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'I'M NOT A GAY WRER, I'M A MONSTER': HOW JAM PURDY OUTRAGED AMERI
As the rerr ran, my host—known for his fierce telligence and for the refement of his playg—kept referrg to “that faggot” who had produced a somewhat homoerotic documentary of the once-betiful tmpeter and sger. The jazz world is one of the last cultural ontiers of old-fashned macho, and , homophobia ns rampant.
Sce terviewg that pianist, I’ve met a multu of jazz figur who pri themselv on soulfulns and sensivy, yet are as sensive as rednecks on the subject of homosexualy—pecially s prence jazz, which is not nsirable. One saxophonist, a gay man his early 60s, sums up what he se as the persistg attu: “If you are gay, you nnot be playg this mic that requir you to have a much higher level of ttosterone. ” A veteran sger who has worked wh European big bands remembers walkg out on one of them, fur at beg “harassed” by homophobic slurs.
“Gays are the last whippg post society, ” he says. Some attentn was drawn to the qutn the ’90s, when three outstandg jazz micians—pianist Fred Hersch, vibraphonist Gary Burton and sger/pianist Andy Bey—all me out publicly as gay men.