What Does a Music Director Do?   06.09.16

Most important, he hires the best band possible. “You have to hire people that have experience; you can’t hire people that are going to be prima donnas on the road,” John Beasley says. “So lesson number one in being an MD: Hire people you know who are totally professional and will have your back.”

John Beasley salutes as well as recasts the music of Thelonious Monk   06.09.16

John Beasley’s MONK’estra project is ambitious. It involves a 16-piece big band, plus numerous special guests: tenor saxophonist Kamasi Washington, singer Dianne Reeves, jazz violinist Regina Carter, trumpeter Dontae Winslow, among others.

John Beasley MONK’estra Review [DownBeat Editor’s Pick]   06.09.16

There is so much hep stuff happening in these new big band arrangements of tunes by Thelonious Monk that I was transported to another realm, one where the car seems capable of driving itself. 

From Morrison to Monk, a weekend of tantalizing music   06.09.16

John Beasley’s MONK’estra refracts Monk’s music through an orchestral perspective, though, as Beasley has said, “it’s not your grandfather’s big band.” The arrangements are edgy, rhythmically volatile, and stylistically wide-ranging.

Winter in America   06.09.16

John Beasley’s MONK’estra performed their empathetic, swinging and sometimes hiphop-tinged revisions of Thelonious Monk tunes at Dizzy’s Club Coca-Cola in Lincoln Centre on Thursday night, in front of a window with a view of Trump Tower. And, as Beasley reminded us, Monk himself had grown up literally only a stone’s throw away, on West 63rd Street.

Review: MONK’estra shows why Monk’s music thrives   06.09.16

“...Beasley’s arrangements in some cases apply funk, electronic and other seemingly anachronistic influences to Monk’s music, as if pushing this repertoire to a stylistic breaking point.”- Chicago Tribune

Not Your Father’s Big Band   06.09.16

On Monk’estra Vol. 1 (Mack Avenue), L.A. keyboardist-composer-arranger John Beasley brings that same kind of boundless energy and fresh vision to the music of Thelonious Monk.

John Beasley’s MONK’estra Reinvents Thelonious Monk for the 21st Century [LA Weekly]   06.09.16

Jazz pianist, composer, arranger and bandleader John Beasley began his career in the early 1980s, around the time jazz’s Young Men in Suits proclaimed that bebop was the one true way of life. They spoke solemnly about “keeping the flame,” “honoring the tradition” and other such homilies. Record companies, clubs and festivals got out their checkbooks and rewarded these young firebrands, many of whom would have been rated as just OK in the eras they sought to reconstitute.

Beasley’s MONK’estra Takes Thelonious’ Tunes on Wild Ride   06.09.16

From the Afro-Cuban re-imagining of “Epistrophy” to a lively rap version of “Brake’s Sake,” Thelonious Monk’s classic tunes were taken for a wild ride by pianist-bandleader John Beasley’s 15-piece MONK’estra big band at the opening night of the North Sea Jazz Festival.

‘American Idol’ vet John Beasley salutes Thelonoius Monk with MONK’estra   06.09.16

“I like the word ‘playfulness,’ because I’ve been saying ‘humorous’ and playful is more accurate,” said Beasley, who was not yet a teenager when he got hooked on Monk.

A Conversation with John Beasley   06.09.16

Monk’estra, Volume Two is here, and it was well worth the wait. Digging deeper into the Monk catalogue, and allowing members of the band and select special guests to stretch out a but have made this is a delight. 

Notes on Jazz Best of Jazz for 2016   06.09.16

My best of Jazz List for 2016:

Another year has passed and many would say 2016 was a very tough year for music, especially with the loss of so many influential musicians this past year. The music has always been remarkably resilient and this year is no exception, with many fine new artists having fabulous debut albums

Grammy-nominated John Beasley goes off the hook on Vol. 2 of ‘MONK’estra’   06.09.16

"Beasley’s tribute extends the Monk legacy of profound originality, deep-seated passion for the turbulence of the times, and an openness to improvisation in whoever takes the band seat.”- Festival Peak