Salome Bey (October 10, 1933 – August 8, 2020)While ''The Canadian Encyclopedia'' gives her year of birth as 1939, other sources say she was born in 1933 or 1944. was an American-born Canadian singer-songwriter, composer, and actress who lived 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, since 1966. In 2005, she was made an honorary Member of the

Order of Canada The Order of Canada (french: Ordre du Canada; abbreviated as OC) is a Canadian state order and the second-highest honour for merit in the system of orders, decorations, and medals of Canada, after the Order of Merit. To coincide with the ...

. In 2022 she was honoured by Canada Post with a commemorative postage stamp for her contributions to Canadian music and theatre.

Biography

Born to a middle-class African-American family in

New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...

, Bey formed a vocal group with her brother Andy Bey and sister

Geraldine Bey Geraldine Bey de Haas (born 1935) is an American jazz singer and concert organizer. Bey performed with the vocal trio Andy and the Bey Sisters with brother Andy Bey and sister Salome Bey in the 1960s. Then she married Eddie de Haas, with whom ...

(de Haas), known as Andy and the Bey Sisters, performing in local clubs and touring North America and Europe. After moving to Toronto in 1964 and playing the jazz club circuit, she became known as "Canada's First Lady of Blues". Bey appeared on Broadway in ''

Your Arms Too Short to Box with God ''Your Arms Too Short to Box with God: A Soaring Celebration in Song and Dance'' is a Broadway musical based on the Biblical Book of Matthew, with music and lyrics by Alex Bradford and a book by Vinnette Carroll, who also directed. Micki Grant was ...

'', for which she was nominated for a

Grammy Award The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by many as the most pres ...

for her work on the cast album. She put together a blues & jazz cabaret show on the history of black music, ''Indigo'' – which earned her the Dora Mavor Moore Award for outstanding performance. The show was later taped for TV networks. Bey recorded two albums with

Horace Silver Horace Ward Martin Tavares Silver (September 2, 1928 – June 18, 2014) was an American jazz pianist, composer, and arranger, particularly in the hard bop style that he helped pioneer in the 1950s. After playing tenor saxophone and piano at sch ...

, and released live albums of her performances with the

Montreal Jubilation Gospel Choir The Montreal Jubilation Gospel Choir is a choir from Montreal, Quebec, Canada that sings primarily traditional and contemporary Gospel music. The choir's repertoire also includes a mix of music ranging from Gregorian chant to Bach chorales, tradit ...

and at the

Montreux Jazz Festival The Montreux Jazz Festival (formerly Festival de Jazz Montreux and Festival International de Jazz Montreux) is a music festival in Switzerland, held annually in early July in Montreux on the Lake Geneva shoreline. It is the second-largest annual ...

. She was part of the Canadian supergroup Northern Lights which performed the charity single " Tears Are Not Enough" in 1985. Bey can be seen in the music video for the song singing the line "Every woman, child and man" with Mark Holmes of Platinum Blonde and

Lorraine Segato Lorraine P. Segato (born June 17, 1956 in Hamilton, Ontario) is a Canadian pop singer-songwriter, best known as the lead vocalist for and a principal songwriter of new wave and pop rock group The Parachute Club, with which she continues to pe ...

The Parachute Club The Parachute Club was a Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections ex ...

. She received the Toronto Arts Award for her contributions to the performing arts in 1992, and the

Martin Luther King Jr. Martin Luther King Jr. (born Michael King Jr.; January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968) was an American Baptist minister and activist, one of the most prominent leaders in the civil rights movement from 1955 until his assassination in 1968 ...

Award for lifetime achievement from the

Black Theatre Workshop Black Theatre Workshop (BTW) is a non-profit theater company based in Montreal and is one of the oldest Black English-speaking professional theatre companies in the Canada. It was established by Clarence Bayne and Arthur Goddard, who previously al ...

of Montreal in 1996. Beginning in her early sixties, Bey began showing signs of

dementias Dementia is a disorder which manifests as a set of related symptoms, which usually surfaces when the brain is damaged by injury or disease. The symptoms involve progressive impairments in memory, thinking, and behavior, which negatively affec ...

. As of 2011 her illness had progressed to the point that she could no longer perform. Bey was a member of the Canadian charity Artists Against Racism.

Personal life

She married Howard Berkeley Matthews on April 7, 1964; he was most noted for partnering with Dave Mann,

Archie Alleyne Archie Alleyne (January 7, 1933 – June 8, 2015) was a Canadian jazz drummer.John Henry Jackson John Henry Jackson (1938 - December 11, 2018) was an American-Canadian football player and restaurateur.Morgan Campbell"John Henry Jackson was a quarterback, restaurateur and pioneer" ''Toronto Star'', December 13, 2018. Football career Born in C ...

in The Underground Railroad, a

soul food Soul food is an ethnic cuisine traditionally prepared and eaten by African Americans, originating in the Southern United States.Soul Food originated with the foods that were given to enslaved Black people by their white owners on Souther ...

restaurant in Toronto. They had three children, including the singer

SATE Satay ( , in USA also , ), or sate in Indonesian spelling, is a Southeast Asian dish of seasoned, skewered and grilled meat, served with a sauce. The earliest preparations of satay is believed to have originated in Javanese cuisine, but h ...

, formerly known as Saidah Baba Talibah, and singer/performance artist Jacintha Tuku Matthews (tUkU). Matthews died in August 2016 at the age of 80, and Bey died August 8, 2020, at the age of 86.John R. Kennedy
"Canada's First Lady Of Blues Salome Bey Dies"
''

iHeartRadio Canada Bell Media Radio, G.P. (formerly CHUM Radio), operating as iHeartRadio Canada, is the radio broadcasting and music events subsidiary of Canadian media conglomerate Bell Media. The company has its origins in CHUM Limited, which was acquired by ...

'', August 9, 2020.

Notes

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Bey, Salome 1933 births Canadian people of African-American descent American emigrants to Canada 20th-century Black Canadian women singers Canadian blues singers Canadian women jazz singers Canadian gospel singers Dora Mavor Moore Award winners Members of the Order of Canada Musicians from Toronto Musicians from Newark, New Jersey 2020 deaths Black Canadian actresses 21st-century Black Canadian women singers