Terri Quaye

Theresa "Terri" Quaye, also Theresa Naa-Koshie (born November 8, 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 Forte, 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.

References

*Val Wilmer, "Terri Quaye". "Grove Jazz" online.