Transexual jazz pianist?
Paul R
Who remembers the name of the relatively well-known Midwestern male jazz
pianist in the 50's who had a wife and children and was later found to have
been a woman? I remember some news article some years ago about how s/he
pulled it off but can not now recall his/her name.
Paul R
Fabio Rojas
I belive it was Billy Tipton. I am not sure sure whether
this was her "real" name or an adopted name.
Fabio
Herb Levy
In article <4pqgl8$p...@news2.h1.usa.pipeline.com>,
pro...@usa.pipeline.com(Paul R) wrote:
While there could certainly be more than one performer like this, you may
be thinking of Billy Tipton, a saxophonist in Spokane who died in the mid
1980s (I think).
Herb Levy
he...@eskimo.com
Keith Hedger
Paul R (pro...@usa.pipeline.com) wrote:
: Who remembers the name of the relatively well-known Midwestern male jazz
: pianist in the 50's who had a wife and children and was later found to have
: been a woman? I remember some news article some years ago about how s/he
: pulled it off but can not now recall his/her name.
:
: Paul R
I think you mean the SEattle based saxophonist Billy Tipton. There is a
group called the Billy Tipton memorial Sax quartet....
keith
--
============================================================================
= "Look at 'em...fuckin' normals, I hate 'em"
============================================================================
Steve Robinson
On 17 Jun 1996, Keith Hedger wrote:
> Paul R (pro...@usa.pipeline.com) wrote:
> : Who remembers the name of the relatively well-known Midwestern male jazz
> : pianist in the 50's who had a wife and children and was later found to have
> : been a woman? I remember some news article some years ago about how s/he
> : pulled it off but can not now recall his/her name.
> :
> : Paul R
>
> I think you mean the SEattle based saxophonist Billy Tipton. There is a
> group called the Billy Tipton memorial Sax quartet....
>
> keith
Close, but no cigar methinks. Billy Tipton was based in Spokane, on the
eastern side of the state, not Seattle.
There is also the definitional problem of using "transexual." I'm sure
someone will correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought "transexual" referred
to someone who has had a sex change operation, such as Dr. Rene Richards,
the tennis player. I belive Billy Tipton was a transvestite, i.e.,
someone who cross-dressed. Upon her death, it was discovered that she was
a female.
Steve Robinson
Seattle, WA
John Grabowski
In <herb-17069...@eskinews.eskimo.com> he...@eskimo.com (Herb
>
>> Who remembers the name of the relatively well-known Midwestern male
jazz
>> pianist in the 50's who had a wife and children and was later found
to have
>> been a woman? I remember some news article some years ago about how
s/he
>> pulled it off but can not now recall his/her name.
>>
>> Paul R
>
may
>be thinking of Billy Tipton, a saxophonist in Spokane who died in the
mid
>1980s (I think).
>
>Herb Levy
>he...@eskimo.com
Correct!
John
r l reid
In <Pine.PTX.3.92a.96061...@carson.u.washington.edu> Steve Robinson <stev...@u.washington.edu> writes:
>There is also the definitional problem of using "transexual." I'm sure
>someone will correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought "transexual" referred
>to someone who has had a sex change operation, such as Dr. Rene Richards,
>the tennis player. I belive Billy Tipton was a transvestite, i.e.,
>someone who cross-dressed. Upon her death, it was discovered that she was
>a female.
It's a slippery slope at the point where a person lives full time in
the gender. Remember that reassignment surgery is relatively new, and
the F2M process is frankly terrible. Since Tipton did not choose to
share whatever label he preferred, there's little point in arguing it.
And it doesn't make any difference to the music anyway.
--
r l reid r...@panix.com
copyright 1996 by r l reid
microtonal resources and what not at:
http://www.panix.com/~ro/ -OR- http://woof.music.columbia.edu/~rlr/
Joe Germuska
>It's a slippery slope at the point where a person lives full time in
>the gender. Remember that reassignment surgery is relatively new, and
>the F2M process is frankly terrible. Since Tipton did not choose to
>share whatever label he preferred, there's little point in arguing it.
>
>And it doesn't make any difference to the music anyway.
I thought that Billy Tipton's assumption of a male identity was necessary
to be able to play jazz in a community where that wasn't considered
appropriate for women. I guess I have no idea about whether or not more
complicated personal matters entered into it.
