1. BRAKE’S SAKE feat. Dontae Winslow 7:07 6.

I MEAN YOU 6:22

2. PLAYED TWICE 3:54 7. LIGHT BLUE 5:24
3. CREPUSCULE WITH NELLIE 4:29 8. DEAR RUBY 6:10
guest appearance by Regina Carter guest appearance by Dianne Reeves
4. EVIDENCE 7:20 9. CRISS CROSS 6:20
guest appearances by guest appearance by Pedrito Martinez
Kamasi Washington and Conrad Herwig 10. WORK 5:53
5. UGLY BEAUTY/PANNONICA 5:18
PRODUCERS:
JOHN BEASLEY, RAN PINK AND GAVIN LURSSEN
Arranged and Conducted by John Beasley

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Producers: John Beasley, Ran Pink and Gavin Lurssen Art Direction + Design: Raj Naik • naikdesign.com
Executive Producer: Gretchen Valade Cover Art Graphic: Philip Paquet • philippaquet.com
Production Coordinator: Lorna Chiu Photography: booklet cover photo and inside photo
EVP of A&R: Al Pryor by Lawrence Sumulong for Jazz at Lincoln Center;
Production Manager, Mack Avenue: Will Wakefield John Beasley + MONK’estra booklet photo
Copyist: Liz Finch by Misty Linder;
Thelonious Monk was one of a kind, and so is
all other photos by Greg Allen
John Beasley. He hears things in Monk’s music
Recorded at: Creative Services + Production: Jodi Tack
that no one imagined! And he can make an
United Recording, Studio B - Los Angeles, CA; Product Manager: Shannon Moore orchestra sing like an uncaged bird.
The Hive - Los Angeles, CA;
Kaleidescope Studios - Jersey City, NJ; Management: – QUINCY JONES
Teaneck Sound Studios - Teaneck, NJ Lorna Chiu, John Beasley Music
Engineers: Joshua Stuebe, David Kowalski [email protected]
Assistant Engineer: Wesley Seidman
Booking:
Mixed at: Katherine McVicker My father would have approved
Fonogenic Studios - Los Angeles, CA MusicWorksInternational.com (Europe) your arrangements for MONK’estra
Mix Engineer: Ran Pink Myles Weinstein because he wrote these compositions
UnlimitedMyles.com (global) for musicians to take it and improvise
Mastered at: on them. You’ve kept his compositional
Lurssen Mastering - Los Angeles, CA integrity. You’re carrying on this tradition.
Mastering Engineers: Reuben Cohen and Gavin Lurssen John Beasley plays Yamaha keyboards and pianos Anybody that has a love for my father’s
music and has put in time like you have
with his music has my admiration.

– T.S. MONK
The double-GRAMMY® nominations for MONK’estra, Volume 1, the audience
feedback at concerts and Facebook, and the many critical reviews with quite a
number anticipating Volume 2, reassured me that I wasn’t stark raving mad to
form a big band at a time when the music business is in crisis and musicians’
livelihoods are under threat.

I am indebted to a village of people who boosted me as I surfed through the

recording of Volume 2. Firstly, the MONK’estra core band in LA and my New York
band whose loyalty and sacrifices keep me humble. Your talent pushes me to vol. 2
write and imagine more innovative arrangements. Secondly, to the international
orchestras who have opened their hearts to playing Monk’s music MONK’estra-style
and invited me as a guest conductor.

