Andy Bey

{{Short description|American jazz singer and pianist (1939–2025)}}

{{Infobox musical artist

| name = Andy Bey

| image =

| caption =

| birth_name = Andrew Wideman Bey Jr.

| birth_date = {{birth date|1939|10|28}}

| birth_place = Newark, New Jersey, U.S.

| death_date = {{death date and age|2025|4|26|1939|10|28}}

| death_place = Englewood, New Jersey, U.S.

| genre = {{hlist|Jazz|soul-funk}}

| occupation = Musician

| instrument = {{hlist|Vocals|piano}}

| years_active = 1964–2025

| label = {{hlist|Prestige|Columbia|Evidence|Atlantic|Savoy Jazz|HighNote}}

}}

Andrew Wideman Bey Jr. (October 28, 1939 – April 26, 2025) was an American jazz singer and pianist. Bey had a wide vocal range, with a four-octave baritone voice.

Raised in Newark, New Jersey,Adler, David R. [https://jazztimes.com/archives/andy-bey/ "Andy Bey"], JazzTimes, April 25, 2019. Retrieved December 14, 2020. "We are sitting in Bey's studio apartment on the western edge of Manhattan's Chelsea district, where he has lived for the last 13 years. Originally from Newark, N.J., Bey knew the Shorter brothers-Wayne and Alan-when they were both teenagers." Bey attended Newark Arts High School.[https://www.birdlandjazz.com/e/celestial-being-the-th-birthday-concert-celebrating-andy-bey-75336719155/ Celestial Being: The 80th Birthday Concert Celebrating Andy Bey]{{Dead link|date=August 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes}}, Birdland. Retrieved December 14, 2020. "When Mr. Bey was 18 years old, he left the Arts High School in Newark, New Jersey in the middle of his senior year, and with his sisters, Geraldine and Salome, formed the trio Andy and the Bey Sisters."

Background

Andrew Wideman Bey Jr. was born on October 28, 1939, in Newark. His father, a window washer born Andrew Wideman, was an adherent of the Moorish Science Temple of America, an offshoot of Islam, and followed its practice of adopting Bey as a surname. His son kept the surname but did not share his father's faith.{{Cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/29/arts/music/andy-bey-dead.html|title=Andy Bey, Jazz Singer Renowned for His Vocal Range, Dies at 85|first=Clay|last=Risen|date=April 29, 2025|via=NYTimes.com}}

His mother, Victoria (Johnson) Wideman, raised Andy and his eight older siblings.

Bey was openly gay.{{Cite interview |last=Bey |first=Andy |interviewer=Tony Cox |title=News and Notes |url=https://www.npr.org/templates/transcript/transcript.php?storyId=1638560 |type=Interview: transcript |publisher=NPR |date=February 3, 2004 |access-date=March 29, 2011 |quote=[Y]ou have spoken publicly about being HIV positive and gay.}} In 1994, he was diagnosed as HIV-positive, but continued his career, maintaining a lifestyle that included yoga and a vegetarian diet.{{Cite web|url=http://jazztimes.com/articles/14617-andy-bey|title=Jazz Departments: Andy Bey|last=Adler|first=David R.|date=May 2004|work=JazzTimes|access-date=March 29, 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121008115203/http://jazztimes.com/articles/14617-andy-bey|archive-date=October 8, 2012|url-status=dead}} Producer Herb Jordan supported Bey in the resurgence of his recording career, and their 1996 recording Ballads, Blues & Bey returned Bey to prominence.

Bey was a longtime-resident of Chelsea, Manhattan. He died in Englewood, New Jersey on April 26, 2025, at the age of 85.{{Cite news |last=Risen |first=Clay |date=April 29, 2025 |title=Andy Bey, Jazz Singer Renowned for His Vocal Range, Dies at 85 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/29/arts/music/andy-bey-dead.html |access-date=April 30, 2025 |newspaper=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}}{{Cite web |url=https://downbeat.com/news/detail/jazz-vocalist-andy-bey-dies-at-85 |title=Jazz Vocalist Andy Bey Dies at 85 |website=DownBeat |date=April 29, 2025 |access-date=April 29, 2025}}

Career

He worked on the 1959/1960 television show Startime with Connie Francis, and sang for Louis Jordan. At age 17, he formed a trio with his siblings Salome Bey and Geraldine Bey (de Haas) called Andy and the Bey Sisters. The trio went on a 16-month tour of Europe. The jazz trumpeter Chet Baker's 1988 documentary Let's Get Lost includes footage of Bey and his sisters delighting a Parisian audience. The trio recorded three albums (one for RCA Victor in 1961 and two for Prestige in 1964 and 1965) before breaking up in 1967. Bey also worked with Horace Silver and Gary Bartz.