It may make a difference to the music to note that there still aren't many
recorded female jazz saxophone players, with the important exceptions of
the members of the Billy Tipton Memorial Saxophone Quartet and Jane Ira
Bloom...
However, that may also have something to do with the instrument... at the
risk of slipping down a slope as slippery as "whitification," saxophones
are pretty masculine instruments. I know this is a broad generalization,
so please don't get out your lynching gear -- but feel free to provide
counterexamples if you like. My impression is based most recently on a
Vandermark Five gig which featured a lot of tenor overblowing from Mars
Williams and Ken Vandermark (as well as sonically similar noise-guitar
from Jeb Bishop)... talking about it afterwards with a female friend who
attended, we thought that testosterone probably had something to do with
it -- she observed that she didn't think many women would choose to play
that way. This maps against Samana, an all women's jazz group who have
flutes and clarinets, but not saxophones, and whose sound seems very
"feminine" to me. Vibraphone also contributes to that quality in Samana's
sound, which I'm carelessly describing as "feminine", and of course lots
of men play vibes...
Let me just disclaim again, I'm not trying to elicit flames from someone
whose mother plays ferocious flurries on tenor (or distorted guitar), but
just wondering what we can learn from thinking about how gender _might_
make a difference to the music that gets made. I guess I don't know what
we'd do about it, even if we did identify instruments or sounds that,
regardless of cause or effect, are "masculine" or "feminine", but there
still may be some interesting discussion...
Joe
PS I won't ask what gender trumpet playing falls into :-)
--
Joe Germuska * Learning Technologies Group * Northwestern University
j-ger...@nwu.edu * http://www.nwu.edu/people/j-germuska
"The impossible attracts me, because everything possible
has been done, and the world didn't change." - Sun Ra
r l reid
In <j-germuska-18...@slugworth.acns.nwu.edu> j-ger...@nwu.edu (Joe Germuska) writes:
>I thought that Billy Tipton's assumption of a male identity was necessary
>to be able to play jazz in a community where that wasn't considered
>appropriate for women. I guess I have no idea about whether or not more
>complicated personal matters entered into it.
When I said "makes no difference to the music", I *did* mena the music -
not the sociology of the music scene. You are very correct that the
assumption of identity was necessary to "make it" at that time. As to
the personal issues, all we can do is speculate, but "doing" gender is
hard work, and Tipton was probably more comfortable with the male identity
in the first place - I think it unlikly it was just a ruse to break into
the boy's club. But that's speculation.
>It may make a difference to the music to note that there still aren't many
>recorded female jazz saxophone players, with the important exceptions of
>the members of the Billy Tipton Memorial Saxophone Quartet and Jane Ira
>Bloom...
Well, that's perhaps a much larger issue. Female jazz players of any
instrument other than the voice are rare. And it's not just jazz
by a long shot. The reasons are complex and poorly understood, tho
many people have pet theories.
>However, that may also have something to do with the instrument... at the
>risk of slipping down a slope as slippery as "whitification," saxophones
>are pretty masculine instruments. I know this is a broad generalization,
>so please don't get out your lynching gear -- but feel free to provide
>counterexamples if you like.
I'm not going to argue it; since the perception exists if nothing else.
I've know many boys who are "choosing an instrument" to pick the sax
because it's so butch, and to avoid the flute because it's a "girl's
instrument". The world has made SOME progress, but there it is, still
out there.
>My impression is based most recently on a
>Vandermark Five gig which featured a lot of tenor overblowing from Mars
>Williams and Ken Vandermark (as well as sonically similar noise-guitar
>from Jeb Bishop)... talking about it afterwards with a female friend who
>attended, we thought that testosterone probably had something to do with
>it -- she observed that she didn't think many women would choose to play
>that way.
Well, not testosterone itself - hormones are also a complex and poorly
understood thing (gee, "complex and poorly understood" seem to be the
keywords over and over); but I know what you're saying and that observance
does bear it out.
>This maps against Samana, an all women's jazz group who have
>flutes and clarinets, but not saxophones, and whose sound seems very
>"feminine" to me. Vibraphone also contributes to that quality in Samana's
>sound, which I'm carelessly describing as "feminine", and of course lots
>of men play vibes...
