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Jazz Articles about John Beasley

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Album Review

John Beasley, Jose Gola & Horacio "El Negro" Hernandez: El Trio Live in Italy

Read "El Trio Live in Italy" reviewed by Glenn Astarita


El Trio Live in Italy features the impressive line-up of Grammy Award-winner John Beasley on keyboards and synthesizers, José Gola on electric bass, and Horacio “El Negro" Hernandez on drums. Described as a “dream threesome" of renowned musicians, this album is a product of their summer tour of Italy in 2022. The album's essence is a journey of three friends allowing the music to guide them. All three artists have a rich history, having toured with the maestro of Afro-Cuban ...

8
Album Review

Dwight Trible: Ancient Future

Read "Ancient Future" reviewed by Chris May


This adventurous album takes spiritual jazz's premier vocalist out of his comfort zone and into the deep blue yonder. It is a work of extremes, beginning with a storm of avant-rock, funk and electronics and ending by spinning off into abstract space accompanied by a virtual headful of Stanley Owsley's finest. In short, Ancient Future will shave your ass. The album is the follow-up to Trible's outstanding Mothership (Gearbox, 2019), but aside from being on the same ...

6
Album Review

Maria Mendes: Saudade, Colours of Love

Read "Saudade, Colours of Love" reviewed by Richard J Salvucci


Every language has words that defy translation. Take “saudade" in Portuguese or Galician. Or “fado." Go to a standard dictionary, and “saudade" appears as “nostalgia" or “longing." In reality, a native speaker will tell you “saudade" means a kind of indefinable melancholy for people, places or things that may only exist in the imagination, and “fantasy" will not even come close. “Fado" is an art form, defined as a mournful or fatalistic Portuguese folk song. Perhaps “flamenco" is familiar, but ...

9
SoCal Jazz

The Music of Thelonious Monk: John Beasley's MONK'estra Live

Read "The Music of Thelonious Monk: John Beasley's MONK'estra Live" reviewed by Jim Worsley


If you are familiar with John Beasley's MONK'estra, then you may understand my excitement level at the prospects of seeing and hearing his music in a live show. The brilliance of Thelonious Monk's compositions propelled by the power and sass of big band swagger. This recent performance took place at The Barclay Performing Arts Center on the campus of UC Irvine. The city of Irvine is located on the south end of Orange County, about forty miles south of Los ...

10
Album Review

John Beasley, Magnus Lindgren, SWR Big Band: Bird Lives

Read "Bird Lives" reviewed by Jim Worsley


Round about 2017 there was a meeting of the minds. Composers and musicians John Beasley and Magnus Lindgren evolved as kindred spirits, and chose to work together on a project engulfing their shared appreciation of Charlie Parker. This tribute to the man who came to be known simply as Bird, had trouble taking flight. Obstacles, none bigger than Covid, came along and stood in the way. Dedicated to its completion, the pair, along with the SWR Big Band, has now ...

13
Album Review

MONK'estra: MONK'estra Plays John Beasley

Read "MONK'estra Plays John Beasley" reviewed by Jack Bowers


The MONK'estra is actually a number of groups of various shapes and sizes, from duo to big band, assembled under the guiding hand of composer, arranger & pianist John Beasley to—wait for it!—"play John Beasley," an artist whose admiration for Thelonious Sphere Monk is clear throughout this buoyant and resourceful album, as it was on Volumes 1 and 2 of the series, in which the MONK'estra “played Monk." Beasley wrote eight of the album's fourteen genial numbers ...

8
Radio & Podcasts

Tributes to Monk, Part 2

Read "Tributes to Monk, Part 2" reviewed by Russell Perry


Around the 100th anniversary of Thelonious Monk's birth in 2017, there were so many excellent collections of his music released that the previous hour of programming couldn't contain them all. More Monk tributes from John Beasley and MONK'estra, the Microscopic Septet and Wadada Leo Smith in this hour of Jazz at 100 Today! Playlist Host Intro 0:00 Wadada Leo Smith solo “Crepuscule With Nellie" from Solo: Reflections and Meditations on Monk (Tum Records) 3:01 Microscopic Septet “Friday The ...


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