“It kind of slows down, but it’s still kind of productive in a way, because you have something that you can be inspired by,” Andy Bey said on a 2019 episode of NPR Jazz Night in America, when he was 80. “The music is always inspiring.”
(Photo: Steven Sussman)Apr 29, 2025 11:53 AM
Singer Andy Bey, who illuminated the jazz scene for five decades with a four-octave range that encompassed a bellowing baritone and a high-flying falsetto, died April 26 at the…
“To see him is still an experience,” Andy Bey said of Jimmy Scott. “Life force. Still blues-based, still a lot of soul.”
(Photo: Steven Sussman)Apr 29, 2025 11:24 AM
The soulful, supple, honeyed baritone of singer Andy Bey, placed at the service of a distinctive point of view, is one of the marvelous pleasures of the jazz scene. Evaluating peers and elders for his first “Blindfold Test,” Bey displayed an equally rigorous esthetic.
Nnenna Freelon
“Left Alone” (from Blueprint Of A Lady, Concord, 2005) Freelon, vocals; Brandon McCune, piano; Wayne Batchelor, bass; Kinah Boto, drums.
Nnenna Freelon. She did a whole record on Billie Holiday. Nnenna’s cool, and I liked some of the approaches, but a…