>Let me just disclaim again, I'm not trying to elicit flames from someone
>whose mother plays ferocious flurries on tenor (or distorted guitar), but
>just wondering what we can learn from thinking about how gender _might_
>make a difference to the music that gets made. I guess I don't know what
>we'd do about it, even if we did identify instruments or sounds that,
>regardless of cause or effect, are "masculine" or "feminine", but there
>still may be some interesting discussion...
I've been in a LOT of those kinds of discussions, and they don't seem to lead
anywhere. The performance world is overwhelmingly male, and there are
a lot of reasons for it. It has changed dramatically over the last 30 years,
but it's still strangely lopsided - and no simple theory will explain it.
>PS I won't ask what gender trumpet playing falls into :-)
Sounds butch to me! :-)
>"The impossible attracts me, because everything possible
>has been done, and the world didn't change." - Sun Ra
But the world HAS changed. Just don't try to explain gender!
Fathom
In article <j-germuska-18...@slugworth.acns.nwu.edu>,
j-ger...@nwu.edu (Joe Germuska) wrote:
>
> However, that may also have something to do with the instrument... at the
> risk of slipping down a slope as slippery as "whitification," saxophones
> are pretty masculine instruments. I know this is a broad generalization,
> so please don't get out your lynching gear -- but feel free to provide
> counterexamples if you like. My impression is based most recently on a
> Vandermark Five gig which featured a lot of tenor overblowing from Mars
> Williams and Ken Vandermark (as well as sonically similar noise-guitar
> from Jeb Bishop)... talking about it afterwards with a female friend who
> attended, we thought that testosterone probably had something to do with
> it -- she observed that she didn't think many women would choose to play
> that way. This maps against Samana, an all women's jazz group who have
> flutes and clarinets, but not saxophones, and whose sound seems very
> "feminine" to me. Vibraphone also contributes to that quality in Samana's
> sound, which I'm carelessly describing as "feminine", and of course lots
> of men play vibes...
>
> Let me just disclaim again, I'm not trying to elicit flames from someone
> whose mother plays ferocious flurries on tenor (or distorted guitar), but
> just wondering what we can learn from thinking about how gender _might_
> make a difference to the music that gets made. I guess I don't know what
> we'd do about it, even if we did identify instruments or sounds that,
> regardless of cause or effect, are "masculine" or "feminine", but there
> still may be some interesting discussion...
>
> Joe
>
> PS I won't ask what gender trumpet playing falls into :-)
Lisa Simpson notwithstanding ;-), I think you have a point, albeit a
delicate one.
By way of comparison, in Indonesia the drum is considered a "female"
instrument, the flute a "male", and each must be played by a member of the
opposite sex!
--
Fathom >8-)>
**********
No sense being pessimistic. It wouldn't work, anyway.
Paul R.
On Jun 17, 1996 20:53:59 in article <Re: Transexual jazz pianist?>,
'he...@eskimo.com (Herb Levy)' wrote:
>In article <4pqgl8$p...@news2.h1.usa.pipeline.com>,
>pro...@usa.pipeline.com(Paul R) wrote:
>
>> Who remembers the name of the relatively well-known Midwestern male jazz
>> pianist in the 50's who had a wife and children and was later found to
have
>> been a woman? I remember some news article some years ago about how
s/he
>> pulled it off but can not now recall his/her name.
>>
>> Paul R
>
>While there could certainly be more than one performer like this, you may
>be thinking of Billy Tipton, a saxophonist in Spokane who died in the mid
>1980s (I think).
>
>Herb Levy
You could be right...I may be just blending instruments and regions of the
country.
I have this vague recollection of some instrumentalist who basically kept
his "secret" closely guarded from everyone, including *surprisingly enough*
his own children (who were obviously adopted). I believe there may have
been a write up about his double life in a national publication, quite
possibly after his death, and that this is where I remember having found
out about him. Just curious...
Paul R
Paul R.
On Jun 17, 1996 17:39:11 in article <Re: Transexual jazz pianist>, 'Steve
Robinson <stev...@u.washington.edu>' wrote:
>I belive Billy Tipton was a transvestite, i.e.,
>someone who cross-dressed.
about Tipton, though, I may have been thinking of him and just blended
instruments and regions of the country.
Jack Woker
>
>I thought that Billy Tipton's assumption of a male identity was
>necessary to be able to play jazz in a community where that wasn't
>considered appropriate for women. I guess I have no idea about
>whether or not more complicated personal matters entered into it.
