Finley Quaye born 25 March 1974 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. 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 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. Music is in very much in the blood, four generations of music making. Mope Desmond, Cab Kaye and Finley Quaye have all played Glasgow's Barrowlands, Wolverhampton's Wolfrun Hall and London's Cafe d'Paris. 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 (2000) and Much More Than Much Love (2004). 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 Music from the OC: Mix 1. This song was also used on NBC's Chuck in the episode "Chuck Vs. The Sandworm". This was a reference when The O.C. used the song. Quaye has been living and working in Berlin since 2005.
Discography
- Finley's Rainbow White Label (1993)
- Finley's Rainbow on Black Secret Technology (1995)
- Maverick A Strike LP (1997)
- It Ain't Necessarily So on Red Hot & Gershwin (1998)
- Vanguard LP (2000)
- Caravan on Loud (2002)
- Much More Than Much Love LP (2004)
- Oranges and Lemons EP (2005)
- For My Children's Love 7" (2006)
- We Are Dreamers on Cathy Claret's Gypsy Flower (2007)
- After Tonight on La La La (2007)
