Jazz Monthly.com Interview with walter beasley

“Jazz Monthly Feature Interview” Walter Beasley

Smitty: I am just totally ecstatic about my next guest joining me at JazzMonthly.com. He’s a master saxophonist, a great composer, producer, and a great educator of music. He’s got a great new record out. It’s called Ready for Love. Please welcome the incredible Heads Up recording artist Mr. Walter Beasley. Walter, how you doin’, my man?

Walter Beasley (WB): Oh man, I have all my family, I’m very, very, very blessed, and we’re basically too blessed to be stressed. (Both laugh.)

Smitty: I like that, man. You’ve created some new love on your latest project, you’re Ready for Love, and you’ve got some very cool tracks on here and some great players. talk about this next chapter of love with this new record.

WB: Well, For Her was all about for her. It was a record, but with this new record I just felt that it was time for me to do the kind of music that I felt that reflected who I was and just deeper, but songs that meant more to me, not only the older songs but some of the songs that I write and Ready for Love….I know it’s the best thing that I’ve ever done because what I tried to do was not synthesize it and try to not play more than it was absolutely necessary to say what was in my heart, say what was absolutely necessary to say what was in my heart, and write only the chords, only the melodies, that I felt were the appropriate ones for this type of record, and I’m very, very thankful that it’s being well received. It was No. 2 on the charts when it debuted and I’m very, very thankful that people are accepting it and loving it just as I did.

Smitty: Absolutely because we all are all about the love, you know?

WB: That’s it, that’s it.

Smitty: Yeah, man.

WB: Like you said before we started this interview, that we need more of it in our lives.

Smitty: Yes, we do. I’m so happy that you opened this chapter of love for everybody with this new record. You’ve got some great players on here too, man. I mean, you know, Lil’ John Roberts and….

WB: I’ve been telling Lil’ John Roberts forever that he should be doing more production, that his ears are one of the best pair of ears I’ve ever heard in my life. His ability to hear nuance and melody, harmony and rhythm is very, very uncanny,, I mean, for a drummer. Because this, to me, the instrument is a rhythmic instrument and finally I just said you know what? I’m just gonna push him into it. And he’s been producing, but I said, you know, he’s gonna do this for me, and he and Phil Davis partnered up and just created some great stuff with “Free” and “La Nina” and “Rhea’s Song”.

Smitty: Yeah. But, man, I can’t say enough about just those three songs that you just mentioned. I mean, they did some fantastic work. This is some groovin’ stuff!

WB: Yeah, yeah. What I did, I wrote the songs and I said you know what? These are beautiful songs. For the first time in my life I just gave ‘em to John. He said “Well, what do you think, Walter?” I said “John, I’m giving ‘em to you, you give them back done,” and that’s exactly what they did. “I don’t even care about the way you arrange them because I trust your ears, I trust your musicianship.” I mean, we played together several times so I know where he’s coming from, and when those songs came back they came back better than I could’ve ever expected.

Smitty: (Laughs.) But isn’t that a cool thing when you establish that kind of trust? And I think that is such a motivational vibe when someone has that kind of trust and confidence in you. I think it makes you reach higher and come back with something that’s above and beyond what you expected, you know?

WB: Very well said, very well said.

Smitty: Yeah, man. And I gotta tell you, man, I love “Be Thankful.”

WB: Yeah, that’s my baby there. (Laughs.)

Smitty: Man, that is a sweet track.

WB: Man, I have a couple of friends and one of whom is an African American woman and she was looking around and saying when she looks at CD’s that she very seldom finds anything that reflects who she’s about or what she’s been through or her issues, and she just feels like the world didn’t really respect or even care what happened to her, and I just felt like this was a song that hit me when I was going through similar times when I was a kid, and though some people around me were driving the Cadillacs and what is it? The Deuce and a quarter (Buick Electra 225), you know the cars, you know, those types of things.

Smitty: Yeah, man I haven’t heard that name in a long, long time. (laughs).

WB: You know what I’m talking about. And we were driving a Volkswagen. But when that song came out, it just really spoke to my heart. It said “You know what, young brother? The material things, that’s not what it’s about. Whatever you have, you’re building a foundation to create more, to build more.” And that’s how I took the song as a kid and I just felt like I wanted to do it over again and not really do it too complex or, like I said before, say things or do riffs that really didn’t mean anything, but just speak to the heart of the song and speak to need of my need and her need and others like us ‘cause we all the time feel like we’re the underdog, you know what I mean?

