John Beasley at the World Stage!
by jazzcat on Jul.08, 2005, under News
Whenever you travel to the artistic epicenter of Los Angeles which is Leimert Park, you are bound to be rewarded with great art, good food and jazz music that are always on fire.
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 “Beas”, as I like to call him, has always been a cool, low key cat whose peaceful presence is evident in his playing. John
over the years has played with the best and his brand new disc, “One
Night Live” is an impromptu recording of a live performance that
captures some of the most incredible creative sound that is one unto
itself.
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