Andy And The Bey Sisters – 'Round Midnight (1965) https://youtu.be/JGRn9sbFb2I Original Liner Notes: 'Round Midnight is the second album on Prestige by Andy and the Bey Sisters. It follows upon the success of their previous album Now! Hear! (Prestige 7346) and both records present a complete reversal in style and form from their earliest efforts (the word has two meanings) on a label addicted to putting as many rocks as possible in the roll of music. Now in the role of jazz artists the group has found its real niche and the comfort of being associated with tasty tunes and subtle swing. Andy and the Bey Sisters (in case you don't already know they are brother and sisters) are now ensconced in a world where taste and talent are not equated with bellowing baritones and back. beat-bedlam. The point is obviously that this group has arrived as important new voices in
the language of jazz. Hence the question might arise, "Where did they come from?" Andy and his sisters Salome and Geraldine are originally from Newark, NJ, and they have been singing professionally together for a decade. They sang before that, too, whenever there was a moment
or an occasion which demanded a song. Originally each member of the group took his or her turn to sing alone. Each had an individual approach, but it was particularly when they were entertaining service men in hospital wards that they began to unite in three-part harmony. The harmony has been there ever since and the melody is ever sweet. Yet within the three dimensions of the group there are three individuals, and I'd like you to meet them.
On the distaff side there is Geraldine. She's married now and her choice in music is toward the musical comedy songs of Cole Porter and Noel Coward. Her initiation into the joy of jazz came primarily from Andy, and now whatever Geraldine sings has the throb of the blues. The throb of the blues came earlier to Salome. She's been the jazzy one of the two and perhaps that's why she hasn't succumbed to the wonders of marital bliss. She has what may be described as a feminine muscularity and she follows in a tradition paved by Bessie Smith and traveled by Dinah Washington and many others. Brother Andy
was the first of the three to be propelled by and toward jazz. He is a self-taught pianist, and in light of his performance here it is amazing that it was only recently that he began to study his instrument formally. Apparently he has been doing just what come naturally, but now he is studying formally with the intention of extending his talents to composing and arranging. Incidentally Andy is quite a veteran in the show business world. He was a featured member of a program starring Connie Francis in the early 1950s. and stayed on the show for five years until his voice began to change. Connie's loss is our gain.
In their professional career the team has appeared at The Blue Angel, Versailles, The Velvet Room, and The Living Room, pom, among others in New York. ork. The week after this album was recorded they were on their way to Storyville in Boston for their third return engagement. Certainly the scope of their music on this album indicates why they are becoming more familiar faces in the better clubs across the jazz world, and in actuality it is from these personal
appearances that the choice of material was made for this album. From their extensive repertoire they have incorporated the following tunes as representative of a single set at a club. So sit back, sip your Johnny Walker Red, and dig.
Appropriately the set begins with a musical introduction to the three single voices which make up the overall sound It is Salome who leads off with "Love Is Just Around the Corner, and her penchant for the blues was never more obvious as she builds and belhs. Geraldine follows with Love You," a more subtle expression of amour, and the demand is for some more. When Andy steps into the spotlight with "Love You Madly" (actually the spotlight slides to him at the piano) he evidences that jazz feeling which I noted above and which motivates him above and beyond and inside every sound he makes. When the three converge at the end we all can share the good groove, "a down-home yeah sound." "God Bless the Child is dedicated to the late Billie Holiday. It is a dedication not a duplication, and something of the
pathos of Billie's performance rubs off on the grooves. Fats Waller's "Squeeze Me" allows a return to a medium tempo, and here, too, something of the pixie-ish quality of Fars surrounds the group's interpretation. I can picture Fats and grin as he would listen to the rhythmic joy here. "Tammy has Geraldine in an opening statement and then she blends with the others to further the mood. Somehow Andy and Sisters wash the maudlin Debbie Reynolds ill taste which I usually get from this lune out of my mind. Oh well, back to swing, and what swings more than a Ray Charles tune? Again "Hallelujah, I Love Her 50" finds the group romping in its real world, as if it were taking a chorus after Ray has left the spotlight. It's quite a tribute to think of these three sharing that spotlight, and
they deserve it, too. Side B begins in the same groove with "Everybody loves My Baby, in an effort that comes the closest to "scat" singing in the entire album though Geraldine says "Scat? Nol"). "Round Midnight has Andy up front for a time, and the time is right for a
classic rendition of Thelonious Monk's great tune. The marriage of music, words, sound here is haunting, and the aura of midnight is caught in the group's interpretation. In a similar mood Andy and Salome and Geraldine pay their respects to Duke Ellington with "Solitude" and the emotion expressed captures the poetry of Duke's music. "Feeling Good," from the hit play The Road of the Greasepaint, assumes almost a religious fervor. Again the word is poetry and there is more pathos added. Finally, in an investigation of Cole Porter's greatness, the three sound together, capturing much of the emotion and most of the irony of "Everytime We Say Goodbye."
Thus there are ten sides of love expressed by a relatively new sound on the jazz merry-go-round Andy and the Bay Sisters will be with us for a long time to come; actually they have already grabbed the gold ring, and this album offers the proof.
