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So that when he performed songs with acoustic guitarist, Paul Myers, Bey took us on a fresh journey of rhythmical singing and deft harmonic substitutions on venerable tunes like Duke Ellington's "It Don't Mean A Thing If It Ain't Got That Swing" and the old standard, "I'll Remember April".
Notably on "I'll Remember April", the singer interpolated a few bars of "Home, Home on the Range", which fitted in nicely with his remembrances; and in "Brother, Can You Spare A Dime?” Paul Myers' freely chorded rhythm, which he alternated with swift bass lines, caused Bey to erupt in a series of running lines that got the audience clapping.
A meditative guitar reading set the mood for Lionel Hampton's classic ballad, "Midnight Sun", where Bey's lonely cries spanned different registers, then changed tone colours, and occasionally emerged as a funky, textured throat singing. He ended this tune by singing lower and lower, until he reached the 'bass-ment'.
But one criticism emerged a few times from the audience: "Why is this place so small?"
I guess the feeling was that Andy Bey deserved a bigger venue.
Nobody would argue with that, but it's a pleasure of the jazz world — and one of its frequent ironies — that if you weren't there, you just weren't there.
In the meantime, all of us can enjoy his CDs.
Let's hope Andy Bey comes to Toronto again, soon.
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