Gerald Veasley
Bassist Gerald Veasley clearly remembers the first record he ever bought with his own money. "It was a Curtis Mayfield song called 'We're a Winner,'" says Veasley. "He had this beautiful voice that was somewhat fragile but yet there was power in it at the same time." The impact of that soulful voice and powerful message still resonates in Gerald's music today. "What I try to do is make music that touches people in a voice that is authentically my own."
Born in Philadelphia, Veasley started playing bass when he was 12. His father died in the late 1970's, while Gerald was in his third year at the University of Pennsylvania. He worked through the emotional loss by redoubling his musical efforts and adding classical guitar to his studies. He immersed himself in music, from Curtis Mayfield to Charles Mingus, Wes Montgomery to Jimi Hendrix, and from Miles Davis to Marvin Gaye. In music, he found solace.
"There were several factors which led me to choose music as a profession," he says. "Mostly importantly, it always moved me emotionally and offered me a way to express things I couldn't find words for. When my father died, I had a hard time coming to grips with the loss, and the music proved very therapeutic. I thought, "if music can have that kind of healing effect on me, maybe I can spend my life creating music that can do the same for others."
While the '70's proved to be a decade of transition in Veasley's personal life, he also remembers the period as "a golden era" in the evolution of urban music. "That was a time when I was starting to really take music seriously, and there were all these great sounds around," he recalls. "Music right about that time was starting to get very, very funky and people were taking a lot of chances. People came along like Sly & the Family Stone, Earth, Wind & Fire, and George Clinton/Parliament-Funkadelic. There were all these innovative groups who were making social and artistic statements without losing their soulfulness. Meanwhile, all these fusion groups like Weather Report were experimenting with combining these funky sounds with jazz."
In the 1980's, Veasley had developed into a versatile and reputable sideman and session player. He joined Grover Washington's band in 1986 and played on six of the sax players recordings. Two years later, he moved on to the Zawinul Syndicate, led by fusion pioneer Joe Zawinul, co-founder of Weather Report. He would tour the world with his idol for the next seven years. "That was a real education, on and off the bandstand," states Veasley.
Among the many other credits on Veasley's resume are studio sessions and/or tour gigs with artists representing a range of genres including Special EFX, Pieces of a Dream, McCoy Tyner, Gerald Levert, Teddy Pendergrass, Nnenna Freelon, Philip Bailey, the Dixie Hummingbirds, John Blake, Phil Perry, and Heads Up labelmate Joe McBride. He's also played with a few folks who might surprise the average fan, such as fellow Philadelphians Odean Pope, Jimmy Bruno and Pat Martino. Whoever the collaborative partner, Veasley has always come away with valuable lessons.
"There's value in avant-garde music or free jazz in and of itself," Gerald points out, "but then there's also value in how the experience of playing music like that makes you think about music. For example, there was a project I was involved in where the music director was none other than Ornette Coleman, and that was a very cool experience. He would stop the band and say, "The reason you played that was because you're playing fret ideas instead of music ideas. You're playing things that come under your fingertips instead of really trying to free yourself to play pure musical ideas, pure musical thought that is generated from within." That kind of thinking is very liberating, and it's taught me to create music from the inside out."
The '90's were the launch pad for Veasley's solo career. The first step on that journey came in 1992 with Look Ahead, his solo debut on the Heads Up International label that included guest appearances from Zawinul and Blake. He followed up that auspicious debut with recordings that have featured an "A" list of contemporary jazz artists. In 1994 he recorded Signs, which featured George Jinda and Chieli Minucci of Special EFX and now labelmate and Yellowjackets mainstay Russell Ferrante. Soul Control (1997) included guest appearances by Earth, Wind & Fire vocalist Philip Bailey, Dianne Reeves, Rick Braun, George Howard, and Dave Samuels. Eric Marienthal and Minucci appeared on Love Letters (1999), which was also Veasley's last album to feature Grover Washington Jr. before his death at the end of that same year. Washington had appeared on all of Veasley's solo albums, and Veasley paid tribute to his friend and mentor with "Goodnight Moon," a tune on his 2001 release, On the Fast Track. "Grover was a gentle human being who I think about every day. I feel like a steward of his legacy, a legacy of honest, heartfelt music. It's better to play one note that sounds like you, than a hundred that sound like someone else."
