Exuma | |
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%2c_circa_1971.jpg) Exuma, circa 1971 | |
| Background information | |
| Born | Macfarlane Gregory Anthony Mackey (1942-02-18)February 18, 1942 Tea Bay,Cat Island,The Bahamas |
| Died | January 25, 1997(1997-01-25) (aged 54) Nassau, The Bahamas |
| Genres | |
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| Years active | 1962–1997 |
| Labels | |
Macfarlane Gregory Anthony Mackey (18 February 1942 – 25 January 1997), known professionally asTony McKay andExuma, was aBahamianmusician, artist, playwright, and author best known for his music that blendsfolk,rock,carnival,junkanoo,calypso,reggae, andAfrican music stylings.
His Exuma persona, as well as his lyrics, were influenced by the West African and Bahamian tradition ofObeah,[1] a system of spiritual and healing practices developed among enslaved West Africans in the West Indies, practiced by many on the islands ofThe Bahamas.[2] He was also a practitioner ofherbal medicine. Reviewers have often identified McKay's music as containing or invokingvoodoo-related imagery,[3][4] and have compared his music to that ofNew Orleans-born musicianDr. John (and vice versa).[3][5][6] However, McKay clarified against the association between the imagery of his music and the popular concept of voodoo as depicted inHollywood-produced films, stressing that his music is instead based on the healing practices of Obeah: "It isn't voodoo or witchcraft [...] not in the way that the man goes home at night and makes a secret potion."[5][7]
Exuma'sself-titled debut album was released in 1970 throughMercury Records, and was followed byExuma II later that same year. His next four albums,Do Wah Nanny (1971),Snake,Reincarnation (both 1972), andLife (1973), were issued byKama Sutra Records. In 1977, he created a musical stage production titledJunkanoo Drums that incorporated a number of his songs; the success of the show led to Exuma becoming a regular performer at theNew Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival. By the 1980s, McKay had founded his own record label, Inagua Records, and moved to New Orleans. After moving to Colorado in 1994, he spent time living inMiami, Florida, andNassau, Bahamas, and died in his sleep in the latter city in January 1997.
In a 1970 interview, McKay, as Exuma, said the"'electrical part' of his being 'came from beyond Mars; down to Earth on a lightning bolt'". He described his music as "all music that has ever been written and all music not yet written. It's feeling, emotion, the sound of man, the sound of day creatures, night creatures and electrical forces".[8]
Born in Tea Bay onCat Island,Bahamas, McKay and his mother Daisy Mackey moved toNassau. He grew up there in a small house on Canaan Lane, shared by Ma' Gurdie, an older woman who McKay said "danced so well". "When I sing, I can still see Ma' Gurdie's beautiful moves".
As a boy, McKay and his friends caught and sold fish to buy movie tickets. Watching the films exposed them toSam Cooke andFats Domino and other American blues singers, who they would imitate.
McKay moved to New York City at the age of 17 to study architecture. He "promptly ran out of money". Friends give him an old guitar and knowing three or four chords, he started practicing old Bahamian calypsos. Homesick for Nassau, McKay began writing poetry about Ma' Gurdie and Junkanoo. These poems became the basis for McKay's "Brown Girl in the Ring" (later a hit forBoney M), "Rushing Through the Crowd" and other Exuma songs.[9] McKay did not complete his architectural studies.
Nassau friends living in Brooklyn took McKay toGreenwich Village, introducing him to hootenannies in neighborhood cafes.[9] McKay founded the group Tony McKay and the Islanders.[8][10] During this time, McKay also performed atCafe Wha? andThe Bitter End.[11]
McKay often performed with well known musicians and comedians in small Greenwich Village clubs and bars. "I started playing around when Bob Dylan, Richie Havens, Peter, Paul and Mary, Richard Pryor, (Jimi) Hendrix and (Barbra) Streisand were all down there, too, hanging out and performing at the Cafe Bizarre".[10]
Beginning in 1963, recorded a number of 7" singles. He released the following as "Tony McKay":
In 1969,Palisades Amusement Park advertised McKay as a featured artist during that year's season opening weekend. He appeared on a bill that includedPeaches & Herb.[12]
In 1969 McKay launched the group "Exuma" (named after a group of Bahamian islands) with his then-partner and lifelong friend Sally O'Brien. He enlisted several musician friends, forming his backup band, theJunk Band. The band included O'Brien (as Sister Sally), Bogie, Lord Wellington, Villy, Spy Boy Thielheim, Mildred Vaney, Frankie Gearing, Diana Claudia Bunea (as Princess Diana), and his good friend Peppy Castro (Emil Thielhelm, lead singer of theBlues Magoos).