>
>It may make a difference to the music to note that there still aren't
>many recorded female jazz saxophone players, with the important
>exceptions of the members of the Billy Tipton Memorial Saxophone
>Quartet and Jane Ira Bloom...
>
Please, those of you who know for sure, correct me if I'm wrong, but I
thought Billy Tipton was a pianist/vocalist, not a saxophonist! The
one LP I've seen shows him/her sitting at a piano. Also I believe
he/she was more of a lounge entertainer than an actual jazz musician,
judging on having heard that record.
jack
John Sullivan
In article <4q75u5$5...@panix2.panix.com> r...@panix.com (r l reid) writes:
[edited]
>Well, that's perhaps a much larger issue. Female jazz players of any
>instrument other than the voice are rare. And it's not just jazz
>by a long shot. The reasons are complex and poorly understood, tho
>many people have pet theories.
>I'm not going to argue it; since the perception exists if nothing else.
>I've know many boys who are "choosing an instrument" to pick the sax
>because it's so butch, and to avoid the flute because it's a "girl's
>instrument". The world has made SOME progress, but there it is, still
>out there.
>I've been in a LOT of those kinds of discussions, and they don't seem to lead
>anywhere. The performance world is overwhelmingly male, and there are
>a lot of reasons for it. It has changed dramatically over the last 30 years,
>but it's still strangely lopsided - and no simple theory will explain it.
I think the second paragraph above pretty much spells it out. The music world
is one of the last boys' clubs. Plain old sexism. I've played in rock bands
with women (still do, actually). Just ask a female guitarist what it's like
to go into a music store to buy strings. And I've played in bands with guys
who absolutely refused to audition a female player, mostly because they played
music so they could pick up sleazy chicks. They thought having a "girl"
around would put a damper on things. Ech.
Fortunately it's changing fast, at least in the rock world, oddly enough.
Just in the last 5 years or so, we've come to the point where it doesn't seem
weird for a woman to be playing guitar or drums. Unfortunately it still seems
unusual for a woman to be playing jazz on anything but a piano.
Let's face it: A lot of men still think women (blacks, Jews, Asians, etc
etc) are inherently inferior. People like that, it's the only way they'll
ever feel superior to anybody. Personally, I'm not impressed.
Sorry to go on about this, but it really pisses me off. It makes things worse
for all of us who just want good music.
John Sullivan
jsul...@fhcrc.org
James Hale
> It may make a difference to the music to note that there still aren't many
> recorded female jazz saxophone players, with the important exceptions of
> the members of the Billy Tipton Memorial Saxophone Quartet and Jane Ira
> Bloom...
Also Jane Bunnett, Candy Dulfer and Pamela Williams.
--
James Hale
Ottawa Canada
Mark Ladenson
In article <j-germuska-18...@slugworth.acns.nwu.edu>, j-ger...@nwu.edu (Joe Germuska) says:
>
>
[snip]
>However, that may also have something to do with the instrument... at the
>risk of slipping down a slope as slippery as "whitification," saxophones
>are pretty masculine instruments. I know this is a broad generalization,
>so please don't get out your lynching gear -- but feel free to provide
>counterexamples if you like. My impression is based most recently on a
>Vandermark Five gig which featured a lot of tenor overblowing from Mars
>Williams and Ken Vandermark (as well as sonically similar noise-guitar
>from Jeb Bishop)... talking about it afterwards with a female friend who
>attended, we thought that testosterone probably had something to do with
>it -- she observed that she didn't think many women would choose to play
>that way.
So what does that say about Hodges, Webster, Byas? Write them off
as feminine players? They were fine for their era but saxophone
playing has become more macho?
Mark L.
estes stephen
actually I believe that the Jazz Pianist Jessica Williams (Williamson?)
was male and is now female .The same for Walter Carlos now Wendy Carlos.
I friend of mine in Baltimore knew him (Jessy) a long time ago. He split
and went to Calf. and apparently had the operation(in BAltimore?) and
started puting out records as Jessica I think she even played with Joe
Henderson. I had some of her records one was called Protraits (solo
piano based on personalities she knew) and one was a fusion kind of
Weather Report type sound./Any way Baltimore was famous for those
operations back in the 70's and 80's
Joe Germuska
In article <4q9n8r$t...@msunews.cl.msu.edu>, lade...@pilot.msu.edu (Mark
Ladenson) wrote:
> So what does that say about Hodges, Webster, Byas? Write them off
> as feminine players? They were fine for their era but saxophone
> playing has become more macho?
