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After
a twenty two year absence from recording Andy Bey returned with four
albums that have become a permanent part of the musical landscape.
The 2005
Grammy Nominated American Song is a delicious
celebration of one of
America’s great gifts to the music world: The American Songbook. On
his new
release Ain’t Necessarily So Bey brings the energy of
live performance to
compositions by the gods of American Songwriting. Insiders have
always known
about Andy Bey. Given his limited output of studio recordings, live
performances
were the source of Bey’s reputation as singer. Aretha Franklin
reminisces about
the nights when Andy and The Bey Sisters worked the Village in New
York:
“Soon as I finished my gig I’d run over to hear them. Andy never
got the
recognition he deserved . . . jazz originals . . . brilliant and
precious.” Like the
playground legend who never made it to the NBA, Andy Bey was almost
consigned to the fading murmurs of those who caught him in Paris in
‘59, or
Birdland in the mid ‘60s. There are few left who remember when Lena,
Nina and
Carmen crowded into Harlem’s Shalimar to hear Bey light it up. That
tantalizing
footage of Andy Bey and his sisters delighting a crowd of Parisian
partygoers in
the Chet Baker documentary Let’s Get Lost, gives us a clue of
the years of
brilliance that were never committed to vinyl. One can only imagine
what we’ve
missed. But, we have been blessed with four records that have
changed how we
think of Jazz vocals. Decades intervened between those after hours
below the
radar sessions and the 1996 recordings presented on Ain’t
Necessarily So. But
the vivid performances haven’t dimmed. Like so many before him,
British vocalist
Jamie Cullum described what it’s like to fall under Bey’s spell:
“Andy Bey was at
Ronnie Scott’s and I saw him six nights in a row. I got into a huge
amount of debt
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going to see Andy Bey. What I love about him is that he creates an
atmosphere.
As soon as he opens his mouth, you’re transported to another place.”
A recording of standards has become the default option for artists
in search of an
audience or a late career boost. A new cadre of singers has been
anointed
keepers of the Songbook flame. But as The New Yorker observed, the
proof is in
the listening: “The “jazz vocal section of your record store is
probably dominated
by young white singers , but Andy Bey an African-American veteran
has made
this year’s record to beat.” Andy Bey’s live performance, on
Ain’t Necessarily
So makes the point that the best performers raise the
standards by drawing more
from a
song than the obvious. At 67 Andy Bey is one of the last major
performers
with a personal connection to the era. But he refuses to be bound by
precedent.
He invests these eight songs with an accumulation of musical
sensibilities that
make them sound as if they were born yesterday. The songs may be
standards,
but the interpretations are by no means routine. As People magazine
confirmed
“American song has met an American Master. “
The release of an Andy Bey recording is a cause for celebration.
During the last
five decades Bey’s deeply engaging four octave baritone voice has
taken on the
character of a musical instrument. Was that a bowed bass or a ship’s
horn
through the fog? An Alto flute or cascading water? Since the
critical acclaim
surrounding the release of Ballads, Blues and Bey in
1996, much attention has
been paid to the fact that Andy Bey did not record as a leader for
over two
decades. His absence was, as Newsday put it, “like having Ella
Fitzgerald take a
vow of silence.” But the truth is that Mr. Bey did not aspire to
be a star, he strove
to be an artist. And he has actively engaged in cultivating and
manifesting his gift
during his entire lifetime. Bey approaches the discipline like the
great musician
he is. But, his performances are more than musical exercises. Frank
Wess says
“What’s special about Andy Bey is that he knows how to tell the
story.” Al Pryor in
Jazziz wrote that Bey "reminds us of how emotionally powerful the
great
American song can be.” Bey’s four albums since his reemergence
have become
legend.
Andy Bey has been hailed as a cultural phenomenon, and has been
applauded
by the tastemakers of contemporary music. From Pharrell Williams to
Mos Def,
and Jamie Cullum, Andy Bey has become an icon for the next
generation, many
of whom attend his performances not only for the pure pleasure, but
also for
enlightenment at the feet of a master.
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