Andy Bey

TWIN BILL w. MONTY ALEXANDER TRIO

Now in his 60s, Andy Bey has had an exciting career. Stylistically reminiscent of his idols Nat King Cole and Sarah Vaughan, Bey is arguably the best male vocalist working in jazz today. His silky bass-baritone voice has been called “one of the finest instruments in jazz.” Bey was playing boogie-woogie piano when he was three, and by the age of 12 was performing with Louis Jordan at Harlem’s Apollo Theatre. He worked in Europe in the ‘50s and ‘60s, later playing with icons such as Sarah Vaughan, Dinah Washington, Max Roach and Horace Silver. In the ‘80s he was singing with McCoy Tyner and Gary Bartz. After a 20 year recording hiatus, Bey has reintroduced himself as a solo artist with his 1996 CD Ballads, Blues and Bey, followed by the release of a series of breathtakingly beautiful albums: Shades of Bey, American Song and his latest Ain’t Necessarily So (12th Street Records). An audience hungry for classic jazz imbued with old-school elegance has rediscovered Bey, who comes to Victoria for the first time.