CHICAGO'S FIRST LADY OF JAZZ
CROWD PLEASER
Chicago Tribune Magazine
April 10, 2005
By Rick Kogan
FOR 31 YEARS, GERALDINE DE HAAS HAS BEEN THE FORCE BEHIND THE CITY'S JAZZ, GOSPEL AND BLUES FESTIVALS
GERALDINE DE HAAS CAME TO CHICAGO for keeps on April 1968. The date is easy for her to remember. "It was the day that Martin Luther King was shot and killed," she says. 3 She moved into house in the South Shore neighborhood and initially found Chicago to be a "very segregated place." "They said this was a city of neighborhoods, but it was a 'Don't you dare come in my neighborhood!' city," she says. "It didn't take me long to learn, though, that this was a place where you could do something important." She came here after what would have been, for many, a satisfying career as an internationally known jazz singer. But what she would do in Chicago was important enough to change the cultural face of the city.
The woman Tribune jazz critic Howard Reich calls "the first lady of Chicago jazz" was born Geraldine Bey 70 years ago in Newark, N.J., the seventh of nine children in a home "low on money but rich in family."
And music. "We always had some kind of raggedy piano in the house," she says. "(It) was the music house of our neighborhood. My little brother Andy would get to the piano before anybody else. He was the prodigy, but I was always singing. In school they called me 'Songbird.'"
Geraldine and Andy, along with sister Salome, formed a singing trio, "Andy and the Bey Sisters." They began to win amateur shows, playing local clubs and then tried nightclubs in Miami.
"It was fun but it was the South... They put us—and kept us—in our place," she says.
When they returned home several months later, the trio tried out for a series of auditions that led to a European tour. "We went first to Spain, then a supper club in London. We played military bases in Germany," she says. "It was overwhelming to visit these places, three little people from Newark. And it was different. In Europe, I never sensed any racism. We felt completely free. Now, I'm not saying there's no racism in Europe, but it wasn't as blatant as it was in this country. It's kind of sad when the world treats you better than your own country."
They were treated almost like royalty in Paris, where they were the featured act at the legendary Blue Note nightclub, meeting most of the prominent jazz musicians of the day and stars from other realms.
"When Marion Brando came in one night I almost fainted, because I thought he was the greatest actor since sliced bread," says de Haas. At the end of the evening, Brando approached her and, while trying to help her put on her coat, asked, "What are you doing later tonight?"
She seems nervous now, almost 50years later, as she recalls, "Oh, I was so nervous that I just said, ‘I’m going home.' I dared not let myself go with that person. People had told me that he was doing all kinds of things to ladies and I didn't want to become involved in that."
Back in the U.S., the trio cut several records. They are all out of print, but it is possible to see the three performing in "Let's Get Lost," a 1989 documentary about Chet Baker. After 10 years together, Andy and the Bey sisters disbanded in 1966. Salome went on to musical theater, Andy kept singing and playing piano, and Geraldine settled into married life with Edgar de Haas.
"I really didn't want to marry a jazz musician because I though they were all crazy," she says. "But Eddie was a very nice guy. He pursued me like I was a movie star. He was a good cook and used to prepare incredible meals for me. And he was a wonderful bass player."
The couple lived in Europe for a while, but they "had to go where the jobs were, and Eddie got a job playing at the London House in Chicago and I followed him."
After the birth of her second child, de Haas tried the nightclub scene here but "these kids running the clubs didn't know what was happening. They wanted to put me in a Diana Ross, pop-star bag," she says.
"I went out and auditioned for theater work. A lot of people told me I was too old but [Free Street Theater founder] Patrick Henry took a chance on me, and I learned so much about theater from him."
Auditioning for the Chicago premiere of '"Hair," she told producers, "I will sing whatever you want me to sing but I won't take my clothes off." During the musical's famous nude scene, de Haas stayed under a blanket on the stage.
She performed in other plays and still sang in clubs on occasion, but after the death of Duke Ellington in 1974, de Haas found a new role, jazz advocate.
"I joined a group of musicians planning a tribute concert. They wanted to hold it in Washington Park, but I thought it should be in Grant Park. His music was so universal that the concert should be for the whole city."
She wrote letters to everybody at the Park District, "I think even to the janitor."
Eventually she managed to get a meeting with Park District boss Ed Kelly. She convinced him that Grant Park was the place, and the August concert was a success. "That became the catalyst for all the city festivals—jazz test, blues fest, gospel fest," she says.
It also set the stage for Jazz Unites, a non-profit group de Haas started in 1981. One of its goals was to bring music back to the South Side, and its first concert did that in star-studded fashion: Count Basie, Dizzy Gillespie, Muddy Waters and Betty Carter were among the first Jazz Fest lineup at the South Shore Cultural Center in 1983.
She continued to sing but became increasingly involved with the annual Jazz Fests, organizing the Ellington tribute and other concerts each year, and campaigning to build a jazz museum. "Geraldine has done more to perpetuate jazz in Chicago than almost anybody I can think of," saxophonist Eddie Johnson said at a 1996 party in her honor.
The work and the years have slowed her down, but she remains bright-eyed, ebullient, charming and self-effacing.
You can see for yourself next Sunday, April 17, at 4 p.m. in the Chicago Cultural Center, 78 E. Washington St. "The 31st Annual Duke Ellington Tribute Concert" will feature Orbert Davis —and Andy Bey.
"It is always so wonderful to see my brother and to hear him sing," says de Haas. He has built a successful jazz career in New York and became an "overnight star" in 3997 with the CD "Ballads, Blues & Bey." His "American Song" was nominated for a Best Jazz Vocal Grammy last year.
Her kids, Darius and Aisha, also are successful musical-theater and jazz artists. They and husband Eddie will probably be there too.
"What do I think about having done this tribute for 31 years?" she asks. "Well, I want to do be doing this for 31 more years."
Then she is asked a hard question: "What is jazz?" Louis Armstrong famously answered that question by saying, "Man, if you have to ask, you'll never know."
But de Haas, ever game for a challenge, gives it a try: "Oh dear, jazz is a music that came out of the struggles of African-American people. Not African people. Jazz is the music that tells the story of our lives..."
As she continued to talk, a listener realized • he question had already been answered. What is jazz? She is.
De Haas was interviewed as part of "Conversations with Extraordinary People," a monthly series hosted by Rick Kogan at Maxim's.
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