Monday 18 April 2011

Music: Theresa "Terri" Quaye aka Theresa Naa-Koshie


“Blessed with 4 generations of musical genes. I made music my way of life from a very early age. I started singing with my father Cab Kaye and his bebop jazz band as a young girl. Always staying true to jazz, my career has travelled through the genres of bebop, swing, free jazz and now returned to settled into mellow classics and my own compositions.” Terri Quaye

A big part of Ghana’s musical history, especially the part Ghanaian musicians played in British jazz music history, Terri Quaye, arguably the most talented of Ghana’s most talented music dynasty -the Quayes is new to Ghana Rising radar. And even though Finley and Tricky are on our airwaves -it only now that I‘m enjoying the delights of, ‘Life Is A Carousel’, ‘Lonely Clown’ and of course, ‘A Place I Know’ by Terri Quaye. I look forward to our community and beyond -celebrating this gem-of-a-musician. You can listen and download Terri Quaye’s beautiful music via: http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/terriquaye & For more info about Terri Quaye visit: http://www.jazzcocktail.com/Jazzcocktail/Welcome.html

More Info
Theresa "Terri" Quaye, also Theresa Naa-Koshie (born 8 November 1940, Bodmin) is an English singer, pianist, and percussionist. She is the daughter of Cab Kaye and the older sister of Caleb Quaye and Finley Quaye.


Her first professional experience came in 1962, singing with a Latin jazz band led by Ido Martin. She sang accompanied by Colin Purbrook, Leon Cohen, and Brian Lemon, then did a residency with Frank Holder. In Germany she worked in the group The Merrymakers as a conga player and singer, and played with Carmell Jones, Dave Pike, and Leo Wright. After a trip to Ghana, the birthplace of her grandfather, musician Caleb Quaye (1895-1922), she began using the surname Naa-koshie professionally. In the 1970s she worked with Manu Dibango, Syvilla Fort, Harold Mabern, Junie Booth, Richard Davis, Billy Higgins, Archie Shepp, Dudu Pukwana, John Stevens, Trevor Stevens, Dr. John, and Art "Shaki" Lewis. She became more active as an educator and ethnomusicologist in the 1980s and 1990s, gaining her master's in ethnomusicology in 1988 from the University of London. She has done mostly solo piano/vocal work in the 1990s, and opened her own bar in London, Jazzers. (Credit: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terri_Quaye)

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