"Swagger": Reflections on JayBezz
As its name suggests, JayBezz’s production company, House of Bezz, is inspired by the ethics, culture, and social impetus of the Fashion/Vogue Houses of New York. JayBezz enthusiastically praises House culture, the “minority gay people and transgender people who created a community.” House of Bezz is “dedicated to public service and creativity like the legendary houses. Our goal is to recognize some of the least visible individuals in society.”
Jennie Livingston’s well-known documentary Paris is Burning provided a snapshot of Vogue House culture in the early 1990s, but houses have continued to develop and grow since that time. What once functioned as an “underground” community has begun, through artists like Kevin Aviance, to break into more mass-marketable media. In many ways, JayBezz exemplifies a new generation of this trend, acknowledging with reverence those who came before him.
Livingston’s film has been criticized for its laser-like focus on socioeconomic concerns, which, in the film, largely overshadows some of the other priorities of Vogue House culture. Particularly, the documentary has been seen as downplaying houses’ emphasis on healing the historical wounds meted out upon each other by many sexual and racial minorities. For JayBezz, this motivation is paramount: “We specifically want to bridge that gap between minority culture and gay culture.” He seeks to:
“get out there and say ‘yes I’m creative and yes I’m gay, but most importantly, I want you to recognize my talent.’ [. . .] So often we get black kids who have to say ‘now I’m black or now I’m gay’ and you can’t be both. And I’m like, well actually you can. The fashion houses and the vogue houses, especially of the New York culture, epitomize that, putting the two together. They have their very own unique culture of things and how they see the world but at the same time they never lose touch with their ethnic and cultural background.”
JayBezz counts Janet Jackson among his most significant influences. Indeed, “Back in Your Life” is permeated by the relaxed energy--driven by short, catchy melodic fragments and layered rhythms--that exemplify much of Janet Jackson’s most popular music (especially in her early to mid 1990s iterations). The single’s denser production and multi-tracked vocals, though, give it a unique sound. In production, JayBezz manipulates vocal timbres skillfully and that manipulation is what I find most compelling about the track. JayBezz’s voice has a subdued smoothness that calls to mind an unlikely hybrid of Michael Jackson and Antony Hegarty. It oscillates between a kind of ethereal quality and a commanding presence. Upon first listen, I found some of JayBezz’s production choices, specifically when it comes to the vocals, unexpected. But as I considered the single, as well as the other songs currently available, more closely, the different timbres began to relate to each other cleverly. The music feels familiar, but at the same time seems to expand the limitations of my ear. In that way, I’ve come to hear it as a musical articulation of the cultural and social priorities of JayBezz and the House of Bezz. I like that. Music is at its most powerful when it aurally embodies something beyond itself.
Kevin Schwandt
Reader Comments (1)
I look forward to reading about these beautiful article. I'm especially looking forward to the publicity about the book.Thanks for your wonderful article. Police sunglasses