Program Notes for MONK'estra

PROGRAM Joshua White Trio (Program to be announced from the stage.)

INTERMISSION MONK’ESTRA

John Beasley presents MONK’estra (Program to be announced from the stage.)

Thursday, August 24, 2017 | 7:30PM

JOHN BEASLEY PRESENTS MONK’ESTRA

San Diego Symphony Orchestra does not appear as part of this program.

MONK’estra bandleader, keyboards, piano John Beasley Joshua White Trio: piano Joshua White bass Dean Hulett percussion Dan Schnelle The Thursday Night Jazz Series is sponsored by Doctor Bob and Mao Shillman.

Performance at Embarcadero Marina Park South

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JOHN BEASLEY PRESENTS MONK’ESTRA – AUGUST 24 | PROGRAM NOTES

MONK'ESTRA A BIG MODERN JAZZ BAND PROJECT

Growing up around musicians, John learned how to play trumpet,

JOHN BEASLEY

while keeping up with his garage band Audio Mind with Vinnie

Conductor/Arranger Grammy®-nominated musician John Beasley presents MONK’ESTRA, a smashing 15-piece big band project that captures the spirit of Thelonious Monk’s singular music – the off-beat melodies and humor, strange beauty and unbounded swing – in fresh arrangements flavored with New Orleans spirit, hip-hop, AfroCuban rhythms and atmospheric colors.

Veteran jazz critic Don Heckman described hearing the project MONK’estra as “some of the most mesmerizing big band music of recent memory…extraordinary orchestrating abilities, imaginative soloing from players.”

Beasley, a far-ranging pianist, composer and arranger who’s worked with Miles Davis, Freddie Hubbard, Dianne Reeves and Steely Dan, is easily one of the busiest and most versatile musicians in jazz. He has led a sparkling career that has balanced work as a bandleader, a firstcall keyboardist, composer and arranger for music projects, film and television, along with being Music Director for the Monk Institute.

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

BACKGROUND Born in Louisiana, the cradle of jazz, Beasley started writing arrangements in junior high school, the first one 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 song was then added to The Stan Kenton Orchestra’s repertoire that year.

Beasley is a third generation musician. His father is a bassoonist,

oboe, drums, saxophone and flute, mostly because of his mother’s need for wind instrumentalists for her bands.

Declining an oboe scholarship from the Julliard at 17, Beasley instead started playing in clubs before he was of legal drinking age. Soon after, he went on his first world tour with Brazilian artist Sergio Mendes, then spent eight years with jazz icon Freddie Hubbard, Colauita, John Patittucci and Steve Taviglione.

FILM/TV/COMMERCIALS At the young age of 24, Beasley started writing music for Paramount, Disney and MGM’s television shows, including Cheers, Family Ties, Star Trek and Fame. He wrote the Touchstone TV logo, which is still used today. As a studio musician, he has worked for luminaries such as Thomas Newman, Dave Gruisin, Alan Silvestri and Carmine Coppola. Today, he is part of Thomas Newman’s core team creating drum and synth programming for James Bond’s Spectre and Skyfall, He Called Me Malala, Get on Up (James Brown biopic), Exotic Marigold Hotel, Finding Nemo and Wall-E, to name a few.

He writes music for Nobel Peace Prize-winning Doctors Without Borders’ videos pro bono. Along the way, Beasley has written awardwinning commercials for ad agencies in the U.S. and Germany for over 20 years.

MILES DAVIS CALL AND RECORDING CAREER At 28, Beasley got the phone call of a lifetime from Miles Davis to join his band. While on tour with Miles, he was inspired to release his first CD, Cauldron, which was produced by Steely Dan’s Walter Becker. His Positootly! album earned a 2011 Grammy® nomination for Best Jazz Instrumental Record. In 2012, he joined forces with two other Miles Davis alumni, Darryl Jones (Rolling Stones bassist), and the signature drummer for Michael Jackson’s “Billie Jean,” Ndugu Chancler, to form 3 Brave Souls. This triumvirate wrote, as one reviewer said, some “tangy, ass-wiggling funk.”

Long a dream, Beasley formed the 15-piece big band called MONK’estra, capturing the spirit of Monk’s unique quirkiness, offbeat accents and punchy dissonances in fresh arrangements of Monk’s and other classic and original compositions. MONK’estra has played to standing ovations at SFJazz, Walt Disney Hall, Ford Amphitheatre, Jazz Standard and LACMA. Mack Avenue released MONK’estra Vo.l 1 in August 2016 with Vol. 2 due out in 2017 – Thelonious Monk’s Centennial year. n

pianist and composer. His mother was a brass instrumentalist, band conductor and orchestrator. His grandfather was a trombonist.

