I know that New York gets all of the accolades, but joyful fact is that LA can boast as excellent a jazz lineup as anywhere on the Least Coast. Keyboardist John Beasley, for example, is a local guy who is almost always playing somewhere, either leading his own band or accompanying some singer or horn player. He just recently had a 4 week residency at the Blue Whale where he teamed up with styles ranging from gospel to Brazilian to Monk, and band sizes going from vocal/piano duets to big bands. He’s been a sideman to artists ranging from Sergio Mendes to Freddie Hubbard to Miles Davis, and even toured with the jazz/rock group Steely Dan. We caught up with Beasley, and felt it was time that LA got to know a bit more about this artist.
Your younger years saw you befriend musicians that have become stars in their own right. Guys like drummer Vinnie Colaiuta, bassist John Patitucci and saxist Steve Taviglione. How did all of you future studs all get together, and what was in the drinking water?
I met Vinny a long time ago. We had a band with (producer) Larry Klein! Years ago, so we became friends then. We did a bunch of records aNd tours together with John Patitucci. Me, Vinny John and Tav. Maybe John’s first 4-5 records, and we toured Europe . Then we had a band called Audio Mind, which was Tav, Gary Willis, Myself, and we used to get together and actually just improvise whole sets. A couple nights a month at the old Le Café on Vent Blvd. We were pretty progressive for the time, but needless to say people loved to come out and hear Vinny. That band was just a real special group, and it lead to us all getting gigs and offshoots from that situation.
YOU”VE ALL DONE GREAT. WHY?
Maybe we all just practiced a lot! There was also a lot going on in LA at the time. A lot of recordings still being done. At that point in LA a lot of great jazz players that were touring lived there as well: Freddie Hubbard, Chick Corea, Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, both Bobby Hutcherson and Tony Williams up north, Joe Henderson, Joe Farrell, Flora Purim, and Stanley Clarke…and at that time they all used LA bands back then.
WHAT WAS YOUR FIRST BIG GIG-SERGIO MENDES OR FREDDIE HUBBARD?
Mendes came first, and I started working for Freddie when I was 22-23. At that point I was kind of doing both.
WHAT DID YOU LEARN FROM YOUR TIME WITH MENDES?
Lots! These were the days when synthesizers were just kind of coming into their own as second keyboards, and Mendes had never had a second one before, so he took a chance with me. He even bought a synthesizer for me to play with him. One of the first things he asked me to do was with a cassette tape he had of Ivan Lins, sitting at his piano in Rio, singing and playing all of these incredibly classic tunes of his. Just onto a cassette. He had me transcribe it for him in the notion that he really wanted to know those certain voicings and whatever. But, I actually think he did that thing for me, to get my head into the beautiful harmonies that Brazilians do. And, for all of those years since I’ve become and Ivan Lins freak, and it’s really influenced by own writing. I’m not saying that I’m on par with him or anything in terms of composing, but it really shaped my sense of harmony in a pretty profound way.
IT TAKES A CERTAIN TYPE OF WRITER TO MAKE SOMETHING BOTH ACCESSIBLE , SOPHISTICATED AND INTERESTING
Yes, and Ivan has that gift.
HOW DID YOU LINK UP WITH FREDDIE HUBBARD?
Billy Childs had just left the band and Bob Sheppard had been on the gig for maybe 1-2 years before me. He was looking around for piano players around, for whoever he wanted to use a bit, and one day I got a call to do one gig in San Francisco. I’d been a Hubbard freak of course for many many years. He was one of the first serious guys that I had gotten into, and had gotten all of his records when I was in Jr High. It was at the Embarcadero, and all these bad cats like Ralph Penland was on the gig. This was in 1982, and he was in prime shape. He was RIDICULOUS. I was with him 10 years on and off.
It was like an old school bebop clinic. He would call tunes people didn’t know, and you just had to learn it on the spot. No road manager; we had to get to the gigs on our own. He would be coming from different places a lot of the time, so the rest of the band stuck together. He would call incredibly fast tempos right off the bat. The first tune would be “Birdlike” and it would be done incredibly fast. I learned how to comp. He would always say, “Don’t feed me.”
WHEN DID YOU PLAY WITH MILES
I played with Miles in 1989. My first wife was pregnant with my first child when we got the call and she graciously let me go, so I was basically on the road the whole time that she was pregnant. That was a great experience. It came when I was in my late 20s, and it came during a profound lifechanging time of my life. I learned a lot about music and a lot about life. I grew up a lot as a person on that gig.
I had just bought a house, I had a baby coming. I had to learn to conduct myself a little more seriously on a gig. Learning parts on the gig while being on a jazz gig and still being disciplined and watching Miles as an artist and seeing how dedicated he was. He wasn’t feeling well, but he would listen to the shows every night after the gig or the next day on a cassette. He’s always have comments for me and all of the musicians on the music for the next show.
THAT GOES AGAINST HIS REPUTATION OF NOT BEING INVOLVED WITH INPUT ON HIS SIDEMEN.
Sometimes he’d even be in the bus with us, travelling in the bunk. Very funny and humorous guy, which is something that people don’t know about him. But, of course, by the time I had gotten to him he had mellowed out quite a bit. He had gone through a lot, and as we all do, we all mellow with age. Very witty. Kind of one liners and situational humor.
WHAT DID YOU DO WITH STEELY DAN?
