Exuma (musician)

Nassau friends living in Brooklyn took McKay to Greenwich Village, introducing him to hootenannies in neighborhood cafes.[4] McKay founded the group Tony McKay and the Islanders.[3][5] During this time, McKay also performed at Cafe Wha? and The Bitter End.[6]

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".[5]

In 1969 Palisades Amusement Park advertised McKay as a featured artist during that year's season opening weekend. He appeared on a bill that included Peaches & Herb.[7]

In 1969 McKay launched the group "Exuma" with his then-partner and lifelong friend Sally O'Brien. He enlisted several musician friends, forming his backup band, the Junk Band. The band included O'Brien (as Princess 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 the Blues Magoos).

He soon gained the attention of Blues Magoos manager Bob Wyld.[5] "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."[8] Wyld recommended McKay to Mercury Records and convinced the record label to sign him.

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.[9]

McKay was a knowledgeable practitioner of bush medicine. He specialized in herbal remedies, especially the "mystical cerasee vine" (Bitter leaves or Momordica charantia), which he collected in Nassau.[10] "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."[4]

"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'".[8]

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."[11]

Hearing of McKay's success performing "Junkanoo Drums", New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival producer Quint Davis tracked him down by calling the Bahamian Embassy. Davis invited McKay to perform at the 1978 Festival.[4] 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".[12]

By the 1980s McKay had moved to New Orleans and was a regular at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival. He performed regularly at the Old Absinthe House, a popular venue on Bourbon Street in the French Quarter.[13] 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.[10]

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."[4]

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.[10] At the time he was "presently in the process of deciding which will make the final cut".[8]

McKay was invited to participate in the Smithsonian Institute'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, Nathaniel “Piccolo Pete” Saunders and Cebric "Seabreeze" Bethel.[14]

Over the years the group Exuma played and / or toured with Patti LaBelle, Curtis Mayfield, Rita Marley, Peter Tosh, Toots & the Maytals, Sly and the Family Stone, Steppenwolf, Black Flag and the Neville Brothers.[5]

Musicians who have performed on his recordings and in his stage shows include Aziza Bey, Patti Bown, David Bromberg,[15] 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,[16] Dennis Taylor, David Torkanowsky, Earl Turbinton, David Lee Watson, Jacob Watson, Stanley Wiley (Kasa Allah) and Al Zanzler.[4][17]

McKay recorded a number of 7" singles beginning in 1963. He released the following as "Tony McKay":

In 1970 McKay, recording as "Exuma" accompanied by a band with same name released two albums. Both featured full cover artwork painted by McKay.

Mercury Records released McKay's first album Exuma, produced by "Daddy Ya Ya", a pseudonym adopted by Bob Wyld. Wyld produced the first six of Exuma's albums.[18] 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".[4]

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".[19] McKay's second album Exuma 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 of John G. Avildsen's 1970 film Joe.

The Barclay record label distributed Exuma's Mercury Records releases in France, Holland, Switzerland and Belgium.[20]

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 & Sally O'Brien – backing vocals & whistles.

McKay left Mercury Records in 1971 to sign with Buddha Records' subsidiary Kama Sutra record label, where he released the albums Do Wah Nanny (1971), Snake (1972), Reincarnation (1972), and Life (1973). Singles released from the album were "Do Wah Nanny", "The Bowery", "Brown Girl", "Rushing Through the Crowd", and a cover of Paul McCartney's "Monkberry Moon Delight".[4]

Seeking greater artistic freedom, McKay's recordings were not released on a major record label for the rest of his career. He founded Inagua Records and self-released Penny Sausage, Going to Cat Island, Universal Exuma and Street Life in the early 1980s, but none of these albums received much exposure. By this time, McKay was enjoying his greatest recognition. In the Bahamas, two of his singles were hits, "Shirlene" and "Rose Mary Smith."

In 1986 Exuma released Rude Boy on the ROIR label.

In 1971 McKay obtained a copyright for Godevan - A Play in Three Acts. The filing listed McKay as the author and staging by Exuma band member Sally O'Brien.[23]

McKay created "Junkanoo Drums", a Bahamian concert that showcased a dozen of his songs. McKay used the production to weave a story told by a "Grand Deacon".[4] In August and September of 1977 Exuma performed "Junkanoo Drums" multiple times during that year's free Lincoln Center "Out-Of-Doors" concert series at the band shell in Damrosch Park.[24]

New York Times critic Robert Palmer said of the show "...it 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".[25]

At each show's conclusion McKay would lead the entire company in a carnival procession around the audience in the park.

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 in Bellevue Hospital.[27] Their eight year old son Gavin, who had been sleeping in another room, called the police after the murders.[28] Montalalou was convicted on two counts of murder and sentenced to two consecutive life terms. During the trial, Montalalou was said to have "kicked in the apartment door"[29] 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.[30]

In 1974 McKay married Inita Watkins in Manhattan.[31]

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.