[2] His grandfather, Rule Oliver, trombonist, for 50 years was a junior high school band director in Arkansas; his father, Rule Curtis Beasley, music educator, in 1963 won 1st prize in Composition at the Southeastern Composers League in Tuscaloosa, Alabama; his mother, Lida Beasley, brass instrumentalist, was a band director, conducted operas and taught music in various public schools and colleges.

[3] He approached music at the age of eight by studying piano, but in his teens, he played guitar, drums, saxophone, trumpet and oboe.

[4] Returning to piano and jazz, at the age of twenty he performed his first major concert at Carnegie Hall with Hubert Laws, John Patitucci and the drummer Joey Heredia.

In 1992 his debut album Cauldron, produced by Walter Becker, was released by Windham Hill.

[10][11][12][13] Pianist John Beasley won the 2021 Best Arrangement, Instrumental Or A Cappella Grammy Award on March 14, 2021, for his arrangement of Donna Lee performed by his big band, MONK'estra, from the album MONK'estra Plays John Beasley, on Mack Avenue Records.