Veasley followed On The Fast Track with Velvet, a richly textured recording that evokes the sound and spirit of his formative years in the 1970's, combined with the edgy sensibilities of contemporary urban music. Led by Veasley's distinctive instrumental prowess, the album offers a unique perspective on the burgeoning movement known as neo-soul.
In response to the longtime clamor among his fans for a live album, Veasley released At The Jazz Base! in July, 2005. Recorded at Veasley's own club in Reading, Pennsylvania, in November 2004, At The Jazz Base! is a collection of songs culled from his previous recordings and updated with new arrangements and a fresh perspective. "It's a sort of snapshot of where I am in my career as a musician, and where the band is," says Veasley. "Sometimes we assume that everybody knows what we do just from the recordings, and we have to realize that the studio recordings - although they may be excellent - don't show as much as we'd like. But here's a recording that does that. At The Jazz Base is a complete picture of where we are right now."
Born in Philadelphia, Veasley started playing bass when he was 12. His father died in the late 1970's, while Gerald was in his third year at the University of Pennsylvania. He worked through the emotional loss by redoubling his musical efforts and adding classical guitar to his studies. He immersed himself in music, from Curtis Mayfield to Charles Mingus, Wes Montgomery to Jimi Hendrix, and from Miles Davis to Marvin Gaye. In music, he found solace.
"There were several factors which led me to choose music as a profession," he says. "Mostly importantly, it always moved me emotionally and offered me a way to express things I couldn't find words for. When my father died, I had a hard time coming to grips with the loss, and the music proved very therapeutic. I thought, "if music can have that kind of healing effect on me, maybe I can spend my life creating music that can do the same for others."
While the '70's proved to be a decade of transition in Veasley's personal life, he also remembers the period as "a golden era" in the evolution of urban music. "That was a time when I was starting to really take music seriously, and there were all these great sounds around," he recalls. "Music right about that time was starting to get very, very funky and people were taking a lot of chances. People came along like Sly & the Family Stone, Earth, Wind & Fire, and George Clinton/Parliament-Funkadelic. There were all these innovative groups who were making social and artistic statements without losing their soulfulness. Meanwhile, all these fusion groups like Weather Report were experimenting with combining these funky sounds with jazz."
In the 1980's, Veasley had developed into a versatile and reputable sideman and session player. He joined Grover Washington's band in 1986 and played on six of the sax players recordings. Two years later, he moved on to the Zawinul Syndicate, led by fusion pioneer Joe Zawinul, co-founder of Weather Report. He would tour the world with his idol for the next seven years. "That was a real education, on and off the bandstand," states Veasley.
Among the many other credits on Veasley's resume are studio sessions and/or tour gigs with artists representing a range of genres including Special EFX, Pieces of a Dream, McCoy Tyner, Gerald Levert, Teddy Pendergrass, Nnenna Freelon, Philip Bailey, the Dixie Hummingbirds, John Blake, Phil Perry, and Heads Up labelmate Joe McBride. He's also played with a few folks who might surprise the average fan, such as fellow Philadelphians Odean Pope, Jimmy Bruno and Pat Martino. Whoever the collaborative partner, Veasley has always come away with valuable lessons.
"There's value in avant-garde music or free jazz in and of itself," Gerald points out, "but then there's also value in how the experience of playing music like that makes you think about music. For example, there was a project I was involved in where the music director was none other than Ornette Coleman, and that was a very cool experience. He would stop the band and say, "The reason you played that was because you're playing fret ideas instead of music ideas. You're playing things that come under your fingertips instead of really trying to free yourself to play pure musical ideas, pure musical thought that is generated from within." That kind of thinking is very liberating, and it's taught me to create music from the inside out."