Smitty: Yeah.

WB: So, I mean, this song kinda just peps me up….I listen to it about five or six times if I’m in a funk (both laugh) until I’m normal again.

Smitty: I don’t know if William DeVaughn knew how many people he touched with that song.

WB: Thank you!

Smitty: Yeah.

WB: Thank you. It’s just a perfect song and it’s only one verse.

Smitty: You’re so right!

WB: It’s one verse. (Laughs.)

Smitty: Yup, and that’s all it took. With a nice melody, that’s all it took.

WB: That’s right.

Smitty: And that’s one song that will stand for a long time.

WB: Yes sir, yes sir.

Smitty: Absolutely. Okay, man, you gotta tell me about “Sugar Puddin’.” (Both laugh.)

WB: Well, when I was growing up, we used to spend the summers in the South and there was a term of endearment, Sugar Puddin’, and all that kind of stuff and it was a term of endearment, meaning that, you call somebody who you love that and that kind of thing.

Smitty: Yeah.

WB: But as I grew older, I found different meanings for it. (Both laugh.) And I think I should leave that alone.

Smitty: (Laughs.) And you know what? I’m gonna leave it alone too! I think everyone knows…mm-hmm, yeah. Well, hey, I’ll have to use that one sometime. (Both laugh.)

WB: Yup.

Smitty: Man oh man. Walter, this is just a great record, man. I mean, you put both feet in this one.

WB: Thank you, man. You know, I worked on it for a year and a half and after For Her, I said you know what, man? You’re in your mid-forties, it’s time for you to just chill for a minute and for the whole summer I did nothing but write. I think I wrote maybe 20, 25 songs and out of those 25 songs, four were really good, and that’s kinda the way I write. I’m not a prolific writer and everything I touch is a great song, but I have to write 20 to get five, and you gotta know yourself, though. So I put my 20 in and I got out about three or four, and I said to myself, “This is going to be a great record.” And even the covers that I chose this time, they have to really mean not only something to you, but mean something to the people who you’re trying to reach.

Smitty: Exactly. You chose the right ones to put out there because these are great and meaningful songs.

WB: Thank you so much. And “Free” by Deniece Williams, It’s a timeless piece and that’s how I opened the record, and it’s different, it’s not the same. John Roberts did that too, John and Phil Davis. And they put their feet in there. You know, when you come out like that….and they set the tone. So when they did that, I was like oh, no, no, no, and I got my songs on there, so I just said okay, and I produced “Be Thankful,” and it’s like I have to come real with “Be Thankful” and the album just kinda took on a life of its own. So like you said, they put in their best work because they felt trusted, and I think, even today, that’s what I learned about this project, is that when you trust people to do their best, usually they do it.

Smitty: Yes, man, and it certainly proved true here. Well, talk to me about your endless and tireless work in the music education field because you’re not only a musician, but you are giving back in such a huge way. I mean, man, how long have you been at Berklee?

WB: Twenty-one years.

Smitty: Twenty-one years…

WB: As a teacher.

Smitty: As an educator, yeah.

WB: Mm-hmm.

Smitty: Talk to me about what sparked you to go into that so heavily because as a musician, the norm is “Hey, I wanna get out there, I wanna play in some clubs, I wanna make a record, I wanna get a record deal,” and of course you’ve accomplished that, but sometimes we get, I won’t say satisfied, but we get caught up in that to the point that we wanna go a step further in that direction of doing everything it takes to get out there even more.

WB: That’s true.

Smitty: And yet you have chosen to go back to where you actually learned your craft, to help others. And you’re still there doing your thing.

WB: I’ll have to say that a brother by the name of Tim Williams and an older saxophonist who kinda groomed us all named Andy McGee, I will give all the credit to them for that because I saw older brothers or older African American instrumentalists who were very, very good at their craft who embraced those of us who were younger coming in, and as I was graduating and as I was leaving, I said to myself, as I looked around, Branford [Marsalis] was gone, Greg Osby was gone, Rachelle Ferrell was gone, and I said to myself, well, who’s here? (Both laugh.) And then I remembered I really don’t like New York that much anyway. (Both laugh.) You know, I mean, there’s an interplay, the people are great, but I know my personality and if I would’ve move to New York, we wouldn’t be having this conversation, let me just put it that way. (Both laugh.)

