Fritz Myers
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Jeff Beal can be the difference between your favorite show being a runaway success or dead on arrival. And on Saturday, Feb. 21, the New Yorker will make the trek to North Texas to lead the Jeff Beal Quartet at Windmills in The Colony.
Even those unfamiliar with Beal by name have likely encountered his work. The prolific composer, known for his contributions to television, film and classical arrangements, has put music to the loss and anxiety parents feel over a missing child (All Her Fault); conjured the cinematic imperial grandeur of ancient civilizations (Rome); and prepped audiences for wheeling and dealing in Washington D.C. (House of Cards). Even the theme from the first season of Monk can be attributed to Beal (from the second season on, the show used Randy Newman’s “It’s a Jungle Out There”).
Like any good film and TV composer, Beal can come in late in the creative process, see what works about a project, and accentuate that through the music. He has written more than 150 scores throughout his career without repeating himself ad nauseam. His efforts have been rewarded with five Emmys (and steady employment, the ultimate goal of most modern artists).
“House of Cards was wonderful because I was brought in at the script stage even before they started shooting,” Beal tells the Observer. “So I was able to have a meeting with David Fincher and talk creative, but that is pretty rare.”
On the opposite end of the spectrum, he says, was his work on All Her Fault, which made waves when it first aired on Peacock last year. Beal was one of the last people brought in on the project; not only were the scripts already written, but the show had already been shot and edited. The only thing missing was music.
Sarah Snook, who won an Emmy and two Golden Globes for her portrayal of Shiv on HBO’s breakout drama Succession, leads the new Peacock original.
”That’s a different type of pressure, because the show was obviously good, and in that case it was, ‘Well, don’t screw it up and see if you can make it better.’”
Reader, we can confirm he did, in fact, make it even better.
”What I try to do with anything is to bring out whatever is there that’s working, that’s strong,” Beal says. “Because if you play to whatever you can see… there’s something to fall in love with and at least invest in. That’s how it works.”
As much as he enjoys spending time on a soundstage recording tracks for the next great hit of the streaming era, the Windmills show is a special occasion for Beal. It takes him back to his first love: the jazz trumpet. He got his start doing solo records as a jazz trumpeter; he stumbled into film when he met the team behind a movie called Cheap Shots, and they asked him to compose a score.
Playing in a more intimate venue also allows for a more playful approach to the music. If they feel so compelled, Beal and his compatriots are able to play off one another and take the tune for a walk. The goal, Beal says, is to never feel like you are just playing from memory; you need to be in the moment.
“I really feel like the jazz part of my voice as a composer and a player… informs everything I do,” he says. “That sense of play and improvisation is something that I try to bring to all the work.”
And to top it all off, one of the people joining Beal at Windmills will be his son, Henry Beal, a jazz bassist local to Dallas. The band, also featuring Dave Meder and Parker Sibley, will not only play through a selection of Jeff’s oeuvre, but some of Henry’s compositions as well. Beal says that, as a father, the opportunity to fully share a stage with his son and embrace him as a peer is special. They have played together in the past, with Henry featuring on some of his dad’s scores, but the Windmills show will mark their first time putting on a show together.
After Windmills, Beal intends to stay busy through the rest of 2026. In March, he will release his next album, New York Etudes, Vol. II, while a documentary he scored that covers the life and legacy of Rod Serling, creator of The Twilight Zone, will play at SXSW the same month.
More live shows are likely on the docket as well, but none of them will have the draw of seeing Beal in concert with his son for the first time.
That’s just for Dallas.
Tickets for the Jeff Beal Quartet’s show at Windmills (5755 Grandscape Blvd, The Colony) are available now.