The '90's were the launch pad for Veasley's solo career. The first step on that journey came in 1992 with Look Ahead, his solo debut on the Heads Up International label that included guest appearances from Zawinul and Blake. He followed up that auspicious debut with recordings that have featured an "A" list of contemporary jazz artists. In 1994 he recorded Signs, which featured George Jinda and Chieli Minucci of Special EFX and now labelmate and Yellowjackets mainstay Russell Ferrante. Soul Control (1997) included guest appearances by Earth, Wind & Fire vocalist Philip Bailey, Dianne Reeves, Rick Braun, George Howard, and Dave Samuels. Eric Marienthal and Minucci appeared on Love Letters (1999), which was also Veasley's last album to feature Grover Washington Jr. before his death at the end of that same year. Washington had appeared on all of Veasley's solo albums, and Veasley paid tribute to his friend and mentor with "Goodnight Moon," a tune on his 2001 release, On the Fast Track. "Grover was a gentle human being who I think about every day. I feel like a steward of his legacy, a legacy of honest, heartfelt music. It's better to play one note that sounds like you, than a hundred that sound like someone else."
Veasley followed On The Fast Track with Velvet, a richly textured recording that evokes the sound and spirit of his formative years in the 1970's, combined with the edgy sensibilities of contemporary urban music. Led by Veasley's distinctive instrumental prowess, the album offers a unique perspective on the burgeoning movement known as neo-soul.
In response to the longtime clamor among his fans for a live album, Veasley released At The Jazz Base! in July, 2005. Recorded at Veasley's own club in Reading, Pennsylvania, in November 2004, At The Jazz Base! is a collection of songs culled from his previous recordings and updated with new arrangements and a fresh perspective. "It's a sort of snapshot of where I am in my career as a musician, and where the band is," says Veasley. "Sometimes we assume that everybody knows what we do just from the recordings, and we have to realize that the studio recordings - although they may be excellent - don't show as much as we'd like. But here's a recording that does that. At The Jazz Base is a complete picture of where we are right now."
At The Jazz Base!
For nearly two decades, bassist/composer/producer/educator Gerald Veasley has enjoyed a stellar reputation not only among jazz fans but among his fellow performers, thanks to six dynamic studio recordings. For all of his success and acclaim, though, he has never released an album that captures the electrifying funk and melodic magic of his live shows ... until now.
At The Jazz Base!, released on Heads Up on July 26, 2005, provides a unique window into the flip side of this compelling artist's creative identity, the one that emerges every time he takes the stage. And what better stage to record his first live album than the one at his own club, Gerald Veasley's Jazz Base? This intimate, in-the-round style nightclub in Reading, Pennsylvania, serves as a performance center and creative laboratory for Veasley and other top jazz talent to work their musical miracles in front of an audience. The Jazz Base has become a vital performance hub for the annual Berks Jazz Fest, where Veasley performs and also leads his annual Bass Boot Camp for musicians seeking to perfect their craft.
On two successive evenings in November 2004, Veasley and his band took the stage in these familiar surroundings to perform fan favorites from his catalog. Throughout the performances, Veasley and his band created a palpable vibe, a synergy of sound optimized by the 150-seat club's intimate atmosphere. The resulting recording is soul satisfying.
"Songs evolve over time," says Veasley. "The songs are different now, and a lot of that is the result of taking them on the road over the years and playing them for people. The energy you get from the audiences allows you to experiment with the songs, and that experimentation leads to new arrangements."