-CHRISTOPHER PETERS
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Andy And The Bey Sisters – 'Round Midnight (1965)
https://youtu.be/JGRn9sbFb2I
Original Liner Notes:
'Round Midnight is the second album on Prestige by Andy and the Bey Sisters. It follows upon the success of their previous album Now! Hear! (Prestige 7346) and both records present a complete reversal in style and form from their earliest efforts (the word has two meanings) on a label addicted to putting as many rocks as possible in the roll of music. Now in the role of jazz artists the group has found its real niche and the comfort of being associated with tasty tunes and subtle swing. Andy and the Bey Sisters (in case you don't already know they are brother and sisters) are now ensconced in a world where taste and talent are not equated with bellowing baritones and back. beat-bedlam. The point is obviously that this group has arrived as important new voices in
the language of jazz. Hence the question might arise, "Where did they come from?" Andy and his sisters Salome and Geraldine are originally from Newark, NJ, and they have been singing professionally together for a decade. They sang before that, too, whenever there was a moment
or an occasion which demanded a song. Originally each member of the group took his or her turn to sing alone. Each had an individual approach, but it was particularly when they were entertaining service men in hospital wards that they began to unite in three-part harmony. The harmony has been there ever since and the melody is ever sweet. Yet within the three dimensions of the group there are three individuals, and I'd like you to meet them.
On the distaff side there is Geraldine. She's married now and her choice in music is toward the musical comedy songs of Cole Porter and Noel Coward. Her initiation into the joy of jazz came primarily from Andy, and now whatever Geraldine sings has the throb of the blues. The throb of the blues came earlier to Salome. She's been the jazzy one of the two and perhaps that's why she hasn't succumbed to the wonders of marital bliss. She has what may be described as a feminine muscularity and she follows in a tradition paved by Bessie Smith and traveled by Dinah Washington and many others. Brother Andy
was the first of the three to be propelled by and toward jazz. He is a self-taught pianist, and in light of his performance here it is amazing that it was only recently that he began to study his instrument formally. Apparently he has been doing just what come naturally, but now he is studying formally with the intention of extending his talents to composing and arranging. Incidentally Andy is quite a veteran in the show business world. He was a featured member of a program starring Connie Francis in the early 1950s. and stayed on the show for five years until his voice began to change. Connie's loss is our gain.
In their professional career the team has appeared at The Blue Angel, Versailles, The Velvet Room, and The Living Room, pom, among others in New York. ork. The week after this album was recorded they were on their way to Storyville in Boston for their third return engagement. Certainly the scope of their music on this album indicates why they are becoming more familiar faces in the better clubs across the jazz world, and in actuality it is from these personal
appearances that the choice of material was made for this album. From their extensive repertoire they have incorporated the following tunes as representative of a single set at a club. So sit back, sip your Johnny Walker Red, and dig.
Appropriately the set begins with a musical introduction to the three single voices which make up the overall sound It is Salome who leads off with "Love Is Just Around the Corner, and her penchant for the blues was never more obvious as she builds and belhs. Geraldine follows with Love You," a more subtle expression of amour, and the demand is for some more. When Andy steps into the spotlight with "Love You Madly" (actually the spotlight slides to him at the piano) he evidences that jazz feeling which I noted above and which motivates him above and beyond and inside every sound he makes. When the three converge at the end we all can share the good groove, "a down-home yeah sound." "God Bless the Child is dedicated to the late Billie Holiday. It is a dedication not a duplication, and something of the
pathos of Billie's performance rubs off on the grooves. Fats Waller's "Squeeze Me" allows a return to a medium tempo, and here, too, something of the pixie-ish quality of Fars surrounds the group's interpretation. I can picture Fats and grin as he would listen to the rhythmic joy here. "Tammy has Geraldine in an opening statement and then she blends with the others to further the mood. Somehow Andy and Sisters wash the maudlin Debbie Reynolds ill taste which I usually get from this lune out of my mind. Oh well, back to swing, and what swings more than a Ray Charles tune? Again "Hallelujah, I Love Her 50" finds the group romping in its real world, as if it were taking a chorus after Ray has left the spotlight. It's quite a tribute to think of these three sharing that spotlight, and
they deserve it, too. Side B begins in the same groove with "Everybody loves My Baby, in an effort that comes the closest to "scat" singing in the entire album though Geraldine says "Scat? Nol"). "Round Midnight has Andy up front for a time, and the time is right for a
classic rendition of Thelonious Monk's great tune. The marriage of music, words, sound here is haunting, and the aura of midnight is caught in the group's interpretation. In a similar mood Andy and Salome and Geraldine pay their respects to Duke Ellington with "Solitude" and the emotion expressed captures the poetry of Duke's music. "Feeling Good," from the hit play The Road of the Greasepaint, assumes almost a religious fervor. Again the word is poetry and there is more pathos added. Finally, in an investigation of Cole Porter's greatness, the three sound together, capturing much of the emotion and most of the irony of "Everytime We Say Goodbye."
Thus there are ten sides of love expressed by a relatively new sound on the jazz merry-go-round Andy and the Bay Sisters will be with us for a long time to come; actually they have already grabbed the gold ring, and this album offers the proof.
-CHRISTOPHER PETERS
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