He soon gained the attention ofBlues Magoos manager Bob Wyld.[10] "I'd been singing down there (Greenwich Village), and we'd all been exchanging ideas and stuff. Then one time a producer (Wyld) came up to me and said he was very interested in recording some of my original songs, but he said that I needed a vehicle."[13] Wyld recommended McKay toMercury Records and convinced the record label to sign him.
In 1970 McKay, recording as "Exuma" and accompanied by a band with the same name, released two albums. Both featured full cover artwork painted by McKay.
Mercury Records released McKay's first albumExuma, produced by "Daddy Ya Ya", a pseudonym adopted by Bob Wyld. Wyld produced the first six of Exuma's albums.[14] Singles released from that lp were "Exuma, The Obeah Man" and "Junkanoo".
Describing his process of musical creativity, McKay said "I try to be a story-teller, a musical doctor, one who brings musical vibrations from the universal spiritual plane through my guitar strings and my voice. I want to bring some good energy to the people. My whole first album came to me in a dream".[9]
Mercury Records launched "a full-scale promotion and advertising campaign". Lou Simon, then Mercury Records' Senior VP for Sales, Marketing and Promotion said "the reaction is that of a heavy, big numbers contemporary album... as a result, we're going to give it all the merchandising support we can muster".[15] McKay's second albumExuma II had two singles released, "Damn Fool" and "Zandoo".
McKay also garnered recognition for his song "You Don't Know What's Going On", which was featured on the soundtrack ofJohn G. Avildsen's 1970 filmJoe.
TheBarclay record label distributed Exuma's Mercury Records releases in France, Holland, Switzerland and Belgium.[16]
The second album,Exuma II, featured performers were: Tony 'Exuma' McKay – lead vocals, guitar, ankle bell, & Sacred foot drum; Daddy Ya Ya – backing vocals, bass, attar & elephant bells, & marching drums; Yogi - backing vocals & junk bells; Spy Boy Thielheim – high harmony congas, cabassa, & Sacred sand; Lord Cherry - congas & whistle; Lord Wellington – congas; & Princess Diana & Sister Sally O'Brien (bass drum)– backing vocals & whistles.
McKay painted, using chalk pastels, oil paints and water colors, during his music career. He created the cover artwork for many of his albums, beginning with the first in 1970. MusicologistJulian Cope said McKay's album covers were "adorned with Exuma's own fantastic paintings... transforming human faces into their respective animal spirits".[17]
McKay left Mercury Records in 1971 to sign withBuddha Records' subsidiaryKama Sutra record label, through which he released the albumsDo Wah Nanny (1971),Snake (1972),Reincarnation (1972), andLife (1973).[9]
In 1971, McKay obtained a copyright forGodevan – A Play in Three Acts. The filing listed McKay as the author and staging by Exuma band member Sally O'Brien.[18]
Seeking greater artistic freedom, McKay's recordings were not released on a major record label for the rest of his career. By 1975 he had founded Inagua Records,[19] his own record label through which he would self-release a number of records.
In 1977, McKay createdJunkanoo Drums, a musical stage production that showcased a dozen of his songs. McKay used the production to weave a story told by a "Grand Deacon".[9] In August and September 1977 Exuma performedJunkanoo Drums multiple times during that year's freeLincoln Center "Out-Of-Doors" concert series at the band shell inDamrosch Park.[20] At each show's conclusion McKay would lead the entire company in a carnival procession around the audience in the park.
The New York Times criticRobert Palmer said that the show "has no plot or overall theme", but instead "consists of a series of original songs by the Bahamian singer, songwriter and guitarist Exuma, but the songs have been elaborated into theatrical sketches, with 40 dancers, singers and musicians participating."[21]
Hearing of McKay's success performingJunkanoo Drums,New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival producerQuint Davis tracked him down by calling the Bahamian Embassy. Davis invited McKay to perform at the 1978 Festival.[9] McKay performed at the New Orleans Jazz Festival from 1978 until 1991. The 1983 Festival program described McKay as "Exuma - the Obeah man whose Caribbean music is similar in spirit to the street music of New Orleans".[22]
In 1979, Exuma releasedPenny Sausage through his Inagua Records label. This was followed byStreet Music, issued through Nassau Records.