Anyone who has witnessed a Gerald Veasley performance is aware of the energy, emotion and power his music holds. Veasley's band features long time collaborator Chris Farr on saxophones, Eric Green on drums, and Pete Kuzma on organ, all three of whom are currently on tour with Jill Scott. The band also spotlights vocalist/keyboardist Will Brock, fresh from releasing his own project, and former Alicia Keys' percussionist Pablo Batista. "There were some songs that the new guys weren't even familiar with," says Veasley. "So they could bring a fresh take to them. We could rearrange songs to fit the new character of the band. We tried to do that with just about every tune on the record."
At The Jazz Base also includes two brand new songs written by Veasley and recorded in the studio. One is "Celebrating Sipho," a Capetown-flavored tune penned in memory of the late South African bassist Sipho Gumede, one of the giants of jazz bass who died of cancer in July 2004 at the height of his career. Gerald says, "Sipho and I had talked about working together on a recording, but we never got the opportunity. This is my way of celebrating his life."
The other new tune is "Sugar Time," a freewheeling romp that Veasley named for its updated juke joint vibe. "I try to be this modern guy, but I think, in my heart, I'm this blues guy in a lot of ways," he says. "That's what I grew up listening to - blues and gospel. The blues is the mother of all this American music. From the most sophisticated jazz to the most uplifting gospel, you can find the blues in there. "Sugar Time" encapsulates that spirit."
More than just a collection of live renditions of studio recordings, At The Jazz Base reinterprets the decade-long oeuvre of a highly talented bassist and presents it in a way that is certain to be eye- and ear-opening for longtime fans and newcomers alike. "It's sort of a snapshot of where I am in my career as a musician, and where the band is," says Veasley. "That's where this record fits into my overall body of work. Sometimes we assume that everybody knows what we do just from the recordings, and we have to realize that the studio recordings - although they may be excellent - don't show as much as we'd like. But here's a record that does that. At The Jazz Base is a complete picture of where we are right now."
At The Jazz Base!, released on Heads Up on July 26, 2005, provides a unique window into the flip side of this compelling artist's creative identity, the one that emerges every time he takes the stage. And what better stage to record his first live album than the one at his own club, Gerald Veasley's Jazz Base? This intimate, in-the-round style nightclub in Reading, Pennsylvania, serves as a performance center and creative laboratory for Veasley and other top jazz talent to work their musical miracles in front of an audience. The Jazz Base has become a vital performance hub for the annual Berks Jazz Fest, where Veasley performs and also leads his annual Bass Boot Camp for musicians seeking to perfect their craft.
On two successive evenings in November 2004, Veasley and his band took the stage in these familiar surroundings to perform fan favorites from his catalog. Throughout the performances, Veasley and his band created a palpable vibe, a synergy of sound optimized by the 150-seat club's intimate atmosphere. The resulting recording is soul satisfying.
"Songs evolve over time," says Veasley. "The songs are different now, and a lot of that is the result of taking them on the road over the years and playing them for people. The energy you get from the audiences allows you to experiment with the songs, and that experimentation leads to new arrangements."
Anyone who has witnessed a Gerald Veasley performance is aware of the energy, emotion and power his music holds. Veasley's band features long time collaborator Chris Farr on saxophones, Eric Green on drums, and Pete Kuzma on organ, all three of whom are currently on tour with Jill Scott. The band also spotlights vocalist/keyboardist Will Brock, fresh from releasing his own project, and former Alicia Keys' percussionist Pablo Batista. "There were some songs that the new guys weren't even familiar with," says Veasley. "So they could bring a fresh take to them. We could rearrange songs to fit the new character of the band. We tried to do that with just about every tune on the record."
At The Jazz Base also includes two brand new songs written by Veasley and recorded in the studio. One is "Celebrating Sipho," a Capetown-flavored tune penned in memory of the late South African bassist Sipho Gumede, one of the giants of jazz bass who died of cancer in July 2004 at the height of his career. Gerald says, "Sipho and I had talked about working together on a recording, but we never got the opportunity. This is my way of celebrating his life."
