Going With the Flow

The most recent bread-and-butter gig for the decidedly talented modern-jazz keyboardist John Beasley was a U.S. stint with the Spice Girls.

“That paid the mortgage for awhile,” joked Beasley, who has toured with Miles Davis and Freddie Hubbard. “We had an incredible band, and the circus around the girls was huge, so that was kind of fun. I was a big hit with my daughter, Sierra, and at her elementary school.”

Not that Beasley, who is also recording a new album with Steely Dan, doesn’t like pop music.

It’s just that playing with a hit band isn’t quite the same as leading his own quartet in adventurous jazz outings, as he will tonight--and every Thursday this month--at the Baked Potato in North Hollywood. Actually, jazz playing is more a need than a want for the Shrevesport, La., native who has lived in Los Angeles since 1977.

“Being able to play this music makes me feel better,” he said. “I get a release from playing it. And it helps me, because no matter what style I’m playing . . . that keeps me in a flow, and creativity is creativity.”

Beasley is known for his wide-ranging jazz interests. He’s a musician who embraces the work of bebop piano ace Bud Powell, but who calls Herbie Hancock “the baddest cat who ever lived, a musician with imagination, soul, unbelievable natural technique and incredible harmonic concept.”

So it makes sense that the pianist would base his offerings on contemporary styles, like the ones that emerged when Hancock was playing with trumpeter Davis’ quintet in the mid-’60s. “For right now, my music is modern and highly melodic, but also harmonically intense when it needs to be,” he said during an interview in which he wore a T-shirt bearing the likeness of one of his heroes, alto saxophone giant Charlie Parker.

Asked what “modern” means to him, Beasley had a ready answer.

“Exploratory, on the edge, emotional, energized with intensity and swing, and with an East Coast feeling,” he said. “Composers have been writing stranger music than this for 100 years. It’s like I tell people in jazz appreciation classes, jazz is an acquired taste, and though it might be tough at first, if you stick with it, you’ll dig it and have a good time.”

Beasley will appear at the Baked Potato with a dynamic acoustic quartet that includes saxophonist Steve Tavaglione, bassist Bob Hurst and drummer Will Kennedy, who have collectively performed with Wynton and Branford Marsalis, the “Tonight Show” band, the Yellowjackets and Beasley.

He’ll pick his program from blues-oriented tunes, some Wayne Shorter and John Coltrane classics and he’ll play some of his newer works.

“There aren’t that many opportunities to lead a band for a month in L.A. and I want people to hear us, to be part of it,” he said. “This music is party music about the life that’s happening at this very moment.”

* John Beasley plays tonight (and May 14, 21, and 28), 9 p.m. to 1:30 a.m., at the Baked Potato, 3787 Cahuenga Blvd., North Hollywood. $10 cover, two-drink minimum. Information: (818) 980-1615.

Alone Together: Four of the best female jazz vocalists in our midst, collectively known as Alone Together, appear Friday at Chadney’s. The chanteuses are Cathy Segal-Garcia, Cheryl Barnes, Julie Kelly and Stephanie Haynes. If an evening of grand singing is what you are after, this will be hard to top. The women engage in four-part harmony and with ace intonation, to boot. Fine pianist Karen Hammack’s trio offers solid accompaniment.

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* Alone Together, Friday at Chadney’s from 9 p.m. to 1 a.m., 3000 W. Olive St., Burbank; no cover, one-drink minimum per show; (818) 843-5333.

Delightful Sound: Guitarist Doug MacDonald has a delicate sound that, coupled with his relaxed way of swinging, makes him a joy to hear. Catch him Monday, 9 p.m. to 1:30 a.m., at Jax, 339 N. Brand Blvd., Glendale; no cover, no minimum; (818) 500-1604.