John Murph looks at how gay jazz micians have alt wh their inty through their mic.
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JAZZ: GAY MEN JAZZ
Evangele Harris is piqug the cursy of some pestrians outsi of Mova Lounge, an upsle gay bar Washgton, D. When discsg the soundtrack to ntemporary mastream gay life, jazz is often treated as an allergen on a mil landspe more voted to vol pop, club hs and electroni. At the risk of stereotypg, gay culture feels more allegiance toward Lady Gaga than Lady Day.
As someone who equents gay bars wh almost the same regulary as jazz clubs, I often sense a great divi between the two worlds. “It is extremely polarized, ” argu saxophonist and claretist Andrew D’Angelo, “so much so that when my ex-boyiend me to one of my gigs, some of his gay iends were so disproportnately removed om my [jazz] scene. It would seem that there’d be more overlap between the jazz and gay muni relatnship to mastream society.
“I fd myself far more spired by the stggl of someone like Chet Baker or Eric Dolphy than some glamoro Hollywood actrs, ” says the openly gay volist and poser Theo Bleckmann. “Jt by Eric and Baker’s nstant fight for acceptance and their battl wh ner mons, I wonr why more gay people wouldn’t look up to people like them than someone like Judy Garland, who was already accepted by the Hollywood tablishment. Jazz has, however, produced s fair share of gay lumari, among them Billy Strayhorn, Cecil Taylor, Gary Burton, Andy Bey, Ian Shaw, Fred Hersch, Lea DeLaria, Patricia Barber and Allison Miller.