Some of the most satisfying concert performances during this week of the Chicago Jazz Festival are taking place outside of Grant Park.
Consider the proceedings in the Cassidy Theater of the Chicago Cultural Center, where the Rollin’ on Randolph series on Friday afternoon presented a joyful reunion of two remarkable singers.
Geraldine de Haas, the grande dame of Chicago jazz, already is quite familiar to local audiences as a stylish vocalist and jazz advocate. But her younger brother, Andy Bey, is far less known, having spent much of the past couple of decades teaching.
His return to the spotlight is a welcome one, judging by his work as soloist and in duets with his sister.
Though Bey’s instrument isn’t a particularly large one, it’s what he does with it that seduces the ear. The unusually full vibrato, the sumptuous lower register and the dramatic use of falsetto are just a few of his trademarks. In addition, his tendency toward languorous tempos, abrupt key changes and idiosyncratic melodic embellishments mark him as a vocalist with a fiercely individualistic style.
If Bey didn’t help his cause by accompanying himself on piano (an instrument on which he is not very comfortable or facile), his vocals compensated. Certainly it will be a long time until listeners hear “Yesterdays” sung with the fervent melodicism or “Brother, Can You Spare a Dime” dispatched with the sensitivity to lyrics that Bey yielded in every bar.
But Bey isn’t the only gifted member of the family, as he established in the ’60s when Andy and The Bey Sisters toured internationally. One of those sisters, Geraldine, went on to marry venerable Chicago bassist Eddie de Haas, and the rest is Chicago jazz history.
Though it took a few phrases before De Haas and Bey came to terms rhythmically and tonally, they ultimately proceeded to establish a common musical vocabulary (with Eddie de Haas providing warm bass accompaniment). To hear De Haas’ resplendent contralto notes counterbalanced by Bey’s glorious falsetto was to savor vocal sound at its most sensuous.
More than that, Bey and De Haas know how to turn a pop song into a dramatic scene, as they did on a medley of “What Kind of Fool Am I?” (sung by Bey) and “As Long As He Needs Me” (De Haas). Each singer exulted into the lyric radiance of the other, and the audience basked in the sonic beauty of both.
Clearly, Bey and De Haas ought to record an album together, perhaps a sweet remembrance of the old days. It could be an exquisite document of two gifted American singers with a great deal to say.
Even apart from music, the two were charismatic, reminiscing on their careers, while veteran deejay Larry Smith served as ebullient interviewer.