By the 1980s McKay had moved toNew Orleans and was a regular at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival. He also performed regularly at the Old Absinthe House, a popular venue on Bourbon Street in the French Quarter.[23] These nights often became jam sessions, as McKay would play songs that were not in the set list, attracting accomplished musicians, such as Bill Wyman and members of Bob Dylan's band.[24]
McKay said of New Orleans: "I found New Orleans to be a very cultural place where if you bring love to the people, they will give you the necessary energy to bring even more."[9]
In 1982 Exuma releasedUniversal through Cat Island Records. In 1986,Street Music was reissued asRude Boy on theROIR label.
In 1994 McKay lived in Colorado, saying he found himself inspired by the area's "peacefulness". "It comes from the love of what I am doing. Music is like eating and breathing—every fiber of me is in music. I've always been like that. The music energizes me and keeps me alive, I think. I have a lot I want to say in a positive way. I don't want to say anything negative. I try to go through every word and make sure that there is nothing negative gender-wise or any-kind-wise. If I have done anything in the past that is not that way, well, I beg forgiveness for that. But I try to move on a positive note." McKay said he had recorded 30 new songs during 1994 with New Orleanian Charles Hancock and fellow Bahamian Rudy Green.[24] At the time he was "presently in the process of deciding which will make the final cut".[13]
McKay was invited to participate in theSmithsonian Institution's 1994 Festival of American Folklife, an annual event presented on the Mall in Washington, D.C. At the event, he styled himself "Macfarlane 'Tony' Mackey, 'Exuma the Obeah Man'". McKay recorded a number of songs at the Festival, performing with many other Bahamian artists, including Thomas Cartwright and the Boys, the Dicey Doh Singers, Nathaniel "Piccolo Pete" Saunders and Cebric "Seabreeze" Bethel.[25]
Creating an image and a persona that fit his music, McKay drew upon his Bahamian memories of the "Obeah Man". Bahamian life was rooted in West African tradition.[26]
McKay was a knowledgeable practitioner of bush medicine. He specialized inherbal remedies, especially the "mystical cerasee vine" (Bitter leaves orMomordica charantia), which he collected in Nassau.[24] "I grew up as a roots person, someone knowing about the bush and the herbs and the spiritual realm. It was inbred into all of us. Just like for people growing up in the lowlands of the Delta Country or places in Africa."[9]
"I remembered the Obeah Man from my childhood—he's the one with the colorful robes who would deal with the elements and the moonrise, the clouds and the vibrations of the earth. So I decided to call myself 'Exuma, the Obeah Man'".[13]
McKay further explained his interpretation of Obeah. "Obeah was with my grandfather, with my grandmother, with my father, with my mother, with my uncles who taught me. It has been my religion in the vein that everyone has grown up with some sort of religion, a cult that was taught. Christianity is like good and evil. God is both. He unlocked the secrets to Moses, good and evil, so Moses could help the children of Israel. It's the same thing, the whole completeness—the Obeah Man, the spirits of air."[27]
Over the years the group Exuma played or toured withPatti LaBelle,Curtis Mayfield,Rita Marley,Peter Tosh,Toots & the Maytals,Sly and the Family Stone,Steppenwolf,Black Flag and theNeville Brothers.[10]
Musicians who have performed on his recordings and in his stage shows include Aziza Bey,Patti Bown,David Bromberg,[28] George J. 'Duke' Clemmons, Jerry Congales, Chuchlow Eliebank,Alfred "Pee Wee" Ellis, Alan Glover (Akinjorin "Juice" Omolade), Earl Gordon, Bill "Hutch" Hutchinson, Carl Jennings, Dave Libert, Bruce "Weasel" McDonald,George Porter Jr,Alfred "Uganda" Roberts, Ricky Sebastian,Kester Smith,Babatunde Olatunji, Michael O'Neil (as Ouimungie Pappa Legba),Bernard Purdie, John Russo, Victor Sirker, Michael Sklar,[29]Dennis Taylor, David Torkanowsky,Earl Turbinton, David Lee Watson, Jacob Watson, Stanley Wiley (Kasa Allah) and Al Zanzler.[9][30]
McKay and Exuma were a continual presence in charitable efforts across America, performing concerts and sharing receipts with various organizations.
In December 1972, Exuma performed a free concert to support the Black Expo held at the Americana Hotel in Manhattan as well as a concert at Columbia Artists Management Inc. (CAMI) Hall to benefit East, a music club in Bedford-Stuyvesant.[31]
In 1974 McKay married Inita Watkins in Manhattan.[32]
McKay fathered many children, including Shaw, Gavin, Kenyatta Alisha, and Acklins. Acklins and Kenyatta Alisha are vocal artists, carrying on their father's tradition of entertainment.