In 1973, Bey and Dee Dee Bridgewater were the featured vocalists on Stanley Clarke's album Children of Forever. Later, Bey recorded the album Experience and Judgment (1974), which was influenced by Indian music.{{Cite web|url=http://www.downbeat.com/artists/window.asp?action=new&aid=17&aname=Andy+Bey|title=Biography: Andy Bey |website=Down Beat|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110709121018/http://www.downbeat.com/artists/window.asp?action=new&aid=17&aname=Andy+Bey|archive-date=July 9, 2011|url-status=dead|access-date=March 29, 2011}} He then returned to hard bop, and recorded covers of music by non-jazz musicians, such as Nick Drake.{{AllMusic|class=artist|id=p6020/biography|label=Andy Bey biography}}.

In 1976, Bey performed in a theatre production of Adrienne Kennedy's A Rat's Mass directed by Cecil Taylor at La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club in the East Village of Manhattan. Musicians Rashid Bakr, Jimmy Lyons, Karen Borca, David S. Ware, and Raphe Malik also performed in the production. Taylor's production combined the original script with a chorus of orchestrated voices used as instruments.La MaMa Archives Digital Collections. [https://catalog.lamama.org/Detail/Occurrences/1586 "Production: Rat's Mass, A (1976)". Accessed August 8, 2018.]

Bey's other albums include Ballads, Blues & Bey (1996), Tuesdays in Chinatown (2001), American Song (2004) and Ain't Necessarily So (2007). He received the "2003 Jazz Vocalist of the Year" award by the Jazz Journalists Association. His album American Song received a Grammy nomination for Best Jazz Vocal Album in 2005.

Awards and honors

2003: Jazz Vocalist of the Year, Jazz Journalists Association
2005: Grammy nomination, Best Jazz Vocal Album for American Song
2014: NPR Music Jazz Critics Poll, Best Vocal Album for Pages from an Imaginary Life

Discography

1974: Experience and Judgment (Atlantic)
1991: As Time Goes By (Jazzette)
1996: Ballads, Blues & Bey (Evidence)
1998: Shades of Bey (Evidence)
2001: Tuesdays in Chinatown (N-Coded)
2003: Chillin' with Andy Bey (Minor Music)
2004: American Song (Savoy Jazz)
2007: Ain't Necessarily So (12th Street)
2013: The World According to Andy Bey (HighNote)
2014: Pages from an Imaginary Life (HighNote)

With Andy and the Bey Sisters

1961: Andy and the Bey Sisters (RCA Victor )
1964: Now! Hear! (Prestige) with Jerome Richardson, Kenny Burrell
1965: 'Round Midnight (Prestige) with Kenny Burrell, Milt Hinton, Osie Johnson

With Gary Bartz

1971: Harlem Bush Music − Taifa (Milestone)
1971: Harlem Bush Music − Uhuru (Milestone)
1972: Juju Street Songs (Prestige)
1973: Follow, the Medicine Man (Prestige)

With Stanley Clarke

1973: Children of Forever (Polydor)

With Gerry Eastman

1995: Songbook (Williamsburgh Music Center)

With Howard McGhee Orchestra

1966: Cookin' Time (Zim)

With Bob Malach

1995: The Searcher (Go Jazz)

With Grachan Moncur III

1977 Shadows (Denon)

With Mtume Umoja Ensemble

1972: Alkebu-Lan: Land of the Blacks (Live at the East)

With Duke Pearson

1969: How Insensitive (Blue Note)

With Max Roach

1968: Members, Don't Git Weary (Atlantic)

With Horace Silver

1970: That Healin' Feelin': The United States Of Mind / Phase 1
1988: Music to Ease Your Disease (Silveto)
1993: It's Got to Be Funky (Columbia)
1996: Total Response (Blue Note)

References

External links

[https://www.allmusic.com/artist/andy-bey-mn0000044833/biography Andy Bey & Andy and the Bey Sisters biography by Alex Henderson, discography and album reviews, credits & releases] at AllMusic
{{discogs artist|Andy Bey}}
{{imdb name|12839705}}

Category:1939 births

Category:2025 deaths

Category:20th-century African-American male singers

Category:20th-century American LGBTQ people

Category:20th-century American male musicians

Category:20th-century American male singers

Category:20th-century American pianists

Category:20th-century American singers

Category:21st-century African-American musicians

Category:21st-century American LGBTQ people

Category:21st-century American male musicians

Category:21st-century American pianists