Andy Bey, jazz vocalist, pianist and younger brother of the late Salome Bey, Canada’s First Lady of the Blues, passed away on April 26, 2025 at the age of 85.
His death was announced by his nephew, actor and singer Darius de Haas and said to be of natural causes.
Born Andrew Wideman Bey Jr. on October 28, 1939 in Newark, New Jersey, he was the youngest of nine siblings and started playing the piano at the age of three.
At the age of 17, along with his two older sisters Salome Bey and Geraldine de Haas, Bey formed the trio Andy and the Bey Sisters in which they toured all over North America and Europe before disbanding in 1967. Salome Bey would relocate to Toronto in 1964 and find success in the Canadian jazz and blues scene while Geraldine headed to Chicago where she founded Jazzfest. Andy Bey would go on to embark on a solo career and work with jazz greats such as Horace Silver, Gary Bartz, Max Roach and appeared as a guest vocalist on bassist Stanley Clarke’s debut album Children of Forever alongside fellow vocalist Dee Dee Bridgewater.
In 1974, he released his first album Experience and Judgment, which was a fusion of soul, funk and Indian music. As a vocalist, Bey was known for his four-octave range that went between a powerful baritone and a “high-flying” falsetto. Bey returned to jazz and performed as a sideman and vocalist before releasing his sophomore album, As Time Goes By, in 1991.
With the help of producer and composer Herb Jordan, Bey had a career renaissance in the mid-1990s with his 1996 album Ballads, Blues & Bey, which touched on various topics including love, loss and his life as an openly gay, HIV-positive man. He was later nominated for a GRAMMY in 2005 for Best Jazz Vocal album for American Song.
Ian Shaw, host of Ronnie Scott’s Radio Show, described his late friend as “a massive inspiration – the truest of musicians.”
Bey is survived by his sister Geraldine de Haas and many nieces and nephews, including Toronto-based JUNO-nominated musicians tUkU and SATE, daughters of Salome Bey. A memorial service is in the works.
Tune in to jazz.fm91 tonight at 11PM EST to hear Ian Shaw pay tribute to Andy Bey on Ronnie Scott’s Radio Show.