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Gay Jazz Artists of Distinction (page 3)
by Robert Urban, January 2, 2006

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There are some famous (black) jazz players that are/were gay, but they never come out. It is linked to the black experience. Most black families are supportive of their kids if they are gay, but don't want them to ever be proud of it. It's a stereotype, but black people have been really inundated with heavy church guilt, and homosexuality is talked bad about even today there. Therefore, black people are judgmental of gays. That's why the black community and the gay community, even though they are both minority communities, never got together and supported each others' causes. Just my opinion. (when I'm talking about black people being judgmental, it is certainly not all, just an overall cultural norm, especially in the south and east coasts).

I was on the road for 14 years with Isaac Hayes band. After a couple of years, they figured what was up with me. I guess no one wanted to room with me, so after that I started getting my own room on the road. Not too shabby. It was a little lonely though.

After many years, I started getting resentful that everyone got to express themselves, and I wanted to express myself too. Can't say it was accepted very well. It seems the idea was I was accepted as long as I was completely quiet--they didn't want to hear about it. However, they were cool with me going off and finding a hookup. I hooked up in many countries. Sometimes the guy would still be hanging around the hotel the next day. I got stares mostly, the women in the band were jealous. (Brazil, Spain).

I’m from Memphis where gay musicians are way under, but after living in the bay area for 10 years, I've begun to assert myself as a gay man and expect it would be accepted--and it has.

There was a guy who found out about me and shunned me for years, but started calling me for gigs again. I was just over at his house the other day and he was asking me wardrobe questions like I was a fashion expert (queer eye?).

My best friend from Memphis used to be very nervous about it in fact. He was and is a great friend, but he would complain to me about his problems with his wife for hours. But I couldn't say anything about my situation--he didn't want to hear it. Then he went on the road with Kool and the Gang for 6 years, touring the world. After that, he was a different person, much more accepting and even new-agey.

I was mentored by a famous gay jazz artist, who was definitely not out. I won't even tell you who it was. He was East Coast, I was West Coast.”

One of the most openly gay performers in jazz is also one of its most respected elder statesmen – the legendary vocalist/pianist Andy Bey. His silky bass-baritone voice has been called "one of the finest instruments in jazz." After more than five decades of making music, the 64-year-old musician shows no signs of slowing and has garnered an ever-growing legion of fans across the globe.

Born and raised in Newark, NJ, Bey was exposed to jazz as a child and started singing in front of local audiences as early as eight. When he was just 12, he was already appearing as a vocalist and playing piano at Harlem’s legendary Apollo Theatre. Over the next 50 years, he has played with such jazz greats as Sarah Vaughan, Dinah Washington, Horace Silver, Max Roach and Lonnie Liston Smith.

One of very few major jazz artists to do so, Bey came out publicly in the early 90s. As he has stated in a recent Seattle Gay News interview “I think it’s important for anyone to eventually come out and deal with it. If you’re holding onto something, a secret, you have to deal with the possibility of being caught. I think when everybody knows, you can separate the real from the unreal and go on with your life”.

Bey has also gained notoriety for speaking out about being a gay man and HIV positive. Even when he became positive, he still felt it was important to liberate himself sexually, especially in order to stay focused on his music. He often speaks of the transformational power he gained from the devastating pain of being HIV positive.

One of the great interpreters of the “conversational” style of classic jazz, Bey is a master at fusing melody and lyrics via his wide vocal range and full-bodied voice.

As writer David Ritz has said of Bey: “By personalizing every song, by infusing both words and music with their idiosyncratic character, the great singers become great composers. They rewrite the standards, casting themselves in the lead roles of startling new dramas. Few singers have that gift. Bey has it in abundance.”

In the 1950s and 1960s, Bey toured Europe for 16 months and recorded three albums. In the 1960s and 1970s, his vocals and anti-Vietnam war themed original lyrics were featured in music by jazz leaders Max Roach, Duke Pearson, and Gary Bartz.

Bey’s prodigious output on recordings continued with the 1993 hard bop mainstream styled It's Got to Be Funky; the highly successful 1996 Ballads, Blues and Bey; the intimate and exploratory Shades of Bey in 1998; and Tuesdays in Chinatown in 2001. American Song, his most recent release, followed in early 2004. This contemplative, softly-swinging collection of classic torch song gems by iconic jazz composers includes such delicious chestnuts as: “Satin Doll”, It’s Only a Paper Moon” and “Speak Low”. Bey breathes new life into them all.

Of special interest to gay listeners on American Song is Bey’s inclusion of works by Ellington’s gay co-composer Billie Strayhorn, especially Bey’s insightful interpretation of the delightfully cosmopolitan gay lyrics of Strayhorn’s beloved “Lush Life”.

Get more information at andy-bey.com, cdbaby.com/cd/paralic, davidcoss.com,
and cdbaby.com/cd/benflint

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