Apr 29, 2025 11:53 AM
Vocalist Andy Bey Dies at 85
Singer Andy Bey, who illuminated the jazz scene for five decades with a four-octave range that encompassed a bellowing…
Leroy Jenkins (left) and Billy Bang
(Photo: Courtesy of Arts for Art)New York-based Arts for Art, the presenters of the annual Vision Festival, held a holiday concert honoring violinists Billy Bang (1947–2011) and Leroy Jenkins (132–2007) on Dec. 4 with performances by Andrew Drury and Spontaneous River, a 15-piece string ensemble directed by violinist Jason Kao Hwang. The program, titled A Holiday Celebration, featured music composed by the honorees.
Hwang provided conduction and arrangements. The music was dynamic and was received by a small but enthusiastic audience.The performance was held at the Lowline Lab, in a portion of the old Essex Street Market in Lower Manhattan that is a prototype for an innovative underground park. The Lowline is a proposed one-acre green space to be supported by solar technology and designed to be created in an abandoned trolley terminal below Delancey Street.
The event was a fundraiser to help Match the Artist Campaign, whose theme is to honor those artists who have inspired us. Several photographers donated work of Bang and Jenkins and the photos are available at the Arts for Art website, www.artsforart.org/store/. DB
“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.”
Apr 29, 2025 11:53 AM
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