BIO:
Over the past two decades, saxophonist Walter Beasley has artfully and dynamically redefined the phrase "musical Renaissance Man" for the modern generation. Considered by fans and critics alike as "the heir to Grover Washington Jr.'s throne," the Boston-based musician has long mastered an exhilarating high wire act of balancing a successful career as a contemporary jazz recording artist and performer with an equally thriving presence in the field of music education.
Since 1998, Beasley has been one of the ten highest selling saxmen in the world while continuing his highly influential work as a full professor of music at his alma mater, The Berklee School of Music, where he began teaching in the mid-80s. In 2007, Beasley— also the highest selling full-time teacher ever—celebrated his 20th year as a best selling artist in the grand style to which he's accustomed, adding to his extraordinary total of over 800,000 units sold. His second Heads Up release, Ready For Love, peaked at #2 on the Billboard Contemporary Jazz Chart and reached #1 on Smoothjazz.com. His 2005 label debut For Her reached the Top Five.
Beasley also added to his growing legacy of creating instructional DVDs for young players who are not able to afford a traditional music education with his latest project, 14 Steps To Maximizing your Performance, which is also currently available for download on his popular website. His other best selling videos released through his affable Publishing include Sound Production for the Saxophone, Hip Hop Improvisation, and Performance Workshop.
This past year, Beasley has also begun reaching out to the younger generation, sharing his experiences and educational expertise through "saxtalk blogs" on his MySpace page and clips on YouTube . In addition, in February 2008 he begins online saxophone lessons live via web cam, and he is offering on his website tracks of his recent chakra meditations on sax. The saxophonist has done all this while enjoying throughout 2007 his busiest touring itinerary in years, doing dates up and down the east Coast (from Miami to Boston), atlanta and Ohio, among other locales.
He recently hooked up for a handful of dates with the all-star tour To Grover, With Love, helmed by Grammy winning keyboardist/producer Jason Miles and featuring Gerald Veasley, Chuck Loeb, Buddy Williams and Andy
Snitzer. The ensemble will be playing the world famous Berks Jazz Festival in Spring 2008.
Amazingly, Beasley has partaken in all of these exciting activities while maintaining a full teaching schedule at Berklee. Currently, he teaches vocal and rhythm section ensembles (in both classroom and performance settings), private sax lessons, vocal delivery for singers and improvisation for instrumentalists, both on campus and at home. He has also developed an active side business as a career consultant for aspiring musicians. His areas of expertise include: maximizing musical performance and skills; overcoming performance anxiety; jazz/R&B improvisation; vocal delivery; saxophone technique/sound production; and R&B/jazz ensemble performance.
Speaking about his ongoing commitment to education in the face of numerous temptations to leave and become a full time recording and touring musician and artist, Beasley says, "I like to say I do not need to teach, and that is why I teach. What I have learned is that I am responsible for molding the next generation of musicians, and that is a wonderful responsibility that nothing can take me away from. all my life, I've heard professors say that you cannot teach all people to be soul-ful musicians. I have consistently tried to change that myth, dedicating my life and career to the reality that a good professor can indeed teach soulful performance. That's become a specialty of mine that I am very proud of. a plant may grow regardless of whether you take care of it or not, but if you trim it and shape it every few months, it will flourish beyond what you could have imagined. I like to think I am shaping, molding and trimming those who will become the musical greats of tomorrow."
One of the secrets of Beasley's success as an educator is his seven-day a week work ethic, which includes his belief that Monday is his favorite day of the week—a bold philosophy that he imparts to his students who may at first feel otherwise. "I'm in love with my work and this wonderfully crazy work ethic," he says. "I truly love the challenge of being able to transform a rhythm section that has nothing to offer up front into a section that comes to believe in itself as a unit. That's the most gratifying feeling a professor can have, making that kind of difference. I love playing my own music live, but no moment I've ever had onstage matches the excitement of discovering this kind of success in the classroom. But that's the beauty of my dual career—I love doing both!"
One of the top five best-selling African-American saxophonists in the world since the late 90's, Beasley— while establishing himself as a regular presence on the Billboard Contemporary Jazz chart--has performed over the years with contemporary jazz and R&B icons Brian McKnight, Gerald albright, Ronnie Laws, Kirk Whalum, Bob James, norman Brown, George Howard, art Porter, Stephanie Mills, Vanessa Williams and Rachelle Ferrell. He has also opened concerts for traditional jazz legends art Blakey and Dexter Gordon.
As an educator and consultant, he has worked with Lalah Hathaway, Jeremy Ragsdale, Christina Watson, Carmen Algarin, Walter Smith, and Ian Rapien, offering guidance and helping them to find their creative flavor. Renowned artist and former classmate Branford Marsalis describes the saxman as "an anomaly; a successful performing musician who possesses the rare skill of understanding the musical process beyond the intuitive. This special ability enables Walter to communicate with aspiring musicians in a way that removes the sense of mystery that sometimes enshrouds our profession."
Walter Beasley's musical journey began in the early 1970s in his hometown of el Centro, California. When his aunt gave him his first Grover Washington, Jr. record at age nine, it opened Beasley's young ears and mind to the limitless possibilities of the sax. Before long, he bought a copy of Roberta Flack & Donny Hathaway's 1972 collaboration album. These two classic recordings became the foundation of the young saxman and vocalist's musical awakening.
By his early teens, Beasley was playing saxophone in various bands around Southern California. "I started singing in Spanish at around 14," he says. "I was like an anomaly – the black kid in southern California, singing in Spanish. People got a kick out of it. I learned from playing Latin music how important romance was, and is, in music. Singing and playing those songs, I think, forever shaped the way I wanted to convey messages to people."
Beasley graduated from Berklee College of Music in the early '80s, alongside future superstar classmates like saxophonist Branford Marsalis and vocalist Rachelle Ferrell. He took a teaching position at the school a year later – initially as a short-term gig, but one that has lasted more than 20 years. "I was only planning on staying for a year or two, getting a record deal and then moving back to California," he says. "But once I saw musicians move an audience through the use of techniques that I showed them, I was a sucker for teaching.
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