Jazz Articles about Andy Bey

like 423

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 ...

like 391

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, ...

like 179

Andy and the Bey Sisters: 'Round Midnight

by David Rickert
September 6, 2007

One of the best things about all of the limited edition series out there is that occasionally an obscure oddity gets released. Not necessarily a record that people have sought after, but more like one that many never even knew existed and thus never clamored for its release.

Such is the case with 'Round Midnight, recorded in 1965 and one of only three records that Andy and the Bey Sisters made. Andy, Salome, and Geraldine Bey were siblings ...

like 337

Andy Bey: American Song

by Russ Musto
May 21, 2004

The Great American Songbook has rarely been treated to a reading as beautiful as the one the masterful Andy Bey delivers on his newest disc. Bey’s deep dark baritone voice and deliciously deliberate diction breathe new life into ten of America’s most beloved standards, distinctively arranged by Geri Allen. Accompanying himself on piano, Bey is able to regulate the tempo of each piece for optimum dramatic effect, and his bandmates—guitarist Paul Meyers, bassist Kiyoshi Kitagawa, drummer Mark McLean and a ...

like 196

Andy Bey & the Bey Sisters: Andy Bey & the Bey Sisters

by Mathew Bahl
December 1, 2000

Andy Bey's two rapturously received late '90s CDs, Ballads, Blues & Bey and Shades of Bey, were seen as something of a reinvention for the singer/pianist whose work over the previous 25 years, nearly all as a guest vocalist on other artists' albums, had been more than a little on the esoteric side. However, Prestige's current reissue, Andy Bey & the Bey Sisters, suggests that Mr. Bey's move to the mainstream of jazz singing was actually a return to his ...

like 284

Andy Bey: Experience and Judgement

by Larry Grogan
April 1, 1999

When Andy Bey's 1996 album, 'Blues Ballads and Bey' appeared on the scene, the first impression was of a genius, cut from whole cloth. Like Kaspar Hauser, he appeared as if from nowhere, fully formed. But Andy Bey was no newcomer. He had a recording and performing history that stretched back almost 40 years. He recorded as a child prodigy, then with his sisters in Salome and Geraldine, and after they parted ways in the mid-60's he recorded with Duke ...

like 276

Andy Bey: Shades of Bey

by Robert Spencer
December 1, 1998

On Shades of Bey, his latest Evidence release, Andy Bey's voice smolders and flashes, and burns with a quiet fire. Continuing the intimate atmosphere he so memorably established on the piano/vocal Ballads, Blues, and Bey, he sings two tracks here accompanied just by a guitar: “Like a Lover," which is a vocal adaptation of “O Cantador," and “Drume Negrita," which is “Afro-Cuban Lullaby." On the rest of the tracks he's accompanied by a varying but accomplished set of supporting characters ...