JOHN BEASLEY & SWR BIG BAND

INVISIBLE PIANO

O-Tone Music

Terence Blanchard, iconic musician and composer, 8X Grammy Winner and 2X Oscar Nominee, wrote in Beasley’s liner notes: “I love working with fearless people, the ones who push boundaries, break rules, and reimagine what music can be.  John Beasley is one of those artists. … Like me, John has always been drawn to that edge where music and technology meet.”

John Beasley’s first musical sketches emerged in an unexpected place, the Staatsgalerie Stuttgart Museum, one of Germany’s major art museums.  He found himself so moved by the visual art that he pulled out his trusty iPhone and sang melodic ideas into it that the art inspired.  Among the art he encountered was a painting by Max Ernst.  It was titled, “Invisible Piano” and inspired the title of this album.

The first song on this wildly experimental and artistic album is titled “Concentric.”  That word represents circles, arcs or other shapes that share the same center, the larger often completely surrounding the smaller. The arrangement begins with the staccato tapping of Beasley’s fingers against singular piano keys, with the right and left hands doing two entirely different things. That in itself is mind blowing.  Or it could be that special “Steinway Spirio” piano he’s using?

John Beasley is combining technology with his creative ideas and his piano playing. At the heart of this creative and unusual process is the “Steinway Spirio” that’s a revolutionary player piano.  It is capable of recording and reproducing every nuance of performance. Beasley’s heightened imagination embraces this technology.  Once he realized how his musical ideas could echo, mutate, and find form using technology to express not only soundscapes, but shapes, colors and structures of his orchestration, Beasley found ways to apply the technology.  Tracks on this project embrace that transformation.

The SWR Big Band is based in Stuttgart, Germany. It’s one of Europe’s premier Jazz orchestras, known for world-class musicianship and stylistic versatility.  They often collaborate with leading artists and talented musicians and vocalists from around the globe.

“Invisible Piano” is the second album they have recorded with John Beasley. Their last project was critically acclaimed and titled “Bird Lives” that earned three Grammy nominations and won ‘Best Arrangement’ in 2021.

Included in this “Invisible Piano” project are orchestrated ‘covers’ of two popular top 40 songs: “Can’t Hide Love” and the James Taylor standard, “Fire and Rain.”  Both songs feature creative piano solos from John Beasley.

You may have heard John Beasley playing piano when he was musical director of the popular “American Idol” television series in the early 2000s.  This included the season Carrie Underwood won in 2005. He also played on soundtracks for the “Cheers” show, “Star Trek: The Next Generations” and more. Beasley was 20 when he appeared at Carnegie Hall with Hubert Laws, John Patitucci and Joey Heredia. He has toured with Sergio Mendes and been in the bands of two legends: Miles Davis and Freddie Hubbard.

John Beasley has collaborated with the who’s-who of jazz, pop and R&B artists including Dianne Reeves, Chaka Khan, Christian McBride, Chucho Valdes, Steely Dan and has released several albums as a bandleader, orchestra leader and artist. Beasley was appointed Music Director for the Herbie Hancock Institute of Jazz and leads their globally broadcast “International Jazz Day” concerts.

This year, 2026, Beasley will celebrate both Miles Davis and John Coltrane with projects that includes a global tour with a sextet reimagining Miles Davis’s music and collaborations with Marcus Miller, The Metropole Orkest and European big bands.  Not only this awesome album with the SWR Big Band released on May 8^th, but another Live from Blue Note Tokyo album release called “Unlimited Miles” is upcoming.

SWR BIG BAND: Rudolf Reindl, Director of SWR Big Band GmbH; John Beasley, Spirio piano/ synthesizer/composer/conductor; Decebal Badila, bass; Guido Jöris, drums; Rhani Krija, percussion. WOODWINDS: (flute/alto flute/clarinet/bass clarinet/tenor saxophone) Norbert Nagel, Matthias Erlewein, Jörg Kaufmann, Andreas Maile, & Pierre Paquette. TRUMPETS/FLUGELHORNS: Nemanja Jovanovic, Felice Civitareale, Karl Farrent, Martin Auer. TROMBONES: Marc Godfroid, Ian Cumming; Georg Maus, bass trombone; Jϋrgen Neudert, Euphonium. FRENCH HORNS: Benno Trautmann & Ingo Klinkhammer.  Juliane Gralle, tuba. SPECIAL GUEST: Magnus Lindgren, flute.

Reviewed by Dee Dee McNeil

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