Well, obviously, "feminine" is a sloppy adjective to describe music, but
in any event, I wouldn't consider it insulting or embarassing to play
music that isn't "testosterone-drenched". I neglected to say that both my
female friend and I were relatively bored by the noisy bits, despite my
natural stock of testosterone...
Perhaps a better question is how is a vocabulary for discussing music
developed, especially over a non-auditory medium like print? Last night I
saw a great show, also with Ken Vandermark, as well as Kent Kessler,
Michael Zerang, Jim Baker, Mats Gustafsson, Sten Sandell, and Raymond
Strid in mixed groupings. The whole program was freely improvised music.
I enjoyed it immensely, (even the loud bits), but feel unprepared to
describe it to anyone. I could talk some about the techniques they used,
but I don't even know proper names for some of those.
Would it be worthwhile (and would it be any fun) to try to develop a
"glossary"? With the web, we could even provide sound samples to
illustrate a point! I volunteer JazzWeb space and other technical
support, but would defer to others to provide terms, definitions, and
examples...
Joe
--
Joe Germuska * Learning Technologies Group * Northwestern University
j-ger...@nwu.edu * http://www.nwu.edu/people/j-germuska
2 jazz pagans
>>there still aren't many
>> Bloom...
>
>Also Jane Bunnett, Candy Dulfer and Pamela Williams.
>
Also Mary Fettig, Virginia Mayhew, and Lisa (I think) Pollard.
- JRB
Miles Krawiec
On saxophones, check out The Billy Tipton Memorial Saxophone Quartet, led
by Amy Denio (Billy Tipton was a female saxophonist who could not get
work as a woman, so she posed for many years as a male - no one was the
wiser until death and an autopsy).
On trumpet, check out Ingrid Jensen (Vernal Fields, Enja). I dare say,
if she were a young black male she'd be getting the same press coverage
as Roy Hargrove, Wallace Roney, Terrance Blanchard, Nicholas Payton, et
al.
rjh...@localnet.com
In article <4ptsvs$i...@agate.berkeley.edu>, fro...@oreo.berkeley.edu
(Fabio Rojas) wrote:
Billy Tipton was a saxophonist who lived her life as a man( including
getting married to a woman)
Her secret wasn't discovered until her death.
I beleive this was in the northwest
Mike Maida
Yeah, I was going to mention Jessica but I wasn't completely sure about it...Anyway,
SHE is one dynamite pianist!!! I recommend "The Next Step" on Hep. She's now
based in Portland but still visits the bay area a lot. I know her "partner" is also
female, so I don't fully understand the rationale for the operation...
I've heard that she has several recordings out on synthesizer which are excellent.
Can anyone comment on those?
Mike Maida (ma...@galaxy.nsc.com)
Scott Gordon
> In article 41...@umbc.edu, estes stephen <ses...@umbc.edu> () writes:
> > actually I believe that the Jazz Pianist Jessica Williams (Williamson?)
> > was male and is now female .The same for Walter Carlos now Wendy Carlos.
>
> Yeah, I was going to mention Jessica but I wasn't completely sure about
it...Anyway,
> SHE is one dynamite pianist!!! I recommend "The Next Step" on Hep.
She's now
> based in Portland but still visits the bay area a lot. I know her
"partner" is also
> female, so I don't fully understand the rationale for the operation...
I've known Jessica off and on for about 15 years, and she is quick to deny
the persistant rumors of a sex-change in her past. Close friends of hers also
say that it is not true. I'm not saying that it isn't true, only that in
all this time I have yet to hear any evidence (not that it's anyone's business
anyways). Regarding your last comment, in the mid-80s she was married for a
while to a local (male) bassist in the symphony. I played drums in a trio for
a couple of months with the two of them, and we practiced at their home in
Sacramento. She's a brilliant pianist who is finally starting to be recognized.
She was also very helpful and kind to me.
Matthew C Weiner
[rumor about sex-change operation, which has since been
denied, so my post is entirely hypothetical anyway; just
take it as a general statement please.]