And so I just decided that for me to stay there and to not only assist as many African American students as I could, but all students, and anybody who wants to come to learn what I’ve learned to be the case, and that the African Americans have responded with some beautiful, beautiful music across the spectrum and this is how you get from Point A to Point B, C, D and E, and that became a goal of mine, to be able to introduce as many people as I could to my experience and my love for the music, and it just grew and grew and grew, and then when I became a recording artist, people said “Well, okay, now it’s time for you to quit and go on the road.” I was like, well, heck, I’ve invested all this time in learning how to be a good teacher. I don’t feel like I should just leave and just go on the road and just say “Okay, well, I’m gonna go on the road.” I mean, you know, I dedicated my life to music, like music is my mistress, so when I got on the road, I did my best, I do my best to do what I can to put on a great performance and then when it’s time to go to the classroom, I put on that hat and I do the same thing there.

Smitty: That’s beautiful and so cool.

WB: Because I just don’t feel that people are taking education seriously enough and for me I see it reflected in the music. We have more one-hit wonders now than we had 10, 20, 30 years ago because they don’t have the foundation to have a successful career long-term.

Smitty: Yes.

WB: That concerns me. I’ve been in the business 25 years as not only a professional musician, but as a teacher. So what was different about me that was different about other people who had more talent than I….and that’s what I wanna give back to….not only at Berklee, the institutional level, but like I said, on the Web site I develop products so that people who don’t have the funds to go to a four-year institution can say “Okay, well, Walter has something out.” He says “Okay, if I can learn how to better my sound this way, it’s only gonna cost $15.” You know? I mean, that’s real.

Smitty: So true, and I love your approach to the realism of education and making it available to those who perhaps would not otherwise have the opportunity.

WB: And that’s the way….that’s what I think, and hopefully my goal is to create a curriculum by which someone can just click on that mouse and follow Walter Beasley’s path to success and just say “Okay, this is what I’m gonna take from, this is what I’m gonna borrow from, and it’s not gonna cost me a whole lotta money, and this is how he maintained his integrity throughout the whole process.” And that’s what I wanna do.

Smitty: Yeah, so you’ve got some instructional DVD’s, that sort of thing, on your Web site that people can click through and get a real nice foundation and understanding of different aspects of the business or at least for instrumentation and that sort of thing.

WB: Exactly. You know, learning how to play. I have interviews by Chuck Loeb that basically we talk about what young folks and older folks just concerned about music need to know about the music. It’s not for everybody. It’s for musicians. It’s for musicians to come and just see, okay, a book came out, it’s called Behind the Notes, and Chuck is on there getting ready to interview James Lloyd, and we’re just gonna talk strictly about what separates us from others so that these young folks who come along can say “Okay, well, look, let me listen to these guys verbally or orally and see exactly what they’re talking about” because this is an oral tradition and that this music is supposed to be passed down by word of mouth and this is not being reflected in the way educational institutions are teaching people how to learn music, and that really concerns me.

Smitty: Yes, I think that’s huge that you’re doing that and that’s a great effort, and hopefully people are clicking in to your site and taking advantage of it. Let me ask you something about you as an educator….Over the years do you find that as you are dispensing knowledge to others that you too are learning from them? Do you find that you are learning along the way with them, be it from your students themselves or from what you are discovering to pass along to them?

WB: Oh, great question! Yeah, I mean, it’s a great exchange, man. And maybe that’s one of the reasons why I stay at Berklee and I even have private students at my house now. I’ve just gone really overboard (both laugh). But I found that I have learned to view different challenges and view different systems differently through the eyes and through the ears of the younger musicians, and I never thought that that would happen. I really didn’t know, but now I find myself learning much more about approaching maybe different scales and different melodies and harmonies in a different kind of way because young kids really….it’s one thing to listen to history, to listen to others and to become steeped in the historical traditions of the music and so on and so forth. Well, when you don’t have that, you don’t have that saddled on your back, so that you don’t know that you’re not supposed to do certain things in certain areas and stuff like that, and the younger they are, the more chances they take because they don’t have that fear element.

Smitty: Yes. They’re bulletproof.

WB: And they’re not constrained by the institutions and the “by the book” way of thinking. So it’s a great question and I think that older people, and obviously I’m not that old, but older people need to really realize, including myself, that there’s a wealth of knowledge and wealth of wisdom in younger people in the way they approach things because they don’t have….you know, our hang-ups.