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JOHN BEASLEY PRESENTS MONK’ESTRA – AUGUST 24 | PROGRAM NOTES

ABOUT THE ARTISTS Pianist JOSHUA WHITE had parallel musical training in both classical and gospel music traditions before encountering the music most commonly referred to as “jazz” at the University of California, San Diego summer camp in 2003. He began formal piano training at the age of seven with a private instructor, and was subsequently immersed into the music of Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Chopin, Rachmaninoff and others.

After competing in several classical piano music competitions and also becoming the organist/pianist at his local church, Mr. White (at the age of 18) chose to focus his musical studies on “jazz” and improvised music traditions, drawing inspiration from its many innovators. He dove into the music head first with the help of world-renowned musicians like composer Anthony Davis, saxophonist David Borgo, flutist Holly Hofmann and piano master Mike Wofford.

“Joshua was the most devoted student I’ve ever worked with by far,” says Wofford. “Absolutely focused and with a great intuitive grasp of the music, even at that early stage.” In the years following, Mr. White made incredible strides through the Southern California jazz community, playing with virtuoso trumpeter Gilbert Castellanos, alto saxophone legend Charles McPherson, bassist Marshall Hawkins, tenor saxophonist Daniel Jackson and former Anthony Braxton sideman, Mark Dresser.

In 2011 Mr. White entered the prestigious Thelonious Monk International Piano Competition in Washington D.C., ultimately placing second out of 160 competitors from around the world. Herbie Hancock was one the judges. “Joshua has immense talent,” Hancock told music critic George Varga of the San Diego Union-Tribune. “I was impressed by his daring and courageous approach to improvisation on the cutting edge of innovation. He is his own man. I believe that Thelonious Monk would have been proud of the performance of this great young artist...”

New York Times jazz critic Ben Ratliff was at the competition. “He pressed hard against the rhythm section and improvised with form, telling the bassist Rodney Whitaker and the drummer Carl Allen what to do and when, accelerating and decelerating, suddenly going free. (Nobody else did that.)…Mr. White used a lot of dissonance and clutter, but it was provocative, chord-related clutter, not the brilliant-soloist kind made mostly with the right hand. It was a sound worth returning to…”

For the last several years, Joshua White has been in demand as one of Southern California’s most creative and technically accomplished pianists. He performs regularly at Dizzy’s (San Diego), Blue Whale (Los Angeles), The Loft (La Jolla), the Athenaeum Music and Arts Library (La Jolla), and numerous other venues on the West Coast. Formed in January 2014, his Joshua White Quartet is a bi-coastal group focused on interpreting original compositions, as well as exploring the boundaries of collective improvisation. n

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DEAN “POP POP” HULETT comes from a family of musicians ranging from voice to percussion. At the age of eight he started playing the double bass after being inspired by his sister who played violin.

Orchestral music was his musical upbringing, but by the time he reached his teenage years he began to explore other genres and began playing the electric bass in high school due to his interest in popular music. Not wanting to abandon his love for the double bass, he was drawn towards jazz.

In 2001 he met and had the pleasure of playing with such musicians as Mark Lomax, James Gaiters, Bobby Floyd, Edwin Bayard, Hamilton Hardin, Jerome Jennings and many others at a time where the live music scene in Columbus was at a high.

This sort of mini-renaissance spawned a great number of encounters and opportunities for Dean to share the stage with well-known musicians such as members of the Marsalis family, touring with Delfeayo Marsalis, Derek Gardner, Wycliffe Gordon and recordings with Azar Lawrence and others. His bass has taken him around the world and back again, and he hopes it will take him even farther with each pass. He is a performer with Bodhi Tree Concerts. n

DAN SCHNELLE is one of the most talented, in-demand drummers in the Los Angeles area. Known for an intuitive ability to provide precisely what is necessary for each performance, Schnelle understands how to make other musicians comfortable, while bringing enough of the unexpected to his playing to keep it consistently exciting. Unsatisfied with the idea that the drum set is merely a time-keeping device, Schnelle is thoughtful about how this unique instrument, with its nearly limitless variety of sounds, can be tastefully and effectively deployed in a wide variety of musical situations.

Years spent collaborating with some of the best musicians in Los Angeles (and beyond) have earned him a reputation as a hard-working, professional and creative team player; one who is, above all, committed to musical excellence. A list of collaborators includes: Josh Nelson, Daniel Rosenboom, Anthony Wilson, Laurence Hobgood, Walter Smith III, Joshua White, Sara Gazarek, Larry Goldings, Philip Dizack, Dayna Stephens, Larry Koonse, Ben Wendel, Nick Mancini and more. n

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