Whenever you travel to the artistic epicenter of
The low light and brilliant sound always emanates from the inside of “The World Stage”. The best $10 of enlightenment that you will ever pay for music that is grounded in the roots of truth, reality and creativity.
Tonight John Beasley is here and he brought with him some cats that don’t play when they play. Richard Grant sounds so fluid on trumpet. Lovely runs reminiscent of the sound of the 60’s. One of our prominent tenors in town Charles Owens has once told me that “He sounds better that Clifford Brown!”
Bob Sheppard is on hand and his tenor feels like the finest Cognac as it goes down and disperses into the bloodstream. Jazz music that is good going down and warms the soul! I have seen Bob around town giging for the last 20 years. He used to play quite often with Billy Childs a million and one years ago at a place called Le Café which no longer exists and he is a dynamite player.
Karan Harris just came by to see what was happening and was instantly recruited to sit in for the late arriving Cornell Fauler on drums. This is a young cat that lives in the neighborhood and can play with percussive power and control. Is there a drummer in the house? Yes, indeed. Karan goes from walking down the street to kicking some serious ass on drums the next. I saw Beasley peering at Karan from the other end of the stage and he seemed to be thinking “that for a cat that just came up to sit in, Karan is a seamless fit”!
Harish Raghavan is a guy that I have not quite been familiar with on bass. This is my first experience with his playing and his bass sings like a soul singer. His solos are articulate and communicate with the passion of a quiet brother with plenty to say!
Cornell Fauler almost lost his gig (not really). He showed up and kicked the heat up one notch. He was not on stage for two seconds and he immediately dove right into the line of fire riding the symbols straight to the front line.
John Beasley is the
fearless leader and his ship runs on bright melodies, intuition and is
the membrane that seals in the flavor. His light touches and bursts of
bluesy sunshine blanket the room with warmth, soul and astounding jazz
improvisation. Beasley or “
Don’t miss these cats the next time you see them playing in town or in your town. Check out more from John at Beasleymusic.com.
LeRoy Downs