Smitty: Exactly.

WB: And it’s a great exchange.

Smitty: Yeah, young people are very uninhibited.

WB: Yup.

Smitty: And that’s a very great resource to tap into along the way. Now, let me ask you, because as an educator, as a teacher, I think what you’re doing is just phenomenal because I’m sure you know and I know, not everyone’s a teacher. We may be a teacher to some degree, but not everyone is a teacher in that they can actually reach people and actually help them to benefit from what you’re sharing with them, because it’s one thing to put a book in front of someone, but it’s another to be able to explain that and help them to see how they could benefit from it and then help them along the way, so I think what you’re doing, over 20 years of this kind of great work, I mean, it speaks volumes for you as a musician and a person.

WB: Well, I really appreciate the compliment. Sometimes, man, not very often, but sometimes I think about, on my days when I’m just having a rough day, does anybody really know how hard this really is? (Both laugh.) You know? I mean, I thought about it the other day and I talked to the record company about it, I talked to the institution about it, I don’t think anybody who’s an instrumentalist who’s been a full-time professor has ever sold as many records as I have in a lifetime.

Smitty: Yeah.

WB: And that’s an accomplishment that very few people even recognize because I teach, you know? (Laughs.)

Smitty: Right.

WB: And I didn’t think about it until then, but sometimes I wonder and I’m like, you know, this is an art form in itself, to be able to motivate, to recognize the students who don’t want to be taught but maybe who just want to be motivated, and there are students who just want to be motivated and not taught. (Laughs.)

Smitty: Yes.

WB: So, man, you’ve got to be a doctor, a psychiatrist, a father figure, a brother, an instigator, you’ve got to be a provocateur, all that kind of stuff, and this art is by far the most challenging of anything I’ve ever tried to do in my life.

Smitty: Yeah, and yet you find time to kick out a record on time and it’s always a quality product that people buy and want to hear because the results are there that you’ve sold more records than any instrumentalist who’s been a full-time professor.

WB: Yup.

Smitty: So I think what you’re doing is definitely a great deal of effort, but it’s one that so many people benefit from and it’s a rewarding thing for you and others as well.

WB: Yeah. That’s well said. I think, yeah, you’re right.

Smitty: Yeah, man. And your new record came out January 23rd.

WB: Yes.

Smitty: And you’re hitting the charts and so this must be an exciting time for you. I mean, ‘cause there’s always that little weight off your shoulders after you’ve got the product out there, it’s finished, people are hearing it, you’re getting reaction, that’s when the fun really starts, when you feel that reaction from everyone else.

WB: And I put so much of myself into this record that I was so nervous. I was scared to death, man, and then when I got the word in the first week sales that I was No. 2 in the world behind Kenny G, I was floored, man, and I was just so thankful and I smiled all the way in to work. I found out on my way in to teaching and I heard that I had a No. 2 record in the world and I was up at six o’clock in the morning to go teach some folks how to play saxophone. (Both laugh.) That’s when I said there are times when it doesn’t get any better than this.

Smitty: Yes indeed. You know, the hard work always pays off.

WB: Yeah. Man, that’s perfectly said. You should come to Berklee!

Smitty: (Laughs.)

WB: You’re right. You should teach that, man. That’s exactly what I teach my students. We won’t get into that.

Smitty: Yeah, I know, but, you know, there’s just no substitute for hard work if you want great results, you know?

WB: That’s right. That’s exactly right.

Smitty: Yeah, that’s so cool, man. Well, I can’t tell you how much I’m enjoying the record and these great players that you have brought along with you and, I mean, there’s a ton of them that we didn’t even talk about. We mentioned James Lloyd and Eddie and those guys, but you’ve got some great players on here like Milton Smith on drums on “Miss You.”

WB: Yeah, I mean, see, I call it my D.C. Love track ‘cause that’s one that….I had a song called “Don’t Say Goodbye” back in the day that was kinda like a theme song for me. It was a regional hit, it was a vocal hit, and when he brought that to me, I said oh yeah, oh quit. I was like, yeah, let me do some begging just like I used to do.

Smitty: Yeah, man.

WB: And the guy Quim [Quer] from Spain, check this out. I’m on www.myspace.com/walterbeasley.

Smitty: Uh-huh.

