B. Graff (b.graff@mailcity.com)
Tue, 05 Jan 1999 19:58:31 -0000
For the uninitiated, Bey's most prominent work was with Gary Bartz in the early 1970s, where he cut such classics as "Celestial Blues." I thought this would be of interest to some of y'all:
-----------------
http://www.washblade.com/point/981120a.htm#top
Andy Bey is passionately blue
by Harriet Schwartz
Some jazz observers are saying that Andy Bey has returned from some sort of exile with his new album, Shades of Bey (Evidence), but the singer and pianist claims he never left.
In fact, Bey says, his fans have supported him and his music without interruption -- the media, record companies, and club owners have been inconsistent.
Bey believes that his difficulties in the music industry transcend issues of race, sexual orientation, and health -- he is black, Gay, and HIV antibody positive -- and that they have more to do with his high degree of individualism.
"I'm a person who does things my way," Bey says. "I don't like being told how to sing or who to put in my band. I don't like the idea of being pushed into a certain kind of mold. That's what record companies and club owners do. They don't give you a chance to grow. They hear one good thing and they stick you in that [mold]. I've rebelled against that."
Bey has been making music since he first sat down behind a piano at age 3 and began hammering out tunes for his family. He played his first date at Harlem's famed Apollo Theater at age 12. Soon Bey began appearing on a variety of television shows, often performing with legends like Sarah Vaughan and Dinah Washington.
At age 18, Bey left school and joined with his sisters, Geraldine and Salome, to form a trio known as Andy and the Bey Sisters. They began playing Cotton Club-style revues, first in Miami and later in Tampa. They spent two years working in Europe and released three records before disbanding in 1966 after 10 years together. Bey subsequently did a two-year teaching stint in Graz, Austria, before returning to the United States to record his first solo album, Ballads, Blues & Bey (Evidence), in 1996.
And all along, Bey says, he did things his way, while indulging his passion for jazz.
"Sometimes it was difficult and painful," he says. "But it never stopped me from my passion."
Bey says that coming out as a Gay man, which he did publicly in 1994, has not had a negative impact on his career.
"For me mainly, it's been a liberation," he says. "It's been liberating to come out, not so much to prove anything, to flag-wave or be part of a cause. But it's helped me to be able to separate the real from the unreal. The people who didn't want to be bothered with me, they would know right up front, so, I could deal with that. They might say things behind [my] back but that doesn't matter. At least I'm not trying to hide."
Bey says he has sometimes felt that didn't fit into the macho jazz scene, where men often talk about "chasing women." On the other hand, he says, many of his contemporaries knew he was Gay.
"I knew all the cats on the scene -- the guys from the bebop era and the guys from the '50s," he says. "I used to sing with Horace Silver's band, and I sang with Gary band. And I sang with Max and with Frank Foster. I sang with Howard McGee -- some of the great musicians of the century. I sang with Chick Corea and Stanley Clarke -- recorded with them. A lot of them knew where I was coming from, but they always respected me as a musician."
Bey's new album, Shades of Bey, features a diverse group of songs chosen to showcase Bey's warm singing voice. He sings one song in Spanish, and plays piano on several others.
"The title is aptly put because it shows different sides of me," he says. "I think it's not pretentious. It was well-planned and well thought out. I'm blessed with an excellent producer. We respond to each other in many ways. He's responsible for a lot of the material … it was a back and forth thing with him sending me tapes of tunes and I'm sending him what I did to the tunes. In the studio it's very relaxing to work with a producer who interjects and knows what he wants but at the same time he lets the artist relax and take risks."
While his singing has been at the forefront of his performances, both live and recorded, Bey says that he would like to record a solo piano album. He realizes that this may be tantamount to throwing people a curve ball, but his determination remains steadfast.
"I never bowed down to anyone," he says. "I never asked for anyone's approval and I still don't. You respect yourself and you have passion about what you are doing. You don't have to have an attitude that they should accept you. If they do, cool, but if they don't it still should be cool."
Get your FREE Email at http://mailcity.lycos.com
Get your PERSONALIZED START PAGE at http://personal.lycos.com
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.0b3 on Tue Jan 05 1999 - 21:06:38 MET