James Hawthorne (April 17, 1913 – April 8, 2004), also known as James Hawthorne Bey and Chief Bey, was an American jazz percussionist and vocalist, a visual artist and folklorist of African traditions. He was also ordained in Nigeria as a Shango Priest.

Early life

Born James Hawthorne in Yemassee, South Carolina, Bey moved with his family to Brooklyn and then to Harlem, where he began playing drums and singing in church choirs. He also served in both the Army and Navy and during World War II, and believed to have another daughter in Germany. He attended cosmetology school.

Later life and career

In the 1950s, Chief Bey performed in an international tour of Porgy and Bess along with his wife Louise Hawthorne, starring Leontyne Price and Cab Calloway. He also began a busy recording career, performing with flautist Herbie Mann's At the Village Gate (1961), Art Blakey's The African Beat (1962), Ahmed Abdul-Malik's Sounds of Africa (New Jazz, 1961), as well as albums by Harry Belafonte, Miriam Makeba, Miriam Greaves and Pharoah Sanders, among others. He took his stage name after joining the Moorish Science Temple of America, a Muslim sect whose practitioners often add the suffix "Bey" to their names. Then he taught the Shékéré, a West African gourd percussion instrument, at the Griot Institute at Intermediate School 246 in Brooklyn. He performed on Baba Olatunji albums as a vocalist and played African drums and Percussion, Agbé/large Shékéré, Agogo/Bells. As a drum maker, he invented the No Whole Tension Technique of roping skin onto drums. He worked with Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Nina Simone, Joffery Holder, Randy Weston, Reggie Workman, Sonny Morgan, Mongo Santa Maria, Eddie Palmeri, John Coltrane.

Personal life and death

James Hawthorne died in his Brooklyn home of stomach cancer at the age of 90. His first wife passed 3 years before him, Louise Hawthorne, soprano opera singer traveled the world together, while she sang operas like Aida and Madame Butterfly leaving their 3 children, David, Denise and Carolyn with just their father. His youngest daughter Carolyn who’s on his last CD followed him in death. His common law wife Barbara Kenyatta (born Barbara Ann Coleman in Harlem on June 9, 1944), was a priestess of Yémaya in the Yoruba religion. She collapsed and died four days later.

Discography

As leader

As sideman

With Hamiet Bluiett With Babatunde Olatunji With others