Julliard because of his stronger love for jazz, Beasley went on to
play, tour and record with some music luminaries, including Miles Davis, Freddie Hubbard, Chaka Khan,
Thad Jones, Hubert Laws, Dianne Reeves, Jeff “Tain” Watts, Wallace Roney, James Moody, Christian
McBride, Kenny Garrett, and Kenny Rankin and took the lead as Music Director for Grammy Award
winners Steely Dan, Queen Latifah, Carly Simon (DVD) and AR Rahman’s tours. Recognizing Beasley's
talent for composing and arranging, major recording artists have added Beasley's original piano sound,
arrangements, and music to their projects. His first solo recording “Cauldron” was inspired while touring
with Miles Davis, 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,
Shawshank Redemption, A Bug's Life and Austin Powers: The Spy who Shagged Me.
With the popularity of reality shows, Beasley, started working as Music 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 become a No. 1 country music sensation. Today, he continues
to arrange for The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.
His talents are truly multi-dimensional as displayed in his recent projects, namely: arranging for Dianne
Reeves’ performance at the Lincoln Center; hosting six concerts with the Los Angeles Philharmonic at
the Disney Center on a series called Jazz meets the Orchestra; arranging Dexter Gordon songs for the
Luckman Jazz Orchestra; composing for a feature length documentary; recording a concert DVD with
Mike Stern and Lee Ritenour in Japan and A.R. Rahman in South Africa; and performing music from his
GRAMMY-nominated CD, Positootly! with his band in the U.S. and Europe.
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As a solo recording artist, Beasley’s compositions, arrangements and playing are inventive, explorative
and exquisitely realized expanding musical thought, transcending limitations and genres while
maintaining his unique and unmistakable style not only in jazz, but blues, classical and world music as
well. His nine solo recordings illustrate how adept he is at writing both lyrically, rhythmically and across
boundaries.
When not on tour with his band, which includes Bennie Maupin, Jeff (Tain) Watts or Terri Lynn
Carrington, Nicholas Payton, and James Genus, Beasley juggles studio work for film/TV or recordings,
conducts master classes, produces other artists, tours as Music Director for AR Rahman, or hovers in his
hive writing.
www.beasleymusic.com
Performance Links
Positootly! - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o1h8LWQReiE
Bedtime Voyage - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LCEw_04Ikuc
Steely Dan - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IocHM0n75DI
James Brown Hollywood Bowl - Last Concert 2006 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FHp-Zfl9Bas
GRAMMY nomination: Best Jazz Instrumental Album
Positootly! (Resonance Records)
Jeff “Tain” Watts, Bennie Maupin, James Genus,
Brian Lynch, Munyungo Jackson, John Beasley
Positootly! showcases Beasley's original, propulsive, multi-layered compositions from funk and soul to
bop, bossa nova, and nuevo tango along with three choice covers.
Jazz Times
John is truly an amazing pianist, imaginative composer, creative improviser and arranger. And with Positootly he created an
album that people will look back as one of the first Jazz classic albums of the 21th century.
Jazz Police
One of the most energetic recordings of the past year. “Positootly!” accurately
sums the spirit of this Grammy-nominated disc.
All Music.com 4 ½ stars
“This recording is his finest effort, and stands proudly alongside his previous recording, a fine tribute to Herbie Hancock.”
LaJazz.com
“Positootly! is pure art…fasten your seatbelts…Beasley is masterful on keys.”