Billy Tipton Plays “The Man I Love”
In the summer of 1956, the Billy Tipton Trio — a group based in Spokane, Washington — came to Los Angeles to record for the independent label Tops Records. They performed instrumental versions of jazz standards, primarily from the 1920’s and 1930’s. The recordings were later released on two albums: Sweet Georgia Brown (“a Masterpiece of Incomparable High-Fidelity Sound”) and Billy Tipton Plays Hi-Fi on Piano. During one session, which took place at a studio located at Capital Records, a woman happened to be hanging around the sound booth. She came up and told them, “Gee, you guys sound great.” It was Ella Fitzgerald.
I particularly like their version of George Gershwin’s “The Man I Love.”
While the albums did not sell poorly, Tipton faded into obscurity. He turned down a lucrative gig in Reno saying that he wanted to return to Spokane and settle down. And he proceeded to do just that. He married the last of his five wives (although the prior marriages were not official) and adopted three sons. He died in Spokane at the age of 74 in 1989.
Under ordinary circumstances, Tipton’s name may have been entirely forgotten. But something happened the day he died — something that shocked nearly everyone who had met him since his youth in the mid-West. The medic summoned to Tipton’s residence discovered (more…)