James Beasley, Professional Percussionist
Born February 17, 1972 in Fullerton, California
James Grew up in Port Angeles, Washington (2
hours Northwest of Seattle) where he spent much
of his time listening to music of the 60's,
70's, and 80's. His influences are strongly
based upon Jazz and Rock.
Soon after arriving in Seattle at the age of
eighteen James began doing session work for
local producers, and performed in quite a few
local pop bands and alternative acts. He honed
his skills playing with acts and teaching local
students for six years in Seattle. Several local
music magazines, and local bands followed James'
career and one local magazine called Rock Paper
Scissors, said that James Beasley "delivers
solid innovative parts with a great sense of
dynamics that is evident within the structure
of each tune." James has had the luxury
of playing with recording artists Chris Cornell
of Soungarden/Audioslave, Sean Kinney of Alice
and Chains, Guitarist Peter Clet of Candlebox,
Dizzy Reed of Guns n Roses, Robby Krieger legendary
guitarist of The Doors, Phil Chen bass player
for Rod Stewart, Jeff Beck, Pete Townsend, Hal
Kragen bassist for Sara Mclaughlin, and Francesco
bassist of Evanessance.
After playing with many Seattle bands, James
decided to take his skills and move to Los Angeles.
It was in Los Angeles that James began a close
relationship with legendary Doors guitarist
Robby Krieger, and formed a band with Robby's
son Waylon Krieger called Adapt. Produced by
Robby Krieger, and Aurthur Burrow of Frank Zappa.
James has a unique style; a blend between Kenny
Arrnoff ( John Mellencamp) Mitch Mitchell (Jimi
Hendrix drummer), Keith Moon (the Who) and John
Bonham (Led Zepplin). From a Jazz perspective
he's very similar to Dennis Chambers, Steve
Gadd and Omar Hakim.
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