Jean Beauvoir

Jean Beauvoir
Born Chicago, Illinois, USA
Genres Rock, hard rock, pop rock
Instruments Vocals, guitar, bass, keyboards, synthesizer, piano, drums
Years active 1978–present
Labels Columbia Records
Interscope Records
Virgin Records
Now & Then Records
Voodoo Island Records
Frontiers Records
Avex
Associated acts Crown of Thorns, Voodoo X, The Plasmatics, The Ramones, Little Steven, Kiss, N'SYNC
Website Official website

Jean Beauvoir is an American singer, bassist, guitarist, multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, producer and entertainment executive.

Biography

Beauvoir was born in Chicago to parents of Haitian background. He played drums as a child and switched to bass as a teenager. He was Gary U.S. Bonds' musical director at age 14; following this, he sang in the doo wop group The Flamingos. He gained his first music experiences with these groups touring the US performing at Dick Clark revival concerts.[1] He moved to New York City during the punk rock explosion and answered a newspaper ad for a bassist, which led to his joining The Plasmatics for two albums. While with the Plasmatics and subsequently, Beauvoir sported a conspicuous blond mohawk.

He left the group after their release Beyond the Valley of 1984 to join Steve Van Zandt's Little Steven & the Disciples of Soul for two albums. Following this, he launched a solo career with the album Drums Along the Mohawk, released in the U.K. on Virgin Records in 1986. That same year, the track "Feel the Heat" was chosen by Sylvester Stallone for his film, Cobra.[1] The song was a hit, charting Top 10 across Europe and Australia and reaching No. 73 on the Billboard Hot 100.[2] On the strength of the single, Drums Along the Mohawk was released in the U.S. and peaked at No. 93 on the Billboard 200.[3] Jean Beauvoir's success has always been much greater in the rest of the world than in the US.

Beauvoir released several further solo albums since the late 1980s. Since then he has also written, produced for, and performed with acts such as Kiss, John Waite, Ramones, Nona Hendryx, The Pretenders, Deborah Harry, Lionel Richie, Doro and N'SYNC. He has appeared on over 100 albums over the past two decades. He has also fronted the bands Voodoo X and Crown of Thorns, which was originally signed to Interscope Records for a much publicized record breaking deal. Both these hard rock groups have achieved significant success in the rest of the world. Beauvoir has earned a multitude of Platinum and Gold awards for his work in the US and abroad.

In addition to his film music work with Sylvester Stallone, his credit list includes the title tracks or theme songs for the movies Pet Semetary from Stephen King's novel, Wes Craven’s blockbuster Shocker, Flawless (with Robert De Niro), School of Rock (with Jack Black), Christmas with the Kranks (with Tim Allen, Jamie Lee Curtis and Dan Aykroyd), The Guilty (with Bill Pullman), Rock 'n' Roll High School Forever, Berlin Nights (with Gabriela Tscherniack), RV (with Robin Williams) and Unthinkable (with Samuel Jackson).

Beauvoir founded and serves as CEO/President of Voodoo Island Entertainment Group whose divisions included Voodoo Island Records and Voodoo Island Productions. Over the course of his professional career, he has created joint venture partnerships with industry veterans such as Richard Branson, Al Teller, Ted Fields, Jimmy Iovine, Gene Simmons, Paul Stanley, and Lou Pearlman. Beauvoir is also the founder and CEO/President of Hot Boy Music and Tigre Noire Music. Beauvoir’s worldwide music catalogue contains over 250 published titles currently administered by Rondor/Universal.

For 6 1⁄2 years, Jean served as CEO/Managing Director of Steven Van Zandt’s media and entertainment company, Renegade Nation, whose operations include terrestrial and Sirius XM Satellite radio programming, live event and television production, record label operations, music licensing, merchandising and an online social networking venture.

Beauvoir was responsible for all aspects of Renegade Nation’s initiatives, which included the programming, management of staff, and coordination of two 24/7 Channels on Sirius XM Satellite, “Outlaw Country” and “Little Steven’s Underground Garage”. Negotiation of all agreements with artists, talent agents, managers, record companies, TV networks e.g., ESPN and VH1, retail outlets e.g., Best Buy and FYE, worldwide music distributors, brands/sponsors including Pepsi, AT&T, Dunkin Donuts, Rolling Rock, Budweiser, Hard Rock International, Olympus and others…

Beauvoir oversaw all events executed by Renegade in coordination with Steven Van Zandt including, Hard Rock/Underground Garage concerts and events, ESPN and Underground Garage New Year’s Eve in Times Squares NY, broadcast on ABC, Hawaiian Tropic weekly events in Times Square, Honda Grand Prix/Underground Garage in St Petersburg Florida, UG at SXSW, Teen Vogue at the Hard Rock and all UG national tours including the “Rolling Rock and Roll Tour” sponsored by Rolling Rock and AT&T.

He also negotiated personal agreements for Steven Van Zandt e.g., Lilyhammer, World Of Warcraft (TV commercial), IMG and others.

Beauvoir continues to produce, write and lead his group Crown of Thorns. Crown of Thorns re-released their 2008 CD "Faith" on June 9, 2009 here in the US through Lost Cathedral Sony Red.

He continues to write and produce for other Artists, his most recent successes are with the Artist "Jonghyun" January 2015, EP "Base", who reached #1 on the Billboard World Album Charts, #1 iTunes World Album Chart and #1 on multiple charts around the world. "Vivi Jiang" (Fashion Show) #15 Global Pop Charts China April, 2013 and with the SHINEE mini album "Everybody" which was number #1 on multiple charts across ASIA as of October 15, 2013, #5 US iTunes and #2 Billboard World Charts in November 2013.

2014 - Beauvoir was Executive Producers of a "Hit" Television show for SBS Discovery Television featuring the comedian "Kristian Valen", he also released an album "American Trash" worldwide through the label Frontiers Records with Micki Free under the project name Beauvoir/Free in June 2015.

May 2015, Beauvoir was recruited as US CEO of the Norwegian children's animated property, City of Friends. The internationally successful company has released 52 HD episodes plus Christmas and Halloween specials in over 200 countries around the world. The company also boasts an extensive merchandising/product line, 42 books released to date, apps, an arena live show and is currently working on an upcoming film.

In 2016 it was disclosed that Beauvoir would appear at the three-day Rockingham 2016 melodic/hard rock festival, held in Nottingham, United Kingdom. He appeared on Saturday 22 October, sixth in a seven-act line-up headlined by Steelheart.[4]

Beauvoir serves on the advisory boards of the Naples Film Festival (NIFF) and also AMB, Academy of Music and Business (created by songwriter Andreas Carlsson).

Discography

The Plasmatics

Solo

Crown of Thorns

Voodoo X

Beauvoir-Free

Productions, songwriting and performances

References

  1. 1 2 Jean Beauvoir at Allmusic
  2. ↑ Billboard Singles, Allmusic.com
  3. ↑ Billboard, Allmusic.com
  4. ↑ "rockinghamlive.com/#lineup". rockinghamlive.com. Retrieved 2016-08-09.

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 10/25/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.