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JazzDigger Home > E - Jazz Artists > Kurt Elling > Item 30
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Ain't Necessarily So
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by Andy Bey
Price:$14.98
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Listener Reviews & Comments
Wow. I'm speechless. I haven't been this speechless since...I reviewed the last Andy Bey c.d. in 2004, "American Song." 2004 was an exceptionally strong year for vocal jazz; but I was and am of the strong opinion that "American Song" was the best of a group of outstanding c.d.'s for that year, and arguably the best of this decade. Among other things, it raised the question: "What can Andy Bey possibly do for an encore?" What he did was to release in 2007 a live recording of the best of a 3-day gig from May of 1997 in Birdland, NYC. No overdubbing, no mixing of prerecorded tracks here; I can only assume that we are hearing what the very lucky concertgoers heard, with Andy Bey both playing piano and singing, Peter Washington on bass, and for the most part Kenny Washington on drum (with Vito Lesczak sitting in on the two uptunes, tracks four and eight). And, I can only assume that Mr. Bey both sang and played while sitting down. And I am thoroughly blown away. How in the world can anybody play a first class jazz piano and be a first class jazz singer at the same time? When I think of the best piano-voice duet album, Bill Evans and Tony Bennett, I think of two musicians with total concentration, feeding off each other's inspiration. How can one person duplicate that? How can one person split his brain in two, and have the left side play off the right side and vice versa, as though he were two people? It's virtually impossible to do. And yet, Andy Bey comes as close as any human being could to pulling that feat off here. Sure, his touch gets a little heavy, a little chordal while he sings. (Though listen to what he's capable of doing on "If I Should Lose You," when he doesn't sing and therefore can concentrate on playing more lyrically and with greater flow.) And sure, he has to slip into a lot of falsetto at the top of his four octave range instead of going full voice, like he otherwise would, in order to keep the piano going. But even so, he's amazing. His falsetto well carries over the sound of the instruments. And he holds notes on "Hey, Love" and "On Second Thought" for seemingly ever--while sitting down, apparently. That is incredibly difficult to do. Many trained opera singers couldn't pull this off; Andy Bey does it twice. And listen to what he does on the whippy, scatting version of the normally dirgy "Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?" If someone else were accompanying, this would be first-class, breathtaking bending of lyric and melody. Yet, the accompaniment tracks the singing, filling the missing spaces just right. Just incredible. Or listen to the bluesy, melody bending changes on "I Let a Song Go Out of My Heart." Again, this would be an incredible performance if he just sang it this way. How did he pull this off? The best two years for vocal jazz this decade have been 2004 and 2007. They also are the years Andy Bey has released recordings. Coincidence? I think not. RC
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Ain't Necessarily So
by Andy Bey
Price:$14.98
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