This kind of ties in Miles in a way. I’ve always been good musical friends with Dean Parks, who is a great guitarist. Lots of sessions together at this time. He recommended me for this Rickie Lee Jones record called Flying Cowboys, which Walter Becker was producing. We’re on the date, and I got along well with Walter, and I get the call to go out with Miles, while we’re making this record. I was kind of debating whether or not I should go with Miles. Of course, I immediately said “Yes,” but then you start talking about it with your friends, but they all said, “GO GO GO. The baby will still be here when you get back!”
So, they brought a big bottle of champagne to the session. I still have it, and haven’t even opened it. They all signed it, and they kind of gave me a bon voyage party. And I started writing a lot of music while I was on the road with Miles; kind of influenced by the music that we were playing, and that turned out to be Cauldron, my first record. Walter had a production deal for a jazz label with Windham Hill and he actually got my first record deal for me and produced my first two records.
So, then I started working on a lot of the productions that he was doing. Then, he and Donald (Fagan) decided to get a band together in the early 90s. Around 92-93. After a couple of tours they made a change with the piano and I worked with the band from ’94 until about 2000.
STEELY DAN HAS ALWAYS BEEN A JAZZY ROCK BAND
Sure. The pocket was great, with great chord change and great harmonies, which I love and brings us right back to the Ivans Lins phase! It’s funny, I’ve made a career by working for all of these piano players, Sergio Mendes Fagan, Thomas Newman, Dave Grusin; it’s kind of wild.
THEN YOU HAVE YOUR OWN SESSIONS. BUT YOU DON’T SEEM TO GET THE APPRECIATION AND RESPECT IN LA AS YOU MIGHT IF YOU AND OTHER GUYS HERE WOULD IF YOU LIVED IN NY.
I actually don’t think about that very often. I just kind of do what I do and try to run my own race. There are so many great musicians here to play with, and I do spend a good amount of time abroad and New York playing. That kind of makes up for the sporadic jazz appreciation in LA . But there is a core of people in LA that REALLY support jazz and there always has been. Whether clubs can afford to keep open or not is another issue. But, you look at a place like the Blue Whale where I’ve been playing, and it’s packed! And you see a lot of young people checking it out, and that’s encouraging.
I like the Whale because it has a real social vibe to it. That’s kind of where I’d like to see in terms of direction of audience participation.
THAT BRINGS UP YOUR RESIDENCY AT THE BLUE WHALE. WHAT IS A RESIDENCY?
A residency is a series of gigs, once a week. Sort of like a workshop. This is a way to present an opportunity to write and think of ideas I’d like to do this year, and just start doing it! Instead of being in my garage or studio and bringing guys over, actually just go out and perform it. Bring it to the people. Working on new stuff. That’s what this is.
With (vocalist) Dwight Tribble and I the first week, it was whenever we play together, it’s always something new. We tend to approach these standards differently every time that we play them, with different tempos. I can go anywhere with the song, and I know that he’ll be there, and I think he feels the same way about me. Being with just one other guy makes you be able to change gears a lot quicker, but you’re also very exposed and experimental. We kind of like to do new material when we get together. Also some spiritual stuff from Gil Scott-Heron and Nina Simone, a couple of blues tunes from her. Another week we’re dong Braziliian; we’ve got Lins, and I’ve just been devouring this Nana Caymmi record, and so I want to do a few tunes off of that record. Gaetano Veloso stuff as well… The idea is to let these compositions go where they want to go, kind of like with Dwight. I don’t want to get locked into bossa nova. I mean I love it, but I don’t want to get locked into it. I want to play off of the tune like I would any other standard. Just because it’s a Brazilian composer doesn’t mean that we have to go there immediately.
NOW, HOW FREE CAN YOU GO WITH THE MONKESTRA?
You’d be surprised! Monk’s music is set up for that. Not necessarily “free” but for forward motion and, yes, for freedom, quirkiness and being able to use contemporary harmony in a big band. 20th Century harmony, if you will. His music can go so many places rhythmical. Stuff is just built into his music, just built into his tunes.
THEN, WITH DARYL JONES, YOU GET A BIT MORE FUNKY, AND THAT’S YET ANOTHER SIDE OF YOU.
Exactly, and hopefully they’ll all be steeped in the blues, which is the common denominator, you know. I like all kinds of music. I like playing R&B, I like playing rock and roll, because they all come from the blues, and that’s my first love. I love having that kind of feeling. I grew up listening to Stevie Wonder, Jimi Hendrix and Earth, Wind and Fire, Steely Dan and in those days it wasn’t such a divide in the music. Miles was listening to Ravel, and Stockhausen and blues. These guys are influenced by everybody. Look at Wayne Shorter; if you talk to him he can expound prophetically about classical music that he’s influenced by.
Blues for me is my square one point of departure. But guys like Mingus, Miles, Coltrane, all of these innovators like Wayne, Dizzy, Bird, Monk and I know I’m leaving some out, they were not only influenced by the music of their day, but by all KINDS of outside influences. It wasn’t just bebop. They all played bebop for awhile, but everyone of those guys evolved from it. That’s just the nature of this music. It’s a wide open book and I like to treat it that way.
I want to be better than I was 20 years ago. I want to be better!
WITH AN ATTITUDE LIKE THAT, IT’S NO WONDER THAT A GUY THAT HAS WORKED FOR SUCH A WIDE PALATTE OF MUSICIANS CAN GO FROM INSIDE TO OUT, FUSION TO BRAZIL AND STILL FIND A PIECE OF THE BLUES IN EVERYTHING HE TOUCHES. LOOK FOR HIM IN ONE OF HIS LOCAL SHOWS, AND SEE WHAT ARTISTRY IN RESIDENCY REALLY LOOKS LIKE.