Gay Disco! at the jazz club

Photo: https://www.myspace.com/andrewdangelo

We must admit, we were rather intrigued when we read in the New York Times today this review of a New York-based jazz outfit called Gay Disco Trio. Why would a free-jazz group that sounds very little like disco, even on a song called, well, "Gay Disco," call themselves Gay Disco Trio? (We guess you could also ask why a non-disco band like Panic! at the Disco would name themselves that, as well.) So we contacted band leader Andrew D'Angelo to ask him just that. And guess what? He's a big 'mo! That's why he named the band that.

"Being a gay man in the world of jazz has it's own interesting twist," Andrew wrote us. "There just ain't many of us who are jazz musicians. At least not out in the open. So I decided, since I'm tired of everything happening behind closed doors, to just force the issue out into the public." Plus, he notes, "Since I was a kid...I have always wanted the nickname 'Disco.'...And you know what else, I keep meeting these beautiful boys on my gigs, and breaching the whole, 'ahem, I'm gay too' issue can be so complicated. Gay Disco band. Issue solved. I love being Gay, I love Disco, I love my band." Andrew, we don't even really know jazz that well, but we already love you.

Learn more about him and his upcoming tour dates here and hear his decidedly un-disco-y music here. And you know what else is cool? He recently seems to have beaten brain cancer without even doing chemo or radiation. Someone cue up that opening piano riff to "I Will Survive," please.

-- TIM MURPHY

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