| Finley Quaye | |
|---|---|
| Born | 25 March 1974 Edinburgh, Scotland |
| Years active | 1993–present |
| Website | http://www.finleyquaye.com/ |
Finley Quaye (born 25 March 1974, Edinburgh, Scotland)[1] 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.
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Quaye is the youngest son of jazz musician, Cab Kaye, the half-brother of guitarist, Caleb Quaye, and brother of jazz musician, Terri Quaye. Finley's mother, Sharon McGowan, died when he was 10 years old in London of a heroin overdose.
Born in Edinburgh, 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 and scaffolder.
His father was born in London, but considered himself as African. Although known as Cab Kaye his full name was Nii Lante Augustus Kwamlah Quaye and was a Chief of the GA tribe centralized in Jamestown, Accra. Kaye was the son of the pianist Caleb Jonas Quaye a.k.a Mope Desmond, 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 musician. Mope Desmond, Cab Kaye and Finley Quaye have all played Glasgow's Barrowlands, Wolverhampton's Wulfrun Hall and London's Cafe d'Paris. Finley was on tour with his band when he met his father for the first time in Amsterdam.
Finley Quaye was inspired early on in his childhood by jazz musicians, Pete King and Ronnie Scott who started off his musical career making tea and running errands in Finley's father's band, and Lionel Hampton. Additionally, Duke Ellington was Finley Quaye's godfather. Quaye heard jazz as a child living in London with his mother, who would take him with her to Ronnie Scott's jazz club, to catch performances of American jazz musicians touring Europe such as Buddy Rich, who recorded his live album there in 1980. His mother introduced him to Lionel Hampton in Edinburgh.
He has two children; Theo and Caleb.
He made a solo recording contract 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".[2] His reputation was established by Maverick A Strike, 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. In 1998, he performed George Gershwin's "It Ain't Necessarily So" for the Red Hot Organization's compilation album Red Hot + Rhapsody, a tribute to George Gershwin, which raised money for various charities devoted to increasing AIDS awareness and fighting the disease.Two more albums were released on Epic, Vanguard (2000) and Much More Than Much Love (2004). "Spiritualized" became his last single to score a top 40 landing in the UK charts when it was released in September of the year 2000, reaching number 26. In 2004 the single "Dice" was released in collaboration with William Orbit, and featuring Beth Orton. Quaye has been living and working in Berlin since 2005. Finley Quaye released the EP "Pound for Pound" with Intune Records in 2008.
He is currently working on a new album with A Guy Called Gerald and The Stereo MCs. Finley recorded "Pound For Pound" in 2007 with Norman Grant of the Twinkle Brothers featuring Sly Dunbar and Lloyd Parks. In the past he has worked with Osibisa, both on stage and in the recording studio, plus Iggy Pop, Tricky, Randy Savage, Primal Scream, Lee Scratch Perry and Buju Banton.
He has supported James Brown, Luciano, Weller, The Verve, Ben Harper, Fun Loving Criminals, Robbie Williams and The Stereo MCs, and he has been supported by Amy Winehouse, Natty, Ken Boothe and Cath Coffey of the Stereo MCs.