: I know her "partner" is also
: female, so I don't fully understand the rationale for the operation...
The two matters aren't really related, or wouldn't be even if they
were both true (as we've seen, they may not apply to the person in
question). There are lesbians and gay men who don't have sex
changes, and transgendered people who have partners of either sex...
They're different issues.
Sorry for the off-topic post but I had to say this.
Matt
DSudnow778
you're full of shit; get out of the jazz group
Mike Maida
In article o...@newsbf02.news.aol.com, dsudn...@aol.com (DSudnow778) writes:
> you're full of shit; get out of the jazz group
I wrote a very cautious post in which I mentioned I'd heard the same rumor that
someone else had brought up. Plus I heartily recommended her recordings and said
she's a dynamite pianist. Hmmm, perhaps DSudnow778 think she's a lousy pianist?
I also got a private email with the same text. How should we deal with this guy?
Do I email AOL to complain?
Mike Maida (ma...@galaxy.nsc.com)
estes stephen
Mike Maida wrote:
>
> In article o...@newsbf02.news.aol.com, dsudn...@aol.com (DSudnow778) writes:
> > you're full of shit; get out of the jazz group
>
> I wrote a very cautious post in which I mentioned I'd heard the same rumor that
> someone else had brought up. Plus I heartily recommended her recordings and said
>
> I also got a private email with the same text. How should we deal with this guy?
> Do I email AOL to complain?
>
> Mike Maida (ma...@galaxy.nsc.com)
responce to someone else's post on a story of what he thought might have
been a transexual pianist but in fact Billy Tipnon was niether a
transexual nor a pianist. I responded with someone I had heard may have
been a transexual pianist since that was what the tread began with.I
heard from people who professed to personally know the person in
question Jessica Willams and provided me with information contrary to my
own .After all the net is about the exchange of information .I
personnaly don't have a problem with transexuality perhaps DSudnow778
does .I frankly chose to ignore his post and not respond to it as I
won't respond to any rude posts he/she/heshe/shehe care to make to this
one
Peterbwms
WHO CARES?!! This is so unbelievable. Yes, years ago there was a woman
who became a man. I guess it has some (slight) bearing in the history of
jazz.
What is the point of questioning the original gender of any musician
working today? What the hell difference does it make? There was no
reason to bring Ms. Williams into this discussion. It really amazes me
that this matters in 1996. Jessica Williams is a great pianist. Her
sense of time and improvisation are incredible. Her link to Monk, is
beautiful. When she performed at the Monterey Jazz Festival in 1995, she
had the audience spell bound for an hour. The interplay within her trio
is what jazz is all about, not her gender.
Hey, what will it be next? Jewish musicians that have passed for gentiles?
Dog owning tenor players who have copped out by owning cats. Pianists
with hair transplants on the next Geraldo.
Joe Germuska
In article <31E277...@umbc.edu>, estes stephen <ses...@umbc.edu> wrote:
>Hopefully this will promote
>interest in her music (I saw a new (?) cd in the stores the other day
>and I will check it out the next time I am there.
At this point, it's probably worth noting that Jessica Williams is not a
transexual, according to a post here from a friend of hers.
But in any event, I think that the honest acknowledgement of artists' (and
other humans') sexuality can only be positive in the long run. The more
people have the courage to be open about these issues, the harder it will
be for bigotry to persist.
This month's Harpers reprints an interesting journal article wherein an
academic economist tells his colleagues that he's had a sex change
operation. Such things help to bring a real perspective on issues buried
in bullshit and misunderstanding.
estes stephen
Personally I don't care. I have some of Her early albums and I like her
playing. I do find it interesting however. Transexuality is not a
trivial change that someone would put themselves through >(i know from
the transexuals and tranvestites that I have known and talked to).
It is not trivial that someone is a heroin addict or of a racial
minority/majority (other threads that I have seen here).It is trivial to
the music that they play or at least should be. And thats the point
.When ever these kind of threads erupt
in the news group it becomes an opportunity to say just that .That it
really should not become a value judgement. Hopefully this will promote
Mark Eisenman
I really think this thread has an unfortunate subject heading, considering J. W. (you
know who I'm refering to) has nothing to do with it! So if the thread is to continue, let's
do it under this new subject heading... "Re: (was Transexual jazz pianist)" ....OK.