Demetrius (Demo) Cates is an American-Canadian musician. He is most noted as a two-time

Juno Award The Juno Awards, more popularly known as the JUNOS, are awards presented annually to Canadian musical artists and bands to acknowledge their artistic and technical achievements in all aspects of music. New members of the Canadian Music Hall of ...

nominee for R&B/Soul Recording of the Year, receiving nominations at the

Juno Awards of 1985 The Juno Awards of 1985, representing Canadian music industry achievements of the previous year, were awarded on 4 November 1985 in Toronto. The ceremony was hosted by Andrea Martin and Martin Short at the Toronto Harbour Castle Westin Hotel, Har ...

for "Memories of Moments" and at the

Juno Awards of 1989 The Juno Awards of 1989, representing Canadian music industry achievements of the previous year, were awarded on 12 March 1989 in Toronto at a ceremony in the O'Keefe Centre. André-Philippe Gagnon was the host for the ceremonies, which were bro ...

for "Secret Love". Cates began his musical career in

Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at th ...

Michigan Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and the ...

as a member of the soul/funk band The Fabulous Counts. After that band recorded part of its 1971 album ''What's Up Front That Counts'' in

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...

, Cates opted to stay in the city, performing as a session musician for

Lenny Breau Leonard Harold Breau (August 5, 1941 – August 12, 1984) was an American-Canadian guitarist. He blended many styles of music, including jazz, country, classical, and flamenco. Inspired by country guitarists like Chet Atkins, Breau used fingers ...

and Wayne St. John.Greg Quill, "Cates cuts a new 'demo'". September 5, 1986. In 1981 he collaborated with Bobby Boyer and Jay W. McGee on ''Rap the Night Away'',Michael Rancic
"Finding Mr. Q"
'' Hazlitt'', March 17, 2021. which has been credited as the first known full-length

Canadian hip hop The Canadian hip hop scene was established in the 1980s. Through a variety of factors, it developed much slower than Canada's popular rock music scene, and apart from a short-lived burst of mainstream popularity from 1989 to 1991, it remained l ...

album. He recorded a number of

soul In many religious and philosophical traditions, there is a belief that a soul is "the immaterial aspect or essence of a human being". Etymology The Modern English noun ''soul'' is derived from Old English ''sāwol, sāwel''. The earliest attes ...

rhythm and blues Rhythm and blues, frequently abbreviated as R&B or R'n'B, is a genre of popular music that originated in African-American communities in the 1940s. The term was originally used by record companies to describe recordings marketed predominantly ...

and

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major ...

singles, and was a regular performer in Toronto jazz clubs. Although principally a

saxophonist The saxophone (often referred to colloquially as the sax) is a type of single-reed woodwind instrument with a conical body, usually made of brass. As with all single-reed instruments, sound is produced when a reed on a mouthpiece vibrates to pr ...

, Cates has also performed as a jazz and R&B vocalist.Claudelle Boudreau, "Smooth jazz in the Country: Artists, food and refreshments; people on the go". ''

Hamilton Spectator ''The Hamilton Spectator'', founded in 1846, is a newspaper published weekdays and Saturdays in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. One of the largest Canadian newspapers by circulation,''The Hamilton Spectator'' is owned by Torstar. History ''The Hami ...

'', May 19, 2005. He has also had occasional supporting or guest roles as an actor, including in the television series ''

Forever Knight ''Forever Knight'' is a Canadian television series about Nick Knight, an 800-year-old vampire working as a police detective in modern-day Toronto, Ontario. Wracked with guilt for centuries of killing others, he seeks redemption by working as a ho ...

'', ''

Goosebumps ''Goosebumps'' is a series of children's horror fiction novels by American author R. L. Stine, published by Scholastic Publishing. The protagonists in these stories are tweens or young teens who find themselves in scary circumstances usually i ...

'' and ''

The Jane Show ''The Jane Show'' is a Canadian television sitcom produced by Shaftesbury Films that was shown on Global from 2006 to 2007. The series stars Teresa Pavlinek as Jane Black, an aspiring novelist who takes a corporate job after her life undergoes a ...

'', and the films ''

Blues Brothers 2000 ''Blues Brothers 2000'' is a 1998 American musical comedy film directed by John Landis from a screenplay written by Landis and Dan Aykroyd, both of whom were also producers. The film, starring Aykroyd and John Goodman, is a sequel to the 1980 fi ...

'' and ''

A Raisin in the Sun ''A Raisin in the Sun'' is a play by Lorraine Hansberry that debuted on Broadway in 1959. The title comes from the poem "Harlem" (also known as "A Dream Deferred") by Langston Hughes. The story tells of a black family's experiences in south Chi ...

''.

References

External links

* 20th-century African-American male singers 20th-century Black Canadian male singers 21st-century African-American male singers American jazz saxophonists American jazz singers American rhythm and blues singers American male film actors American male television actors American expatriate musicians in Canada Canadian jazz saxophonists Canadian jazz singers Canadian rhythm and blues singers Canadian male film actors Canadian male television actors African-American male actors Black Canadian male actors Male actors from Detroit Male actors from Toronto Musicians from Detroit Musicians from Toronto {{Canada-singer-stub