Terri Quaye

Who is Terri Quaye?

Terri" Quaye, also Theresa is a British singer, pianist, songwriter and percussionist. She is the daughter of Cab Kaye, older sister of Caleb Quaye and half-sister of Finley McGowan, who after deed poll name-change, is aka Finley Quaye.

Her first professional experience came in 1958, 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, she received her Ga name; Naa-Koshie. In the 1970s she worked with Manu Dibango, Syvilla Fort, 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 at The Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Inst. DC, USA and 1990s, gaining her master's in ethnomusicology in 1988 from the University of London. She has also exhibited as an ethnographic photographer.