The myth of the macho jazz musician continues to exercise a hold on the world of jazz. Still, there have been several post-bebop musicians who have been rumored to be gay, and some who have actually come out publicly as homosexual.

Miles Davis (1926-1991), for example, exemplified the masculine self assurance and "cool" style of post-bebop jazz. He conducted well-known relationships with French singer Juliet Greco and actress Cecily Tyson, but according to biographer Ian Carr, there were also persistent rumors of his bisexuality, and his death from pneumonia, stroke, and heart failure was attributed to AIDS.

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Avant-garde jazz pianist Cecil Taylor is another post-bebop musician with a very muscular style of playing the piano. However, John Gill records that Taylor gave an interview in 1985 to a San Francisco newspaper that stressed the importance to his music of his race and his homosexuality.

Taylor, who was born in Boston in 1929, is, along with Art Tatum, Earl Hines, Bud Powell, and Thelonious Monk, one of the five most important jazz pianists to emerge since the end of World War II.

Vibraphonist Gary Burton (b. 1943) is another contemporary jazz musician who has publicly come out of the closet. A prominent composer and bandleader, Burton has had an exemplary career working with many of the leading figures in contemporary jazz, such as Stan Getz, George Shearing, Carla Bley, Keith Jarrett, and Pat Metheny. Although married twice, Burton had always known that there was a gay side to his personality. He had gay relationships before and in between each of his marriages.

The 1993 announcement by pianist Fred Hersch (b. 1955) that he was both HIV-positive and gay shocked the jazz community. For years after moving to New York from Cincinnati in the late 1970s, Hersch was so terrified that the celebrated jazz musicians with whom he was working might discover his homosexuality that he felt compelled to suppress his own identity. In order to protect himself from any damaging disclosures, Hersch radically divided his social world between gay friends and fellow musicians.

In 1996, Andy Bey (b. 1939), a suave African-American musician who, like his idol Nat King Cole, sings and plays the piano, also came out as an HIV-positive gay man.

glbtq Audiences

Jazz is one of the America's most significant cultural contributions. Yet homosexual and transgendered audiences in the second half of the twentieth century have expressed little interest in the contemporary developments of this vibrant cultural tradition.

Over the course of the twentieth century, the jazz scene has seemed to become less and less hospitable to gay men, lesbians, bisexuals, and transgendered people. Indeed, in an interview with John Gill, musician Gary Burton has argued that today "of all the forms of music, jazz is the least tolerant of homosexuality." Nevertheless, even despite a hostile atmosphere, the contributions of gay jazz artists such as Billy Strayhorn, Cecil Taylor, and Gary Burton have been significant.

Blues music as it flourished in the 1920s was women's music, and it often featured sexually-inflected lyrics performed by women who were openly bisexual or lesbian.

The Harlem Renaissance, an African-American literary movement of the 1920s and 1930s, included several important gay and lesbian writers.

Gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered persons have had tremendous influence on popular music, though some musical genres have been more receptive to a homosexual presence than others.

African-American Blues singer Gladys Bentley openly flaunted her lesbianism in the 1920s and 1930s, but recanted in the 1950s in an attempt to salvage her career.

Countee Cullen, an important member of the Harlem Renaissance, has coded references to homosexuality in much of his poetry.

Gravel-voiced vocalist and pianist Frances Faye warmly embraced her gay and lesbian audience and was openly bisexual at a time when few other performers dared to do the same.

A virtuoso jazz musician and leader of a number of successful all-women bands, Peggy Gilbert tirelessly promoted other female musicians and demanded that they receive respect and opportunities.

Langston Hughes, whose literary legacy is enormous and varied, was closeted, but homosexuality was an important influence on his literary imagination, and many of his poems may be read as gay texts.

Blues singer, lyricist, and actress Alberta Hunter, one of the top recording artists in the 1920s and 1930s, experienced a dramatic comeback in her old age.

A sharp social critic, novelist Armistead Maupin places his gay characters within a large framework of humanity, creating a social history of San Francisco during the tumultuous decades of the 1970s and 1980s.

"Mother of the Blues" Gertrude "Ma" Rainey made no secret of her relationships with women.

Gifted with a powerful voice and sophisticated musical artistry, singer Bessie Smith conducted her life by her own set of rules and had affairs with both men and women.

A major figure in American music who immensely enriched jazz by investing it with complexly orchestrated form, a prolific composer, arranger, and performing musician, Billy Strayhorn was unusual for his refusal to hide his homosexuality.

A powerhouse performer noted for her no-nonsense stage presence and a penchant for cross-dressing, blues singer and songwriter Big Mama Thornton not only established a signature style of her own, but also inspired mainstream rockers.

Perhaps best remembered for her award-winning performances as an actress, Ethel Waters was also a renowned Blues singer, known to have sexual relationships with other women.