Within the vast spectrum of gay musical talent, gay jazz musicians comprise a truly unique breed. Although gays are renowned worldwide for their abilities in musical entertainment in all its many forms, standard traditional jazz, (especially in its non-piano and non-vocal instrumental forms) has relatively few openly gay practitioners. Even in today’s post-stonewall era, many of the few jazz instrumental musicians and singers who are gay remain willingly closeted.

In this article, AfterElton.com highlights four American gay “working” jazz musical artists of distinction who honor the art in its traditional popular form: Drew Paralic, David Coss, Ben Flint, and Andy Bey.

NYC-based gay jazz composer Drew Paralic has released two CDs: Blue Passion and Too Little, Too Late. Together they offer Drew’s own style of instrumental, small-band type compositions, favoring acoustic instruments over electric. His is a cool, laid-back, soft bebop reminiscent of the 1940s and 1950s.  His CDs are recorded simply and clearly, featuring performances by professional NYC area jazzmen.

The Brooklyn-born, award-winning musician Drew composes via the piano, which he has been playing for over 20 years now. His heroes include Bill Evans and Thelonious Monk. With the Real Book as his Bible, Drew tends more towards standards and the blues.

Many of Drew’s works feature the traditional opening head, followed by improvisation, then a recapitulation back to the opening musical statement. All in all his writing displays a variety of tempos, instrumentations and arrangements from track to track. His friendly sound makes for pleasant background music for dinner parties, intimate affairs, or even informal conversation.

Born in Southern California, David Coss discovered his penchant for a tune at the young age of eleven playing acoustic guitar in a youth folk group. His formal introduction to jazz came from his high school jazz teacher in the suburbs of Seattle.

Of his youth David says, “I did listen to all the great Motown, disco and a lot of cool 80’s bands, but found that the rhythm of a swing tune, the sensitive lyrics of a ballad and the colorful harmonies found in jazz really spoke to me.”

After college, a move to New York’s Greenwich Village found David at the epicenter of jazz. He remembers, “It was scary but fun moving to New York. I didn’t know anyone but felt quite at home at the many jazz haunts that were right outside by door. Old timers like the late Al Bundy, who played piano at Arthur’s Tavern for thirty years, would always invite me up to sing. I became part of a big jazz family that made me feel as if I belonged. As a result, I’ve met many of New York’s finest vocalists and musicians”.

David was working his day job at NYC’s jazz-oriented Garage Restaurant, when he got his big break as a professional jazz singer. As he recounts it in a recent All About Jazz webzine interview: “One day [singer/pianist] Dena DeRose and [saxophonist] Virginia Mayhew were playing. They knew I wanted to sing and they invited me up to do a tune.” The manager was impressed, raved to the owners and, in classic discovery fashion, suggested to them that I sing on Sunday nights, which he’s been doing ever since”.

These days, David performs every Sunday at his home base, and also books jazz for the same room he has performed in for nine years now. Patrons sometimes compare Coss’ singing to Mel Torme or Chet Baker. Currently joining him on most Sundays from 8 to midnight are legendary pianist Harry Whitaker, Rob Garcia on drums and Roy Sebastian on bass.

David boasts, “They’re great musicians and wonderful people. We do all your favorite standards and we try to keep things fresh.”

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