If you are lucky enough to have or have had sisters, you know there is a special way of living, seeing, and being about, and in, life because of them. Andy Bey performed with two of his sisters as ‘Andy and the Bey Sisters’, with Salome and Geraldine. The way he sounded and caressed and found the juices of a song was so much like the essence of being the brother of a sister or sisters.
Coming from a community that fostered luminaries such as Sarah Vaughan and Wayne Shorter, Bey was part of a New Jerseyan richness of culture. Although a consummate piano player, it was the colorful spectrum of his voice that beguiled and charmed. Limitless, it feared no challenge of range. An unique vocal sensitivity was his signature. Speaking about that signature he said this: “A lot of men don’t want to sing ballads because it exposes your vulnerability,…”
These words of personal affirmation are his: “You have to kind of put yourself out there if you’re going to make somebody believe something,” His voice was how his soul spoke by singing out loud, and the music of that very soul made you believe.