Andy Bey
Andy Bey (* 28 October 1939 in Newark (New Jersey) as Andrew W. Bey ) is an American jazz singer and pianist.
Live and act
Andy Bey came into contact with jazz at an early age; at the age of eight he already had a gig with the saxophonist Hank Mobley . Bey was only thirteen when his first solo album was released in 1952, Mama's Little Boy's Got the Blues ; At 17 he founded a trio called Andy and The Bey Sisters with his sisters Salome and Geraldine Bey . The group went on a 16-month tour of Europe; Recordings with Kenny Dorham , Barney Wilen and Kenny Clarke (“Scoubidou” / “Smooth Sailing”) were made in Paris . The trio then recorded a few records and two albums for Prestige ( Now! Hear!, With Kenny Burrell ) and one for RCA in the early 1960s . In 1967 the group separated.
In the late 1960s and 1970s Andy Bey worked as a singer with Max Roach , Duke Pearson ("Sanala Dela"), Stanley Clarke ( Children of Forever , 1973) and Gary Bartz , for whom he also wrote lyrics on the Vietnam War and racial discrimination wrote. In 1972 he sang Stevie Wonder's "Black Maybe" in Gary Bartz ' Ntu Troop ( Juju Street Songs ).
Bey then recorded the Indian spiritual influenced album Experience and Judgment for Atlantic in 1970 and began a lengthy collaboration with pianist Horace Silver , who assisted him on some of his religious-themed albums by including Bay's music in the 1970s and 80s The Silveto label was brought in, but without any major commercial success. In 1982 he worked with Pharoah Sanders ("Heart Is a Meloday of Time").
Bey continued his collaboration with Silver in the 1990s; So he worked in 1993 on his Columbia album It's Got to Be Funky . From then on, Bey returned to hardbop mainstream-oriented music and thus had more audience response. In 1991 Bey was a guest singer on David Murray's big band production David Murray Big Band Conducted by Lawrence "Butch" Morris . He was also heard on Fred Hersch's album Plays the Music of Billy Strayhorn (1995).
In 1994 Andy Bey, who is gay, was diagnosed with HIV . Nevertheless, he continued his career. In the late 90s, Bey recorded several albums for the small labels Jazzette, Zagreb and Evidence, such as Ballads, Blues and Bey in 1996 , followed by Shades of Bey (1998) and Tuesdays in Chinatown in 2001, where he - outside of jazz singing - songs a. a. interpreted by Nick Drake and Milton Nascimento . His album American Song was released in early 2004 , with songs from the Great American Songbook such as Ellington's Caravan and Strayhorn's Lush Life .
Alex Henderson called Andy Bey in Allmusic "one of the great unsung heroes of vocal jazz; Bey is an outstanding interpreter of lyrics with a wide range and a powerful, full voice. Rob Theakson compared him - also in Allmusic - with Gil Scott-Heron and Roy Ayers .
Discographic notes
- Now! Hear! (Prestige, 1964) with Jerome Richardson , Kenny Burrell
- Round Midnight (Prestige, 1965) with Burrell, Milt Hinton , Osie Johnson
- Experience and Judgment ( Atlantic Records , 1970)
- Ballads, Blues and Bey (Evidence, 1996)
- Chillin 'with Andy Bey (solo, minor music 2003)
- American Song (2004, 12th Street)
- Ain't Necessarily So (2007, 12th Street)
- The World According to Andy Bey (2014)
Web links / sources
- Down Beat Artists Profile ( Memento from July 9, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
- All music
Individual evidence
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Bey, Andy |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Bey, Andrew |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American jazz singer and pianist |
| DATE OF BIRTH | October 28, 1939 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Newark |