Chief Bey

Chief Bey, born James Hawthorne on April 17, 1913, in Yemassee, South Carolina, was an American jazz percussionist, vocalist, visual artist, and folklorist of African traditions. He died on April 8, 2004, at his Brooklyn home of stomach cancer at the age of 90. After his family relocated first to Brooklyn and then to Harlem, he began playing drums and singing in church choirs. He served in both the Army and Navy during World War II and also attended cosmetology school. He adopted the name Chief Bey after joining the Moorish Science Temple of America, a Muslim sect whose members commonly add the suffix "Bey" to their names. He was later ordained as a Shango Priest in Nigeria.

Bey's performing career encompassed jazz recording, live performance, and the stage. During the 1950s, he participated in an international tour of Porgy and Bess alongside his wife, soprano opera singer Louise Hawthorne, in a production starring Leontyne Price and Cab Calloway. His Broadway career included the 1973 musical Raisin, the cast recording of which was released on Columbia that same year. His recording work as a sideman was extensive, appearing on Herbie Mann's Herbie Mann at the Village Gate, Art Blakey's The African Beat, and Ahmed Abdul-Malik's Sounds of Africa, all released in 1962. He also contributed to albums by Harry Belafonte, Miriam Makeba, and Pharoah Sanders, among others. As a leader, he released Children of the House of God on Mapleshade in 1997. He collaborated with a wide range of musicians throughout his career, including Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Nina Simone, Geoffrey Holder, Randy Weston, Mongo Santamaria, Eddie Palmieri, and John Coltrane.

Beyond performance and recording, Bey was active as an educator and instrument maker. He taught the Shékéré, a West African gourd percussion instrument, at the Griot Institute at Intermediate School 246 in Brooklyn. As a drum maker, he developed the No Whole Tension Technique of roping skin onto drums. He performed on recordings by Babatunde Olatunji as a vocalist and also played African drums, Agbé, large Shékéré, and Agogo bells.

Bey's first wife, Louise Hawthorne, died three years before him, having traveled the world with him while performing operas including Aida and Madame Butterfly. Together they had three children: David, Denise, and Carolyn. His common-law wife, Barbara Kenyatta, born Barbara Ann Coleman in Harlem on June 9, 1944, was a priestess of Yémaya in the Yoruba religion; she collapsed and died four days after Bey's own death.