Jazz Articles about Andy Bey

Meet Andy Bey

by Chris M. Slawecki
July 4, 2020

From the 1995-2003 archive: This article first appeared at All About Jazz in February 2000. Listening for the first time to Andy Bey is like stepping into a quiet, still lake. Your foot first parts a surface that's smooth and tranquil, but you can't really tell from that surface how deeply your foot must go to reach bottom. The first time you hear Bey's delicate yet muscular voice alone, accompanied only by his own piano, or in larger ...

John Sneider: The Scrapper

by Jack Bowers
March 18, 2020

If you expected a trumpeter whose nickname is “Scrapper" to come out swinging on his first album as leader in twenty years, give yourself a gold star and a hearty pat on the back. That is precisely the modus operandi on The Scrapper, wherein New York-based John Sneider leads a first-rate quintet through its paces on what in many respects seems like a homecoming, as everyone save tenor saxophonist Joel Frahm was present and accounted for on Sneider's earlier recording ...

We Grow Accustomed to the Dark

by Mary Foster Conklin
November 25, 2019

This early November broadcast includes new releases from vocalists Andrea Superstein, Marsha Bartenetti, Ben Sidran and pianist Julia Hulsmann with birthday shout outs to guitarist Amanda Monaco, trumpeter Clifford Brown, pianist Dawn Clement, plus vocalists Ethel Waters, Andy Bey, Jay Clayton, Carmen Lundy, Kurt Elling, K.D. Lang, Julie Kelly and Sarah Partridge, among others. Playlist Pam Fleming Fearless Dreamer “Keep It Movin" from Buds (Infinite Room RPM) 00:00 Sarah Partridge “At Seventeen" from Bright Lights and Promises (Origin) ...

48th Annual Pitt Jazz Seminar

by Mackenzie Horne
November 18, 2018

48th Annual Pitt Jazz Seminar Various Venues Pittsburgh, PA November 1-3, 2018 The Pitt Jazz Seminar took place the first weekend of Novenmber under the musical direction of Terri Lyne Carrington; Thursday, Friday, and early Saturday were packed with guest lectures while the all-star concert was scheduled for 7:30 on Saturday evening. Sean Jones and Reginald Veal were facilitating a lecture on community outreach in the Hill District, the historic cradle of Pittsburgh jazz, at ...

Andy Bey: Ain't Necessarily So

by Chris M. Slawecki
May 18, 2008

The supple, nurturing hands and voice of pianist/vocalist Andy Bey generally dispenses most music in two flavors, either a ballad or a blues. This live recording during Bey's first headline appearance at the world famous jazz hotspot Birdland continues his series of albums with producer Herb Jordan, who like most listeners, remains amazed at Bey's subtle musicianship: “He approaches chord changes and rhythm in a way that many others just do not. He finds harmonic subtleties that escape many singers."

Andy Bey: Ain't Necessarily So

by Martin Longley
January 8, 2008

Singer Andy Bey is less well known as a pianist, but nowadays he leads his trio from the piano stool, his instrumental wanderlust having an equal capacity to his voice for taking a saunter down the less familiar alleyways. This live album was recorded a decade back at Birdland, in what was effectively Bey's first significant New York residency as a leader. He's joined by bassist Peter Washington and drummer Kenny Washington on most of the numbers, with sticksman Vito ...

Andy Bey: Ain't Necessarily So

by C. Michael Bailey
November 1, 2007

Andy Bey is the finest male jazz vocalist performing today. This may stick a finger in the eye of such talent as Kurt Elling or Mark Murphy, both contemporaries chronologically opposed; but both of these artists readily acknowledge the immense talent of Bey.

He is no young lion exploding out of the woods from the dark. Bey has been performing since the mid-1960s when he debuted with Now, Hear (Prestige, 1964). He recorded sporadically through 1970, ...