Finley Quaye

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Finley Quaye (born 25 March 1974, in Edinburgh, Scotland) is a British musician. He won the 1997 Mobo Award for best Reggae act, and the 1998 Brit Award for Best British Male Solo Artist.

[edit] Life and career

Quaye is the son of jazz musician, Cab Kaye and Sharon McGowan, and the brother of noted guitarist, Caleb Quaye. Finley is in no way related to Tricky. Both artists found that their parents shared the same name and for a while, thought they might be related.

Quaye went to school in London, Manchester and Edinburgh. However, he left school with no qualifications. Before making records he took employment spraying cars, smoking fish, making futons and as a stage-rigger.

His father was born in London, yet considered himself as an African, and although known as Cab Kaye his full name was Nii Lante Augustus Kwamlah Quaye. Kaye was also the son of the pianist Caleb Jonas Quaye, who was born in Accra, Ghana. Kaye did not grow up with his father and only found out, in his twenties, about his father's history as a musican. Finley was inspired early on in his child hood by jazz musicians, Pete King and Ronnie Scott, and Lionel Hampton, additionally, Duke Ellington was Finleys god father. Finley heard jazz as a child living in London with his mother who would take young Finley with her regularly to Ronnie Scotts jazz club catching very rare performances of American jazz musicians touring Europe such as Buddy Rich who recorded his live album there in 1980. His mother intoduced him to Lionel Hampton in Edinburgh. Duke Ellington made an indelable impact on Finleys life and his musical outlook.

Incidently, Finley was on tour with his band, when he met his father for the first time in Amsterdam. Music is in very much in the blood. He made a solo record deal with Polydor Records, and moved to New York. He began working with Epic/Sony when Polydor let him out of contract, and in late 1997 he reached the UK Top 20 twice with "Sunday Shining", and "Even After All". His reputation was established by Maverick A Strike, an adventurous but accessible album released in September 1997. It went gold less than three weeks later, and led directly to the Brit Award victory. Maverick A Strike is now multi platinum. Two more albums were released on Epic, Vanguard and Much More Than Much Love.

Quaye is now independent of any record label.

In 2004 the song "Dice", in collaboration with William Orbit, and featuring Beth Orton was a minor hit, helped in part by its inclusion on The O.C. soundtrack.

Quaye has been living and working in Berlin since 2005.