Y. Bhekhirst is an
outsider music
Outsider music (from "outsider art") is music created by self-taught or naïve musicians. The term is usually applied to musicians who have little or no traditional musical experience, who exhibit childlike qualities in their music, or who suffe ...
ian based in
New Hyde Park
New Hyde Park is a village in the Towns of Hempstead and North Hempstead in Nassau County, on Long Island, in New York, United States. It is the anchor community of the Greater New Hyde Park area. The population was 9,712 at the 2010 census.
...
,
New York
New York most commonly refers to:
* New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York
* New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States
New York may also refer to:
Film and television
* '' ...
.
History
Although not much is known about him, his sole known record, ''Hot in the Airport'', released in 1986 and re-released in 1994 on New Hyde Park-based label HDG Records, is prized by some
outsider music
Outsider music (from "outsider art") is music created by self-taught or naïve musicians. The term is usually applied to musicians who have little or no traditional musical experience, who exhibit childlike qualities in their music, or who suffe ...
collectors for its decidedly
dadaistic, shambling songs. Both releases of ''Hot in the Airport'' were cassette-only. The title track of the album, which has been described as "oblique", was released contemporaneously as a 7-inch single, and has been anthologized in the compilation ''Interesting Results: Music by a Committee of One''. Slightly more polished musically than the other songs, it includes a number of lines sung in
Spanish.
Information on Y. Bhekhirst is scarce.
Irwin Chusid, who brought Bhekhirst's music to the public's attention in the mid-90s with ''
Songs in the Key of Z
''Songs in the Key of Z'' is a book and two compilation albums written and compiled by Irwin Chusid. The book and albums explore the field of what Chusid coined as "outsider music". Chusid defines outsider music as; "crackpot and visionary music, w ...
'', reported that a man calling himself Y. Bhekhirst was distributing his cassettes in New York record stores; handing them over to the clerks and then walking out abruptly without further explanation. Chusid and former colleague Michelle Boulé played selections from ''Hot in the Airport'' on numerous occasions when they worked together at station
WFMU.
Searches at the U.S. Copyright Office have revealed that a man named José Hugo Díaz Guzmán (born in 1946 and also known as Pepe Díaz Guzmán) is somehow involved with Y's music, as the name "H. Díaz" or "H. Díazg" shows up on most known releases of material from ''Hot in the Airport''. Some have speculated that Díaz Guzmán and Bhekhirst are the same individual.
["Outsider Music", p. 9]
Under various pseudonyms (such as "Al Pol", "Al Phol", "Al Phool" and "Al Phooz"), Díaz Guzmán appears to have copyrighted numerous songs and cassette recordings, the earliest in 1981 and the latest in 1992.
[Interesting Results, liner notes]
Discography
Albums
* ''Hot in the Airport'' (1986)
References
External links
Website on Y. Bhekhirst
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bhekhirst, Y.
Living people
Year of birth missing (living people)
Outsider musicians
American male singers
Singers from New York (state)
People from New Hyde Park, New York
Unidentified musicians