CALEB QUAYE

Biography

Bands/Discography:

Very talented guitarist, as well as keyboardist, Caleb Quaye was born in 1948. He was raised in London, England.

BLUESOLOGY  

In the early sixties, he entered the band Bluesology:

They were Long John Baldry's backing band. They released 3 singles from 1965 to 1967, but I don't know if this was the lineup in all those singles.

There's an album called Rare tracks, where we can find Caleb playing in some tracks.

CALEB  

In 1967, the band breaks, and he released a single under the name Caleb: "Baby your phrasing is bad / Woman of distinction" (1967, Phillips). He used session musicians, including David Hynes (from The Mirage), and probably Elton John is on keyboards. Both songs later resurfaced in several compilations.

ELTON JOHN BAND  

In 1968, Elton John starts making concerts with this band:

BREAD AND BEER BAND  

In 1969, Elton (still Reg Dwight) and Caleb made a private album (as far as I know, it's still unreleased) under the name Bread and Beer Band.

The only song released from it was one single, "Dick Barton Theme/Breakdown blues" (1969, Decca; reissued in 1973), which was part later of some compilations.

ELTON JOHN BAND  

Elton's band in 1969 is:

HOOKFOOT  

Around April 1970, Caleb assembles his own band, called Hookfoot, reuniting several session musicians for artists on the DJM label, being most famous of them, Elton John. But we'll speak about Elton John later.

They get a new member around 1971: Their first album, Hookfoot consisted of songs composed by Caleb, plus renditions of Stephen Stills and Neil Young songs. This first album was very innovative with Caleb switching between guitar and keyboards. It even included a great piano-based jazz instrumental ('Wim Wam') along with a killer tune ('Movies') that starts out with Quaye and Duck on acoustic and finishes with Wishbone Ash style double-lead electric.

The lineup changes a bit, with the arrival of a new guitarist, Bob Kulick, who later collaborated with many bands, such as Kiss, Meat Loaf, and with his own band, Skull.

The second album Good Times a-Comin' is more straight-ahead rock with Caleb playing through a Leslie amp alot.

The lineup changes again, as Bob Kulick leaves the band. The bassist, Dave Glover, also left the band, and for a while, they had the special collaboration of superb guitarist (and Caleb's friend) Mick Grabham, playing bass until they got a permanent member.

After a month, they get a new bassist, Fred Gandy, and Mick returns to his own career. They split up in 1974, and Caleb went to the USA, working as a session musician.
 
 Hookfoot Live In Memphis is not a release through A&M. It is a specialty CD from some German company of a 1973 concert (probably opening for Yes). It was recorded by this last Hookfoot lineup.

ELTON JOHN BAND  

During all this time, he was in and out of Elton John Band. He played more than 10 years with Elton, appearing in many of his early albums. We'll find the list of Elton albums in Caleb sessions page.

For example, in April 1970, just a few days after his 2nd album Elton John was released, Elton played some sessions for the BBC. At that time, he still had no band, so he used his friends Hookfoot, as well as The Chanter Sisters for background vocals:

In May 1975, long time bandmates Dee Murray and Nigel Olsson leave Elton's band, being replaced by old friend Roger Pope and Kenny Passarelli. Caleb also joins here:

They released the album Rock of the westies.
 
 

(Elton John Band at the Wembley concert)

During a short period, Jeff 'Skunk' Baxter joins for live concerts. WOW, what a guitar trio!! (all of them will have pages in my Olympus).

Elton John (vocals, keyboards)
Davey Johnstone (guitar)
Caleb Quaye (guitar)
Jeff 'Skunk' Baxter (guitar)
Kenny Passarelli (bass)
James Newton Howard (keyboards)
Ray Cooper (percussion)

Roger Pope (drums)
HALL & OATES  

Around 1978, most of the Elton John Band convert into Hall & Oates backing band:

Next step is to cut a live album, with this lineup: In Along the red ledge, we can find a lot of guitar players: Robert Fripp (King Crimson), Dick Wagner (Lou Reed), George Harrison (The Beatles), Rick Nielsen (Cheap Trick), Steve Lukather (Toto), Jay Graydon, etc.

Where is he now? 

In 1982, Caleb's life changed completely, and he became a musician/evangelist. He is currently serving as the Chairman of the National Worship Committee and was officially appointed as National Foursquare Music Minister in the Spring of 1995.

The National Worship and Music Ministries is going to release their first CD, due for Christmas 1997, entitled The Coming King. It's supposed that Caleb will be present in that album.

Sessions

Press here to read about Caleb sessions

Musicians mentioned in this page that I have projected to cover in my site someday: And short tributes to:

Links related

Family tree

Coming soon (I hope so!).

Thanks section

Thanks to:

Alex Gitlin for the scans; 'the mystery guy'; for info about Bill Quateman albums; Bill Foley; for info about Hookfoot albums, Noreen Romano, for pointing me some errors about Elton John Band and more help; Jean Boissonneault, for info about Shawn Phillips.


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Page created by Miguel Terol on: 13/November/1997. Last modified on: 08/September/1999. 1