Faruq Z. Bey

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Faruq Z. Bey (actually Jesse Davis , born February 4, 1942 in Detroit ; † June 1, 2012 there ) was an American jazz musician ( saxophone , flute ), composer and lyricist.

Live and act

Jesse Davis's parents sang in church and gospel choirs , his father was a bus driver, his mother a housewife. He grew up in the Detroit neighborhood of Conant Gardens and studied at Wayne County Community College after high school. He first played the double bass before he came to rhythm and blues through the singer Eddie Floyd and to free jazz through a concert by John Coltrane / Pharoah Sanders in 1966 . Under the influence of the race riots in Detroit in 1967 , he changed his name first to Malik , then to Faruq Zinji Bey . In the late 1960s and early 1970s he worked in the jazz scene at the music cooperative Detroit Artists Workshop and the Creative Arts Collective . As a member of the Bey Brothers formation (with Sadiq Muhammad and Jalil Bey) he appeared in the Concept East Theater ; he also played with Roy Brooks and the Sun Ra Arkestra.

In 1972 he co-founded the formation Griot Galaxy , with the brass section from Bey, David McMurray and Anthony Holland , as well as the guitarist A. Spencer Barefield , the bassist Jaribu Shahid and the drummer Tani Tabbal . The ensemble saw itself as the Detroit counterpart to the Chicago Art Ensemble of Chicago . In 1991 the group finally disbanded. Bey played with the Northwoods Improvisers ensemble in the following years ; with the formation nine albums were created. He also published two books of poetry, Year of the Iron Sheep and Etudes in Wanton Nesses , as well as Toward a 'Ratio'nal Aesthetic (1989). Bey, who also worked with Anthony Braxton , Roscoe Mitchell , Archie Shepp and Leroy Jenkins over the course of his career , died in early June 2012 of complications from emphysema .

Discographic notes

  • Griot Galaxy - Kins (Black & White, 1982)
  • Griot Galaxy - Opus Krampus ( Sound Aspects , 1985)
  • Griot Galaxy - Live at the DIA (Entropy Stereo Recordings, 2003)
  • Northwoods Improvisers w / Faruq Z. Bey - 19 Moons (Entropy Stereo Recordings, concert recording from 2001)
  • Faruq Z. Bey with Northwoods Improvisers - Rwanda (Qbico, 2005)
  • Northwoods Improvisers w / Faruq Z. Bey - Infa'a ( Qbico , 2006)
  • Dennis González & Faruq Z Bey w / Northwoods Improvisers Septet - Hymn for Tomasz Stańko (Qbico, 2009)
  • Faruq Z. Bey w / Northwoods Improvisers - Primal Waters (Sagittarius A-Star, 2012)
  • Faruq Z. Bey 4et - Live at the Detroit Art Space (Sagittarius A-Star, 2012)
  • Synchronous (Sagittarius A-Star, 2012)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ date of birth according to information from Allmusic ; according to other sources, the dates of birth are uncertain. He was born in 1941 or 1942. See Jeff Tamarkin in JazzTimes ( Memento from June 7, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
  2. ↑ a b Obituary ( Memento from June 6, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) (English)
personal data
SURNAME Bey, Faruq Z.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American jazz musician and composer
DATE OF BIRTH February 4, 1942
PLACE OF BIRTH Detroit
DATE OF DEATH June 1, 2012
Place of death Detroit