Music / Literature
Faruq Z. Bey
1942–2012 · jazz saxophonist, composer, poet
Detroit saxophonist and composer who led Griot Galaxy, the city's leading avant-garde band of the late 1970s and 1980s.
- Born
Detroit, Michigan- Died
Detroit, Michigan
aged 70- Birth name
- Jesse Davis
- Detroit years
- 1942–2012
- Field
- Music, Literature
01 / The Detroit story
The Detroit story
Born Jesse Davis in Detroit, Faruq Z. Bey spent his whole creative life in the city. He started Griot Galaxy in 1972, and around 1980 the band settled into its classic lineup with saxophonists David McMurray and Anthony Holland, bassist Jaribu Shahid and drummer Tani Tabbal. Playing mostly Bey's compositions, with odd meters and layered polyrhythms that opened into free sections, and dressed in striking stage costumes, Griot Galaxy became the flagship of Detroit's creative-music scene; it played the 1983 Montreux-Detroit Jazz Festival and toured Europe in the mid-1980s, and its albums include Kins, Opus Krampus and Live at the DIA, recorded at the Detroit Institute of Arts. A serious motorcycle accident in the mid-1980s left Bey in a coma, and it was nearly a decade before he performed again. He returned with the Conspiracy Winds Ensemble and worked closely with the Northwoods Improvisers, as well as Odu Afrobeat Orchestra. He also published two books of poetry and an aesthetic manifesto. He died in 2012 after long illness.
Highlights
- Founded Griot Galaxy in 1972
- Griot Galaxy played the 1983 Montreux-Detroit Jazz Festival
- Albums Kins, Opus Krampus and Live at the DIA
- Later work with the Northwoods Improvisers (Auzar, Ashirai Pattern)
- Poetry books Year of the Iron Sheep and Etudes in Wanton Nesses
02 / Their Detroit places
Their Detroit places 2
Where they lived, worked, performed and liked to hang out. Closed and demolished places stay here too, because they are part of the city's history.
Recorded here · 1980s
Detroit Institute of Arts (Friday Night Live!)
The museum where Griot Galaxy recorded its album Live at the DIA.
Performed here · 1983
Hart Plaza
Riverfront plaza of the Montreux-Detroit Jazz Festival, which Griot Galaxy played in 1983.