Chief Bey dies

[brownie]

From AP:

James Hawthorne Bey

NEW YORK (AP) _ James Hawthorne Bey, a jazz percussionist and African folklorist who recorded with such artists as Art Blakey and Herbie Mann, died Thursday of stomach cancer, said Garland Roberts, a cousin. Bey was 91.

Bey, known to his students and on recordings as Chief Bey, performed in an international tour of "Porgy and Bess" starring Leontyne Price and Cab Calloway in the 1950s. He also began a busy recording career, appearing on Mann's "At the Village Gate" (1961) and Blakey's "The African Beat" (1962) as well as on albums by Harry Belafonte, Pharoah Saunders and others.

He made several theatrical and film appearances, performing as an African drummer in the Broadway musical "Raisin," which ran from 1973 to 1975, and as a Brooklyn resident in the 1995 films "Smoke" and "Blue in the Face."

In his 80s, he taught the shekere, a West African percussion instrument. "These are my babies," he said of the instrument in an interview with The Associated Press in 1998. "I love them."

Bey was still drumming in public as recently as October, when he performed at a drum symposium at New York University.

Bey was born James Hawthorne in Yamassee, S.C.. As a boy, he began playing drums and singing in church choirs. He took the name Bey after joining the Moorish Science Temple, a Muslim sect.

[clifford_thornton]

That's rather unfortunate. He will be missed...

Admittedly, though, I had no idea he was in his nineties. Wow.

[mikeweil]

That's rather unfortunate. He will be missed...

Admittedly, though, I had no idea he was in his nineties. Wow.

Same here. Very good to read to can become that old with drumming ..... R.I.P.

I recommend Herbie Mann's first Atlantic Village Gate LP for a sample of his drumming.

He plays a very good solo in "It ain't necessarily so".

Another one is in "New York is a jungle festival" on the follow-up LP.

I always thought he was born in Africa, BTW - the first Herbie Mann LP liner states he is from Dakar ...

Edited April 13, 2004 by mikeweil

[king ubu]

...

I recommend Herbie Mann's first Atlantic Village Gate LP for a sample of his drumming.

He plays a very good solo in "It ain't necessarily so".

...

Love that one! It was one of the first jazz discs I had!

ubu

[mikeweil]

Love that one! It was one of the first jazz discs I had!

Must have been among my first ten or twenty, too, back in the days of vinyl. Herbie was a much better musician than his reputation, and featured an enormous number of great players over the years.

[brownie]

Chief Bey's widow collapses at funeral.

From AP:

NEW YORK (AP) - Barbara Kenyatta Bey, the widow of jazz percussionist and African folklorist James Hawthorne Bey and a priestess of the Yoruba religion, died Saturday after collapsing at his funeral last week. She was 59.

Barbara Bey collapsed at a Brooklyn church April 13 and was taken to a hospital, where she died Saturday, said Garland Roberts, James Bey's cousin. She was suffering from complications of pneumonia.

The day she died would have been James Bey's 91st birthday and the couple's 31st wedding anniversary, Roberts said.

James Bey, who was known professionally as Chief Bey and recorded with such artists as Art Blakey and Herbie Mann before turning to teaching, died of cancer on April 8.

Barbara Kenyatta Bey was born Barbara Ann Coleman in Harlem on June 9, 1944.

She graduated from Harlem Hospital School of Nursing in 1972 and worked as a registered nurse until 1989.

While in nursing school, she attended classes of African, Haitian, Afro-Cuban and Afro-Brazilian dance and Yoruba religion at the Sylvia Forts Dance Studio, and met Bey through the school.

She was initiated into Yemaja, the religion of Nigeria's Yoruba people, in 1976.