McKay's estranged wife Marilyn "Sammy" Mackey (née Guse) and their first son Shaw were murdered by Fritz Montalalou on May 10, 1972, at 217 Avenue A in Manhattan. Married in 1962 and separated from McKay for a year, 32-year-old Mackey suffered a slashed throat and a chest wound. Their nine-year-old son was stabbed once and later died inBellevue Hospital.[33] Their eight-year-old son Gavin, who had been sleeping in another room, called the police after the murders.[34] Montalalou was convicted on two counts of murder and sentenced to two consecutive life terms.[19] During the trial, Montalalou was said to have "kicked in the apartment door"[35] and killed the two in revenge for Mackey having called the police after Montalalou had assaulted his ex-girlfriend who lived across the hall from Mackey.[36]
In the late 1980s, McKay suffered a heart attack in New Orleans. Bahamas Tourism Officer Athama Bowe recalls visiting McKay in hospital. "His skin was coated with olive oil and candles were burning all over the room for 'the sperrits'. He was mixing modern medicine with Obeah."[37]
McKay spent most of his time writing songs, painting, and fishing,[24] living in bothMiami, Florida, and in the childhood home his mother had left him in Nassau.[38] McKay died in his sleep in 1997.
Aspects of McKay's "Obeah Man" persona influenced other artists, notably singerNina Simone. Converting McKay's "Obeah Man" into "Obeah Woman", Simone assumed the role of "priestess" in her cover. Her live performance was recorded on her album "It Is Finished". The song begins with drumming byBabatunde Olatunji and Simone asking "do you know what an "Obeah Woman" is?" She continues, altering McKay's lyrics: "I'm the Obeah woman, from beneath the sea / To get to Satan, you gotta pass through me"... "they call me Nina, and Pisces too / There ain't nothin' that I can't do". Simone also performed two additional McKay songs during the live recording, "Dambala" and "22nd Century".[10]
Former Parliamentarian, Cabinet Minister, Chairman of the College Council of the College of The Bahamas and fellow Bahamian Alfred M. Sears said McKay as Exuma was "A Bahamian visionary, humanistic philosopher and people's poet. Exuma gives expression to the beauty and power of the cultural life of the Bahamas—the people's every day experiences, folklore, myths, stories,junkanoo,rake and scrape, pain, joy, struggle and survival. His life and art reflect the wonderful cultural heritage and personality of Bahamians, drawing on the roots of Africa and the branches of the Amerindians, Europeans and Americans."[10]
Bahamian musicologist Roney Ambrister, BEM said of McKay "You could put him in line with (Joseph) Spence. He was a jubil fellow, very happy, he would grab his guitar, kick off, and the rest of the band would follow him". Ambrister said while "there was no such thing as 'Obeah music'", the spiritual charge lay instead in McKay's fantastic clothing, artwork, and mystical lyrics, as in, "His time is short, his time is long, Exuma ain't right and Exuma ain't wrong."[2]
In August 2010 a multi-media exhibition of McKay's art, memorabilia and music was held at the Doongalik Studios Art Gallery in Nassau City, New Providence, Bahamas. ArtistJoseph Spence was showcased in the exhibit as well.[39]
McKay's art is still offered in art galleries in the US and the Bahamas.[24]
In 1974 McKay was invited by the Queen Julianna of the Netherlands to perform for her along with the Edwin Hawkins Singers.[11]
In June 1988 McKay was awarded theBritish Empire Medal (BEM) byQueen Elizabeth II "for services to music and his contributions toBahamian culture".[11]
Solomon, an oil on canvas portrait of McKay byStanley Burnside is in the permanent collection of theNational Art Gallery of The Bahamas. The museum describes the painting as "a bold commemorative piece of art that recognizes Mackey's memory and status as a leader at what he did... The viewer shouldn't ignore the crown that sits snugly over Mackey's locks, this is Burnside's assertion of Mackey's wisdom and kingly status in Bahamian history."[40][41]
Roughly speaking, it's kind of like a combination of the Bahamian folk ofJoseph Spence with earlyDr. John at his most voodooed-out, though even that nutshell doesn't really do justice to how unusual this record is.
It's another combination of folk music from the Bahamas with voodoo-esque ritual not far removed from some of the more extreme New Orleans music influenced by that practice.
No less spiritual, though rather less celestial, was Exuma's 'Exuma, the Obeah Man,' a funked-upjunkanoo tune that offered an almost postmodern slant on the Caribbean religion of Obeah in a manner not dissimilar toDr. John's take on New Orleans voodoo.
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