Transmissions: The Music Of Beverly Glenn-Copeland

Album review

Beverly Glenn-Copeland’s resurrection, fifty years after her debut, is like a fairy tale - one which unearths hidden treasures from the past. The transgender American singer grew up in Philadelphia with a pianist for a father and a gospel fan for a mother, before studying Lied in Montreal and then opera in New York. He was destined for success. And yet... He began with two folk albums in the early 70’s but despite having a manager who was close to Bob Dylan and who had signed The Doors his career gradually took a more secretive turn. In the following decade he only released experimental electronic compositions on cassette tapes, including Keyboard Fantasies which was composed with a synth and a drum machine in 1986.

The album gained a cult following, especially in Japan where the 500 copies became a sought-after collector’s item. After catching the attention of two big names in the electronic scene, Four Tet and Caribou, Glenn-Copeland piqued festival programmers’ curiosity with a documentary on his life in 2019 - Keyboard Fantasies: The Beverly Glenn-Copeland Story. Listening to Transmissions, which sounds like an anthology, it’s clear that Glenn-Copeland has been touched by grace. His performance on La Vita is simply amazing - the kind of song that stops you in your tracks. And though fate kept him waiting, Glenn-Copeland, 76 years old, never doubted himself. “When I was younger,” he told the New York Times, “I was looking at the goal — you get signed, you get heard. I didn’t want fame, but I wanted to share my music with the world. By the time I was in my later 30s, I was no longer looking at that goal,” he continued. “I just knew this is what I was supposed to do, all I knew how to do. So things are just meant to be, but they’re about timing.” © Smaël Bouaici/Qobuz