Salome Bey

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Salome Bey with Babs Gonzales (left)

Salome Bey (born October 10, 1933 in Newark (New Jersey) , † August 8, 2020 in Toronto ) was a Canadian-American jazz and blues singer , actress and composer . Bey was an award-winning singer and was known as Canada's First Lady of the Blues. Bey wrote and played the leading role in the Indigo revue .

Live and act

Bey performed across the United States with her brother Andy and sister Geraldine in the vocal trio Andy and the Bey Sisters between 1957 and 1966 . In 1964 she moved to Toronto, where she sang jazz, blues and spirituals in nightclubs as well as on radio and television . She appeared on the grandstand of the Canadian National Exhibition in 1969 and enjoyed particular success in musicals and the revues by Robert Swerdlow Blue SA (1969) and Justine (1970), with whom she also appeared on Broadway in New York until 1972 . This was followed by leading roles in Galt MacDermot's Dude (New York 1972); in Don't Bother Me, I Can't Cope (Toronto 1973, Washington 1974); and in Your Arms Too Short to Box with God (New York 1975-77, the album production of which received a Grammy Award nomination ).

Bey wrote and starred in Indigo , a story of the blues that aired on Basin Street in Toronto from 1978 to 1980 and on CBC TV in 1984 . Her revue Shimmytime (via Ethel Waters ) was produced in Basin Street in 1983 . Another production she wrote, Madame Gertrude (about Ma Rainey , played by Jackie Richardson ), followed there in 1985. In the same year Bey sang alongside Anne Murray , Gordon Lightfoot , Bryan Adams and Neil Young (in the all-star ensemble Northern Lights ) launched the charity single Tears Are Not Enough .

In 1988, Bey's children's musical Rainboworld followed , which was performed at the Young People's Theater with young actors such as Deborah Cox and Divine Brown . Bey has also appeared in Thunder, Perfect Mind (Toronto Free Theater, 1985), Mother Goose (Royal Alexandra Theater, 1985) and Coming Through Slaughter (Silver Dollar Tavern, 1989).

Bey's albums include Salome Bey (1970), Songs from Dude (1972), and Jazz Canada Europe '79 (with recordings from performances at the North Sea Jazz Festival and the Montreux Jazz Festival ). Horace Silver got them for his albums The United States of Mind, Phase 2: Total Response (1970/71) and The United States of Mind, Phase 3: All (1972). She also sang on albums with the Montreal Jubilation Gospel Choir . She has appeared as a singer in concerts, clubs and on radio and television. She often performed with her daughters Jacintha Tuku and Saidah Baba Talibah, who accompanied her along with other musicians as The Relatives . She was also known in Canada for her rousing interpretation of the song Mon Pays , which she sang for the first time in 1970 in the Toronto revue Spring Thaw .

In 2004 Bey showed the first signs of dementia .

Prizes and awards

Bey received an Obie Award in 1972 for her performance in the Broadway production of Justine (renamed Love Me, Love My Children ) on Broadway. In 1981 she received a Dora Award for her performance in Indigo . Bey also received a 1991 Toronto Arts Award and the Martin Luther King Jr. Lifetime Achievement Award from the Black Theater Workshop of Montreal . For her achievements she was honored as a member of the Order of Canada .

Discographic notes

  • Andy and the Bey Sisters: 'Round Midnight (1965)
  • Salome Bey (1970)
  • In Montreux (1981)
  • I Like Your Company (1992)

Web links

Commons : Salome Bey  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Singer Salome Bey, known as Canada's first lady of the blues, dies at age 86
  2. ↑ The Canadian Encyclopedia and Discogs give 1939 as the year of birth.
personal data
SURNAME Bey, Salome
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Canadian-American jazz and blues singer, actress and songwriter
DATE OF BIRTH October 10, 1933
PLACE OF BIRTH Newark (New Jersey)
DATE OF DEATH August 8, 2020
Place of death Toronto