Jeff Beal
Jeff Beal ( born June 20, 1963 in Hayward, California) is playing an American composer and jazz musician, trumpet and flugelhorn. His works are characterized by a mixture of improvisation and composition.
Life and work
Beals parents both grew up with house music, his mother learned to play piano as a child. At a school assembly, the students musical instruments were introduced, of which Beal chose the trumpet as his instrument at the age of 8 years. His grandmother Irene was recognized pianist, professional silent film accompanist and also a fan of jazz music. About Beal she learned the music of Miles Davis and Gil Evans know. At age 16 he wrote his first jazz trumpet concerto for the Oakland Youth Orchestra. Later he studied composition and trumpet at the Eastman School of Music and graduated in 1985 with a bachelor's degree. During his studies he was awarded by the jazz magazine Down Beat 11 students with awards for his recordings as a jazz trumpeter, composer and arranger.
Beals debut album Liberation was published in 1987 by Iceland Records. Two years later came his first film score, for the film Cheapshots out. It was followed by further music for film and television. In 2000, Beal won more attention for his work with the Oscar-winning film Pollock by Ed Harris. In subsequent years, Beal was primarily recorded with his music to television series successes of several nominations for the Emmy Awards, including three for the Rome series (2006 and 2007) and most recently for the TV movie Loving Leah (2009), he won it once in the category " Outstanding theme music " for the Monk series and twice in the category "Original Dramatic Score " for Nightmares & Dreamscapes: Battle Ground and The Company.
Beal has still written chamber music works; his Concerto for Jazz Bass and Orchestra was written for John Patitucci, who recorded it. For Dave Samuels Marimba Concerto he wrote one. His Clarinet Concerto was interpreted, among others, Eddie Daniels and Paquito D' Rivera.
He was named as one of " 20 to be observed creatives" in 2001 by the magazine Variety.
He currently lives with his wife Joan Sapiro Beal ( soprano ) and his son Henry in Southern California.
He has been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis