Mar 4, 2025 1:29 PM
Changing of the Guard at Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra
On October 23, Ted Nash – having toured the world playing alto, soprano and tenor saxophone, clarinet and bass…
“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)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 Actors Fund Home in Englewood, New Jersey. He was 85. His death was announced by his nephew, actor/singer Darius de Haas.
Bey began his long artistic life as a child prodigy singing in the family group Andy and the Bey Sisters (Salome Bey and Geraldine Bey de Haas). He later worked as a sideman with jazz stars Gary Bartz, Horace Silver, Stanley Clarke and Max Roach, among others. Bey’s career as a leader is documented on such albums as his 1974 Indian-influenced debut, Experience And Judgement, and his 1996 recording Ballads, Blues & Bey, which drew critical acclaim as his breakout recording and established him as major jazz vocalist after years of obscurity. Bey’s album American Song garnered him a 2005 Grammy nomination for Best Jazz Vocal Album. His final two projects, The World According To Andy Bey and Pages From An Imaginary Life (released in 2013 and 2014, respectively), represented the zenith of his musical style, which usually featured Bey accompanying himself at the piano, interpreting American standards repertoire and the work of pop artists like Nick Drake.
Born in Newark, New Jersey, on Oct. 28, 1939, Andrew W. “Andy” Bey started playing piano at age 3. He attended Newark Arts High School and performed at the Apollo Theater. In the mid-’50, he worked on the television show Startime Kids, which also featured singer-actress Connie Francis and actor Joe Pesci. Bey recorded three LPs with his siblings between 1961 and 1965 for the RCA Victor and Prestige labels: Andy And The Bey Sisters, Now! Hear! and ’Round Midnight. Bey and his sisters embarked on a 16-month tour of Europe before disbanding in 1967. Influenced by Billie Holiday, Billy Eckstine and Sarah Vaughan, Bey’s vocals were heard on Horace Silver’s hard-bop oriented LPs That Healin’ Feelin’: The United States Of Mind/Phase 1 and Music To Ease Your Disease, Gary Bartz’s Afro-themed Harlem Bush Music recordings, Stanley Clarke’s fusion-formed Children Of Forever, Max Roach’s martial classic Members Don’t Get Weary and Bey’s own seminal recording from 1974, Experience And Judgment, featuring his composition “Celestial Blues.”
As Ballads, Blues And Bey established the virtuoso vocalist as a force to be reckoned with, Bey’s quiet yet dignified battle as an HIV-positive, openly gay man in the ’90s and beyond drew legions of admirers in and beyond the world of jazz. His awards and accolades include winning the 2003 Jazz Vocalist of the Year Award from the Jazz Journalists Association and NPR’s 2014 Jazz Critics Poll award for Best Vocal Album for Pages From An Imaginary Life.
While musicians in their octogenarian years frequently show signs of slowing down, Bey represented the opposite of that notion. “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,” he said on a 2019 episode of NPR Jazz Night in America, when he was 80. “The music is always inspiring.”
Bey is survived by his sister Geraldine de Haas and many nieces and nephews. A memorial celebration of his life and musical legacy is being planned. DB
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