WB: So I go on MySpace and one of my first friends who come on and say “Well, Walter, can I be your friend?” Okay. “I love your music. Come over and check out my site.” So I said, okay, I’ll do that, and there’s this beautiful little chill kind of track in the back and I’m like this is gorgeous. So I e-mailed him and I said “Well, this is a great harmony and rhythm. Can I write a melody to this thing and maybe if it comes out okay we can put it on the record?” So he speaks Spanish so we’re doing it back and forth in Spanish, so he said “Sure, sure, I’d love to.” So I wrote a melody to it, the record company loved it, and we wrote it back and forth over MySpace and did it over the Internet, so that’s the first time that’s ever happened to me in my life, man.

Smitty: Wow!

WB: The track’s called “Land of the Sun.”

Smitty: Now you know that’s way too cool!

WB: “Land of the Sun.” He lives in Spain and I live in Massachusetts. I don’t know him, I’ll never probably meet him in my life, but we wrote a track over MySpace.

Smitty: That is slick, dude. (Laughs.)

WB: Yeah.

Smitty: I don’t think I’ve ever heard of that happening.

WB: It’s never happened to me. And another thing about MySpace, it gets slammed for all the whack stuff, but here are two musicians just trying to do their thing and you come to each other’s page and like, oh, let me put me with you and see how we can make some money and take this to another level, you know? So that’s what we did and I would encourage all musicians, all people who are musicians to network in any way they can and to use the Internet, especially JazzMonthly.com.

Smitty: JazzMonthly.com. Thank you, man. You’ve got a lotta love, brother.

WB: JazzMonthly.com and to meet as many people as you can and learn as much as you can about the music and you will be surprised how much more you will be enriched by that whole process.

Smitty: Well said! Oh, that’s cool, man. That’s really cool. That’s a great story.

WB: Yeah, man, I couldn’t have dreamt it, you know? I mean, it didn’t hit me until after we wrote the track, that it was done all by phone. No, I’ve never done this before. (Both laugh.)

Smitty: Well, my congratulations to you, Walter, for this great record. I love the album cover and somebody took some great shots.

WB: Yeah, they did. This brother down in Miami, Paul Greco. Beautiful cat, man. I was down there, my father was very ill, and I had to go down there….Heads Up has just been so great with this too because my father got very ill at the end of the project and I had to go stay with him for major surgery in Miami, and they had a photographer down there in Miami, and one of the days when he was in physical therapy I went and I took pictures, and I think these are some of the best photographs that I’ve ever taken.

Smitty: Yeah, very nice, man.

WB: I’m very thankful.

Smitty: Yes, well, this is just a quality product all the way around, man, and evidence of that, I’ve seen you on the charts, so that’s a very cool thing. And I think that’s a great motivator for your students as well to see the success of your hard work and it shows that they could get there too.

WB: Yeah, and that’s when I know it’ll be time to go. When I can say that there are a couple coming behind me that I know are gonna do more than what I did in a different kind of way. I’ll know then that’s the time to really focus on teaching other areas about my business and just go ahead and just spend more time in education. Don’t get me wrong. I love making records, I love talking to you, and I love talking to my fans when I go to concerts. I love it, man. There’s one thing I’ve always asked God to do and that’s to not make me addicted to the applause because there’s a lot of who don’t know when to get out. And that’s when I want to know that I don’t want to be on the road because Uncle Sam is making me get on the road. (Both laugh.) And all those things factor into it. In fact, during the course of the semester we talk about business skills and we talk about ways of making decisions, and as we progress I’m at the stage in my career now where I have to make some decisions that relate to the next 10 or 15 years. Because that’s just life and we all have to make that walk, and it’s just a great time to be me, a great time to be you, and to be able to express ourselves in the way we do it, and life is only a quick minute here.

Smitty: That’s right.

WB: To touch as many people as we can. That’s what it’s all about.

Smitty: Absolutely. I couldn’t have said it better, my friend. The record is called Ready for Love by Heads Up recording artist Walter Beasley. Walter, thank you so much for this great record and for your remarkable mentality and your extraordinary ability to reach others in music education. Much success with this record and all of your future endeavors.

WB: Thank you very much and thank you so much for the opportunity. I really appreciate it.

Baldwin “Smitty” Smith

For More Information Visit www.walterbeasley.com and www.headsup.com and www.myspace.com/walterbeasley.