Bey Area

Welcome to Tuesday and a 75th birthday tribute post for one of my all-time favorites in any genre: the one-of-a-kind vocalist, Andy Bey.

Andy is a serious rarity in the jazz world -- an openly gay musician since the 1970s -- and a pioneer. Throughout a 50 year career -- his first record, with his sisters as Andy & the Bey Sisters, came out in 1964 -- he's played piano and sang with countless luminaries and on some of the greatest jazz LPs of these last five decades. Howard McGhee, Max Roach, Horace Silver, and Gary Bartz have all featured him as their vocalist, and if you could sing like Andy they might have hired you too.

This guy is all over some of my fave records, that's for sure. What I have done over the course of yesterday was to delve into exactly this: his guest spots on the recordings of other people. This, to come up with a delicious, custom compilation for those who've never heard him or heard of him. Toss in a couple of his own cuts from his own records and you get a pretty tasty tape.

Andy Bey

Bey Area

1965-2000

01 The Show Has Begun - Horace Silver

02 Du (Rain) - Gary Bartz NTU Troop

03 Celestial Blues - Andy Bey

04 Dufus Rufus - Horace Silver

05 Feelin' Good - Andy & the Bey Sisters

06 Sing Me a Song Today - Gary Bartz NTU Troop

07 Butterfly Dreams - Stanley Clarke

08 Black Maybe - Gary Bartz NTU Troop

09 Members, Don't Git Weary - Max Roach

10 Uhuru Sasa - Gary Bartz NTU Troop

11 Who Has the Answer - Horace Silver

12 I Don't Care Who Knows It - Duke Pearson

13 Let the Music Take You - David Murray

14 Hibiscus - Andy Bey

15 Dear Lord - Gary Bartz

Total time: 1:17:52

495 MB FLAC/October 2014 archive link

This one came out great IMO, and came together rather easily once you discount getting 15 tunes from 14 different albums to sound remotely like they make up the same whole. Anyway it's a big deal, turning 75, so I wanted to mark the occasion with a suitable tribute to a stellar vocalist I truly dig, and I hope you'll pull this compilation down and celebrate accordingly... maybe someone who never heard him will get hip to Andy Bey -- born this day in 1939 -- and for me that's reason enough to put in the effort :)--J.