On Volume 2, I am fortunate to have guest artists who added their signature

voice/sound that help stir a deeper well of emotions: Dianne Reeves, Regina
Carter, Kamasi Washington, Conrad Herwig, Pedrito Martinez. To Dontae for writing
words to live by in “Brake’s Sake.” To T.S. Monk and Gale Monk for giving me your
blessings and generous words of support. To the pillars holding up the four corners
of every record: Denny Stilwell and his Mack Avenue team of doers. DL Media Team:
Don, Matthew, Maureen knowing who to call. Behind the scenes and believers are
many but shout out to: Gavin Lurssen, Ran Pink, Liz Finch, Rachel Stilwell, Tommy
LiPuma, Joe Donofrio, Don Lucoff, Barbara Leong, and my incredible agents,
Katherine McVicker and Myles Weinstein. To my DNA, the Beasleys who keep me
sturdy; and my bedrock, Lorna Chiu, for handling the obvious and invisible A-Z
work of making a record and building my career. - JOHN BEASLEY
BRAKE’S SAKE feat. Dontae Winslow / Thelonious Monk • Thelonious Monk Corp. (BMI) I MEAN YOU / Thelonious Monk; Coleman Hawkins • Embassy Music Corporation (BMI);
solo: Dontae Winslow – trumpet and rap Music Sales Corporation (ASCAP) • solos: Danny Janklow – alto saxophone;
PLAYED TWICE / Thelonious Monk • Thelonious Monk Corp. (BMI) Brian Swartz – trumpet; Adam Schroeder – baritone saxophone • Arranged by Brian Swartz
solos: Ben Shepherd – bass; Bob Sheppard – soprano saxophone LIGHT BLUE / Thelonious Monk • Thelonious Monk Corp. (BMI)
CREPUSCULE WITH NELLIE / Thelonious Monk • Thelonious Monk Corp. (BMI) solos: Brian Swartz – trumpet; John Beasley – organ
guest appearance by Regina Carter – violin DEAR RUBY / Thelonious Monk; Sally Swisher • Embassy Music Corporation (BMI)
EVIDENCE / Thelonious Monk • Thelonious Monk Corp. (BMI) guest appearance by Dianne Reeves – vocals
guest appearances by Kamasi Washington – tenor saxophone; Conrad Herwig – trombone CRISS CROSS / Thelonious Monk • Thelonious Monk Corp. (BMI)
solo: Ben Shepherd – bass guest appearance by Pedrito Martinez – conga and bata
UGLY BEAUTY/PANNONICA / Thelonious Monk • Thelonious Monk Corp. (BMI) solos: Tom Luer – tenor saxophone; John Beasley – piano
solo: Francisco Torres – trombone WORK / Thelonious Monk • Thelonious Monk Corp. (BMI)
solo: Ryan Dragon – trombone
Redux: popular word these days. Some people think it just means “sequel,” and And while the once forgotten “Ugly Beauty” has found some adherents in recent
on that basis, it would apply to this second showcase for John Beasley’s wildly years, no version comes close to this one in resolving the dichotomy implicit in
imaginative, precision-crafted arrangements of compositions by Thelonious Monk. the title. Right from the start, Beasley paints a picture of duality by juxtapositing
But in the arts, redux has a more specific meaning, used to designate an existing the piping reeds against a swampy thicket of low brass and bass clarinets. (If you
work presented in a new way – and that’s the definition that best describes this know an arranger who uses the bass clarinet as often or as well as Beasley, speak
album (as well as its GRAMMY®-nominated predecessor). up.) And in case that didn’t convince you, Beasley has another trick up his sleeve.
Two minutes into this exotic wonderworld, he segues effortlessly into a sprightly
Check out “Evidence,” one of Monk’s most familiar compositions. Despite the version of “Pannonica,” that most beautiful of sonic portraits. And then, for good
mischievous phrasing of the melody, it’s at heart a straight-ahead reworking of the measure, he pours in a brief reference to another Monk classic, straight from the
old standard “Just You, Just Me.” But in Beasley’s hands, it becomes a three-part trumpet section. Dualities abound. Even for a master colorist like Beasley, this
suite marked by elastic time: the tempo stretches and contracts. The first section arrangement stands out for its riot of pastels, oils, and tempera.
presents the melody; after the deep bass musings from Benjamin Shepherd, the
second section belongs to tenor saxist Kamasi Washington, who whirls a dervish Do these sound as if Monk himself had simply transferred his piano style to a
solo in free verse. The last part also speeds and slows, but not before breaking larger group of instruments? Absolutely not – and why should they? The truest
the melody in half: it starts in waltz time, then switches to four-four to introduce fidelity to Monk’s music, and the spirit that animated it, comes from a willingness
Conrad Herwig’s playful trombone solo. (The evidence here follows a circuitous to engage these compositions with an ingenuity as audacious as the one that
chain of command, indeed.) created them. Monk’s songs inhabited a fantastic world of their own, spawning
unique forms and colors, stories and pictures, and rewriting the rule book as they
Listen to “Crepuscule With Nellie,” Monk’s love letter to his wife. Crépsecule is took shape. They deserve nothing less than a similar explosion of invention and
French for “twilight” – Monk got the word from his admirer and protector, the novelty when re-conceived for the orchestral idiom.
Baroness Pannonica de Koenigswater – and it well suits the song’s misty-sunset
character. Beasley burnishes the bluesy melody by placing it in the hands of So we needn’t concern ourselves with that fact that Monk would never have
Bob Sheppard on clarinet and violinist Regina Carter, whose luminous timbres offer considered using a light funk bossa-nova behind “Ugly Beauty” or “Pannonica.”
a lovely caress. But Monk’s tune contains some slight disruption – the little hop-skips The point is that Beasley, tapping his own deep wellspring of creativity, heard this
that twice interrupt the main strain of the melody – which Beasley emphasizes with as a possibility, and then tuned it to perfection. Would Monk have thought to apply
brass stingers. Those sounded puckish on Monk’s piano; here they leap in with poetry as a suitable counterpoint on his lesser-known gem, the rarely recorded
alacrity, surprise-party revelers hiding in the dusk, to transform a reverie into a “Brake’s Sake?” And even if he had, would he have approved of Dontae Winslow’s
livelier dream. whip-smart, on-target rap – a latter-day answer to the beat poets of Monk’s time?
No one can say, of course. And in the end, it doesn’t matter. One mark of a All songs Arranged and Conducted by John Beasley
timeless artist is the ability of his work to endure, even when modulated by except “I Mean You” arranged by Brian Swartz
evolving sensibilities and novel approaches. The evidence of that durability
lies in the compositions of Thelonious Monk; proof of their malleability trumpets: Bijon Watson, Jamie Hovorka, James Ford, Brian Swartz (all songs except
lies in these superb and refreshing arrangements by John Beasley. “Evidence” and “Dear Ruby”), Brandyn Philips (on “Evidence” and “Dear Ruby”)
trombones: Francisco Torres (all songs except “Light Blue” and “Brake’s Sake”),
NEIL TESSER Wendell Kelly, Ryan Dragon, Steve Hughes, Ido Meshulam (on “Light Blue” and
“Brake’s Sake”)
woodwinds: Bob Sheppard, Danny Janklow, Tom Luer (all songs except “Evidence”
and “Dear Ruby”), Thomas Peterson, Adam Schroeder, Alex Budman (on “Evidence”
and “Dear Ruby”)
piano, synthesizer: John Beasley
acoustic and electric bass: Ben Shepherd
drums: Terreon Gully, Gene Coye (on “Light Blue”)

Conrad Herwig appears courtesy of Criss Cross Jazz

Pedrito Martinez appears courtesy of Motéma Music
Dianne Reeves appears courtesy of Concord Jazz
Dontae Winslow appears courtesy of Winslowdynasty/Ransom Entertainment

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