A Portrait of John Beasley

A far-ranging pianist and arranger who’s worked with a remarkable range of iconic artists including Miles Davis, Freddie Hubbard, James Brown, Christian McBride, Queen Latifah, Dianne Reeves, and Steely Dan, John Beasley leads MONK’estra, the premier big band on the West Coast – one devoted to the music of jazz icon Thelonious Monk, and to instilling Monk’s fearlessness into the work of other composers, including that of the leader himself.

In his review for the International Review of Music, renowned jazz critic Don Heckman described MONK’estra’s arrangements as “some of the most mesmerizing big band music of recent memory.”

Since its formation, MONK’estra has recorded three albums that capture the spirit of Monk’s singular music – the off-beat melodies and humor, strange beauty, and unbounded swing – in Beasley’s fresh arrangements flavored with hip-hop, Afro-Cuban rhythms and atmospheric colors.

Their latest Mack Avenue Records release, 2020’s MONK’estra Plays John Beasley, looks inward to the leader’s superlative compositions along with the music of Monk, Charlie Parker, and Duke Ellington, earning a five-star review from lauded critic Howard Mandel in DownBeat magazine and a much-deserved GRAMMY for Beasley’s arrangement of Parker’s classic “Donna Lee.”

Easily one of the busiest and most versatile musicians in jazz, Beasley has led a sparkling career that has balanced work as a bandleader, a first-call keyboardist, composer, arranger, and Music Director for major tours, film, and television.

He is a Shreveport, Louisiana native born to a family of musicians in a house filled with the sounds of Charlie Parker and Art Blakey, starting his path in music at age eight with piano studies and eventually expanding to drums, guitar, saxophone, and oboe before concentrating on piano and a serious pursuit of jazz.

He made his major venue debut at Carnegie Hall at the tender age of 20 with flutist Hubert Laws, in a band including then-budding bassist John Patitucci and rising drummer Joey Heredia.

By the 1970s and 80s, Beasley was an established name on the L.A. scene, working widely with Laws, Miles Davis, Tania Maria, Sergio Mendes, Freddie Hubbard, and others. Simultaneously, he lent his compositional and keyboard mastery to soundtrack work for film and television, contributing to the scores of Star Trek: The Next Generation and Cheers, as well as performing on composer Thomas Newman’s scores for The Shawshank Redemption, 1917, Finding Dory, and the James Bond films Spectre and Skyfall.

All told, Beasley has released over 20 albums as a leader and is a two-time GRAMMY winner, a 12-time nominee, and two-time Latin GRAMMY nominee. He has been the Music Director of the Herbie Hancock Institute of Jazz since 2011 and has served as associate MD and lead arranger for American Idol and The Tonight Show.

He assembled MONK’estra in 2017 to explore Monk’s music as well as the work of Duke Ellington, Benny Golson and his own adventurous originals with a band made up of some of the jazz world’s finest instrumentalists. MONK’estra re-imagines Thelonious Monk’s compositions with an eye to the future; a killer modern band that pays loving tribute to the master’s music while infusing it with contemporary harmonies, deep grooves, and a contagious sense of fun.

An impressive list of major jazz names has passed through the MONK’estra as members and guests since the band’s inception, including saxophonists Kamasi Washington, Ralph Moore, and Bob Sheppard, vocalist Dianne Reeves, trumpeter Brian Swartz, vibraphone legend Gary Burton, drummer Gary Novak, trombonist Conrad Herwig, organist Joey DeFrancesco, and many others.

For this SFJAZZ date, Beasley will be joined by a supercharged lineup including saxophonist Lemar Gullary (Jennifer Hudson, Reggie Workman), trumpeter Brandyn Philips (Snoop Dogg, Ariana Grande, Mac Miller, Charlie Wilson), saxophonist Adam Schroeder (Lady Gaga, Clayton-Hamilton Jazz Orchestra, Count Basie Orchestra) , trombonist Wendell Kelly (Beyoncé, Stevie Wonder), bassist Nick Clark (Jon Batiste), and virtuoso drummer Terreon Gully, known widely for his work with Dianne Reeves, Stefon Harris, Christian McBride, and Jacky Terrasson.

John Beasley and MONK'estra kick off our Thelonious Monk birthday week on Monk's 107th birthday, 10/10. Tickets and more information are available here.