When Dave Koz came out in a recent issue of The Advocate, he joined a vibrant, if somewhat troubled, historical relationship between the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered community and the jazz world. Since the birth of jazz in New Orleans in the early 20th century, GLBT subcultures have occasionally coexisted with African-American musical and artistic subcultures where both jazz musicians and gays found acceptance. From New Orleans Mardi Gras traditions, where gays, drag queens and transgendered people partied in disguise to jazzy tunes, to Harlem’s vibrant enclave of gay life and jazz flourishing, the histories of jazz and gay life overlap and intertwine, even while the male-dominated jazz scene has been an increasingly difficult one for women and gays to succeed in.

Pianist and singer-songwriter Tony Jackson, a mentor to Jelly Roll Morton and one of Storyville’s most solid entertainers, was a gay man working in turn-of-the-century New Orleans, though he eventually left for the relative freedom a gay black man could enjoy in Chicago. Jackson performed in a variety of genres, from opera to jazz and blues, and wrote the classic “Pretty Baby”, originally about a man.

In 1920s Harlem, may of the leading figures of the Harlem Renaissance, which largely influenced the progression of jazz, were gay or bisexual, including Langston Hughes, Wallace Thurman and Countee Cullen. While gay life in Harlem remained on the fringe, there was a gay hangout in Harlem called the Clam House, on 133rd Street, where openly lesbian jazz singer Gladys Bentley often headlined. Other influential lesbian and bisexual performers during the Renaissance included Bessie Smith, Ma Rainey and Ethel Waters. They used gay slang in their lyrics, and demanded, for instance, “If you can’t bring me a woman, bring me a sissy man.”

However, while many female jazz musicians have been lesbian or bisexual, jazz has increasingly been a noticeably macho, male-dominated genre, with the sexual orientation of many jazz musicians unknown.

The most prominent openly gay jazzman was Billy Strayhorn, a composer and arranger who worked closely with Duke Ellington and the author of “Take the ‘A’ Train”, “Lush Life”, “Chelsea Bridge” and “Something to Live For”. Strayhorn enjoyed full, intimate support from Ellington, and Strayhorn biographer David Hajdu in a Vanity Fair article quoted Ellington’s son Mercer as saying that he had always assumed that Strayhorn and his father “experimented” at some point.

Jazz pianist and saxophonist Billy Tipton (1914-1989) was a transgendered person born DorothyTipton who began as a female jazz singer in Kansas City, then changed genders in 1933 to continue as a saxophonist playing with well-known bands throughout the late 1930s and early 1940s. He made two recordings with his own band, the Billy Tipton Trio, and eventually married and raised a family in Spokane, Wash., where he was only revealed to have female origins after his death.

The macho image of bebop jazz, which came to prominence in the late 1940s and 1950s, reinforced the masculine environment in jazz music. However, post-bebop legend Miles Davis was occasionally rumored to be bisexual, according to some reports.

Contemporary jazz musicians who have publicly come out of the closet include vibraphonist Gary Burton, who Dave Koz cites as an inspiration for living as openly gay, lesbian jazz singer Patricia Barber, pianist Fred Hersch and African-American singer-pianist Andy Bey, who is out and HIV positive.