Finley Quaye (born 25 March 1974, in Edinburgh, Scotland) is a
Scottish
musician.
He won the 1997 Mobo Award for best Reggae act, and
the 1998 BRIT
Award for Best British Male Solo Artist.
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 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 musician. Finley was inspired
early on in his childhood by jazz musicians, Pete King and Ronnie
Scott, and Lionel Hampton. Additionally, Duke
Ellington was Finley's godfather. Finley heard jazz as a child living
in London with his mother who would take young Finley with her
regularly to Ronnie Scott's 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 introduced him to
Lionel Hampton in Edinburgh. Duke Ellington made an indelible impact on
Finley's life and his musical outlook. Finley was on tour with his band
when he met his father for the first time in Amsterdam.
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.
No record label wants his music anymore.
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.
Discography
- Finley's Rainbow White Label (1993)
- Finley's Rainbow on AGCG's Black Secret Technology
(1995)
- Maverick A Strike (1997)
- It Ain't Necessarily So on Red Hot + Rhapsody: The
Gershwin Groove (1998)
- Vanguard (2000)
- Caravan on Timo Mass' Loud (2002)
- Much More Than Much Love (2004)
- Oranges and Lemons (EP) (2005)
- For My Children's Love (2006)
External links
