About Us

Soulful singer/guitarist Virginia Rose, once introduced by MC Cooper Talbot as one of the most honest performers she knows, began her musical career touring for several years with songwriter extraordinaire Pat MacDonald and went on to perform with noted Madison musicians including Bob Schmidtke and Clyde Stubblefield. She has also performed at the Willy Street Fair and numerous Madison venues over the years. Virginia covers rhythm guitar and co-writes the EB songs, expressively telling stories with her lyrics and melodies. She also loves to dance!

The Original Groove Drummer, Jon French, toured extensively in the early ‘70’s throughout Europe, Asia, and North America with the soul group The Impressions. He also toured with Curtis Mayfield’s live band and can be seen covering the drums on the live video for the megahit “Freddie’s Dead” on YouTube. That circa 1973 performance has garnered over 2.5 million views since 2007. (See https://youtu.be/Z9nwcpGZE6A?feature=shared). Jon continued to play and tour the Midwest over the years with top musicians, including Freddie King. He eventually moved to Madison, Wisconsin, and continues to lay down his seminal grooves with Essensual BeatZ.

Bass player Ted “Funkmaster” Hawkins began as a guitarist, learning his first chords from Muddy Waters, a family friend, at the age of 8. Ted went on to perform on guitar and bass with B.B. King, Bobby Rush, Anita Baker, Rufus, KoKo Taylor, The Emotions, The Temptations, and Curtis Mayfield. Ted writes songs and performs with numerous groups and as a solo act. The Funkmaster makes any tune danceable with his infectious bass lines.

Guitarist Mark Nelson began playing guitar at the age of 14, after learning keyboards and drums. He went on to address an eclectic array of styles including jazz, rock, funk, folk, classical, blues, hip-hop, and fusion. Mark produces beats and contributes most of the harmonic framework for the original Essensual BeatZ compositions. His guitar solos incorporate fast runs as well as legato passages. In the meantime, Mark loves to groove with the drums and bass while supporting Virginia’s vocals.