The other new tune is "Sugar Time," a freewheeling romp that Veasley named for its updated juke joint vibe. "I try to be this modern guy, but I think, in my heart, I'm this blues guy in a lot of ways," he says. "That's what I grew up listening to - blues and gospel. The blues is the mother of all this American music. From the most sophisticated jazz to the most uplifting gospel, you can find the blues in there. "Sugar Time" encapsulates that spirit."
More than just a collection of live renditions of studio recordings, At The Jazz Base reinterprets the decade-long oeuvre of a highly talented bassist and presents it in a way that is certain to be eye- and ear-opening for longtime fans and newcomers alike. "It's sort of a snapshot of where I am in my career as a musician, and where the band is," says Veasley. "That's where this record fits into my overall body of work. Sometimes we assume that everybody knows what we do just from the recordings, and we have to realize that the studio recordings - although they may be excellent - don't show as much as we'd like. But here's a record that does that. At The Jazz Base is a complete picture of where we are right now."
Selected Discography
Gerald Veasley - Bass; Chris Farr - Saxophones; Will Brock - Keyboards; Peter Kuzma - Organ, Keyboards, Synth Bass; Eric Greene - Drums; Pablo Batista - Congas, Percussion; Matt Cappy - Trumpet; Jeff Bradshaw - Trombone; Mark Knox - Keyboards
Release Date - 2005
Record Label - Heads Up
Release Date - 2005
Record Label - Heads Up
Gerald Veasley - Bass
Chris Farr - Saxophones; Will Brock - Piano; Mark Knox - Keyboards; Richard Waller III - Drums
Release Date - 2003
Record Label - Heads Up
Chris Farr - Saxophones; Will Brock - Piano; Mark Knox - Keyboards; Richard Waller III - Drums
Release Date - 2003
Record Label - Heads Up
Gerald Veasley - Bass
Chris Farr - Saxophones
Will Brock - Piano
Richard Waller III - Drums
Release Date - 2001
Record Label - Heads Up
Chris Farr - Saxophones
Will Brock - Piano
Richard Waller III - Drums
Release Date - 2001
Record Label - Heads Up
Gerald Veasley - Bass; Grover Washington Jr. - Sax; Eric Marienthal - Sax; Chieli Minucci - Guitar; Chris Farr - Sax; Mark Knox - Keys; Michael Aharon - Keys; Richard Waller III - Drums; Leonard "Doc" Gibbs - Percussion; Leslie Burrs - Flute
Release Date - 1999
Record Label - Heads Up
Release Date - 1999
Record Label - Heads Up
Gerald Veasley - Bass
Dianne Reeves - Vocals; Grover Washington Jr. - Sax; Philip Bailey - Vocals; George Howard - Sax; Rick Braun - Trumpet; Joe McBride - Piano; Dave Samuels - Vibes
Release Date - 1997
Record Label - Heads Up
Dianne Reeves - Vocals; Grover Washington Jr. - Sax; Philip Bailey - Vocals; George Howard - Sax; Rick Braun - Trumpet; Joe McBride - Piano; Dave Samuels - Vibes
Release Date - 1997
Record Label - Heads Up
Gerald Veasley - Bass; Grover Washington Jr. - Sax; Russell Ferrante - Piano; Dennis Chambers - Drums; Ben Schacter - Sax; George Jinda - Percussion; Chieli Minucci - Guitar; Juanita Johnson - Vocals; Hakim Davis - Vocals
Release Date - 1994
Record Label - Heads Up
Release Date - 1994
Record Label - Heads Up
Gerald Veasley - Bass
Grover Washington Jr. - Sax; John Blake - Violin; Kenny Blake - Sax; Onaje Allan Gumbs - Keyboards; Omar Hakim - Drums
Release Date - 1992
Record Label - Heads Up
Grover Washington Jr. - Sax; John Blake - Violin; Kenny Blake - Sax; Onaje Allan Gumbs - Keyboards; Omar Hakim - Drums
Release Date - 1992
Record Label - Heads Up
