Cab Kaye - Politics

Politics

In the early 1960s the Ghanaian Ramblers Dance Band covered Kaye's highlife song "Beautiful Ghana" under the new title "Work and Happiness". This song, released by Decca Recordings, West Africa, was frequently played during Kwame Nkrumah's regime as part of the political "Work and Happiness" program.

After a military coup (Nkrumah was deposed in 1966), the supporters of the previous regime were in a difficult situation, as was Cab Kaye, who had to explain his political views behind the "Work and Happiness" song (Evening News, 12 October 1966). Fortunately his sister Norma had married, in Nigeria, Dr J. T. Nelson-Cole and offered Kaye a new home base in Lagos. This was the end of his political career but the Pan-Africanism of Kwame Nkrumah, calling for a politically united Africa, would remain one of the few political ideas that Kaye supported for the rest of his life.

Yet he never disengaged entirely from political life. From 1965 Kaye played alternately in New York, Europe and Africa. He made good use of his cultural background from Africa and Europe. In the New York Amsterdam News (18 January 1965) he had a letter printed with the lines: "I am proud, I am African I am proud, I am black". This text, signed by Nii Lante Quaye (657 Crotona Park, Bronx) was consistent with the ideas of the emerging Black Power movement.

While he was announced in New York under the name "Nii Lante Quaye" as a special act (for example, in a flyer announcing Cab Kaye as a guest artist in the show of Ed Nixon Jr, better known as "Nick La Tour" in St. Stephan’s Methodist Church, Broadway on 22 May 1966). The show master Cab Kaye was announced in Ghanaian flyers of this time as "MC” (Master of Ceremony) Cab Kaye. He performed regularly on Ghanaian and Nigerian radio and television: on 16 November 1966 in It's Time for Show Biz with the Spree City Stompers from Berlin; on 6 January 1967 with “the Paramount Eight Dance Band" on Ghanaian television's Bandstand; and on 30 July 1967 as MC at the international pop festival in Accra. In May 1968 he performed with his nephews, the Nelson Cole brothers, in Lagos and then toured through Nigeria. The Nelson Cole brothers were his sister Norma's sons, who formed the Soul Assembly with other artists. In 1996 Kaye played again in Lagos (Federal Palace Hotel) in a program including Fela Kuti and highlife bandleader Bobby Benson.

Following his return to England in 1970 he discovered that his daughter Terri Quaye (also known as Theresa Naa-Koshie) and his eldest son, Caleb Quaye and his band Hookfoot, with their own musical careers were now better known than himself. He began his second London career in Mike Leroy's Chez Club Cleo in Knightsbridge, accompanied by Clive Cooper (bass) and Cecil "Flash" Winston (drums). Kaye soon became a much-requested presence on the London jazz circuit. His daughter Terri, who started singing with her father and his bebop jazz band as a young girl, accompanied him at some events. Around 1973 he was accompanied by Mike Greaves (drums, percussion), Phil Bates (bass) and Ray Dempsey (guitar). The following year he was one of the attractions at the Black Arts Festival 1974 organized by the Commonwealth Institute in London. He also made regular appearances at the BBC Club (an exclusive club for BBC employees) together with bassist Phil Bates and drummer Tony Crombie.