SATE (musician)

SATE is the stage name of Saidah Baba Talibah, a Canadian rock singer from Toronto, Ontario.[1] Her 2021 album The Fool was named a Juno Award nominee for Alternative Album of the Year at the Juno Awards of 2022.[2]

Background

The daughter of restaurateur Howard Matthews and influential Canadian blues and jazz singer Salome Bey,[3] she began her musical career as an occasional performer with her mother under the name Salome Bey and the Relatives.[4] She was a vocalist with the funk rock band Blaxäm in the 1990s, alongside her sister Tuku and Washington Savage of Infidels.[5] The band released the EP Kiss My Afro in 1998,[6] but broke up before releasing a full-length album.[7]

Solo career

As Saidah Baba Talibah, she continued to perform as a solo artist,[8] and released her debut solo album (S)cream in 2011.[9] In this era, she described herself as having been inspired in part by Black Rock Coalition artists such as Living Colour.[10]

In 2014, she performed at Toronto's Luminato Festival with TV on the Radio.[11] In 2015, she received a Dora Mavor Moore Award nomination for Best Leading Actress, Musical Theatre for her stage performance in What Makes a Man.

She subsequently changed her stage name to SATE, on the grounds that performing under her given names was giving audiences a false impression that they would be seeing a world music artist, when in fact her music blends elements of soul and funk with blues rock and punk rock.[12] As SATE, she released the album RedBlack&Blue in 2016;[13] the album's track "Know My Name" has been used as backing music in promotional advertisements for Sportsnet.[14]

The Fool was released in 2021.[14] Her video for the song "Nobody" features The OBGMs appearing as her backing band;[14] the album track "Guardian Angel", a short interlude, is a recording of SATE as a child singing along with her mother, which Saidah found in her mother's possessions only after her death in 2020.[12]

References

  1. ^ Freddie Mojallal, "SATE – aka Saidah Baba Talibah". Toronto Guardian, August 9, 2015.
  2. ^ Jackson Weaver, "Charlotte Cardin, The Weeknd, Justin Bieber lead 2022 Juno Award nominees". CBC News, March 1, 2022.
  3. ^ Bill King, "A Conversation with… the Singer Formerly Known As Saidah Baba Talibah". FYI Music News, July 5, 2015.
  4. ^ Martin Morrow, "Fiercely talented singer Salome Bey, 86, led the way for other Black artists: Ms. Bey was a radiant musician, actor, producer and composer who wielded a powerful influence on generations of younger Black artists". The Globe and Mail, August 19, 2020.
  5. ^ Dorin Grunwald, "Blaxäm finds its own groove". The Eyeopener, October 14, 1998.
  6. ^ Ben Rayner, "Blaxam fuses a Toronto sound". Toronto Star, July 9, 1998.
  7. ^ Linda A. Fox, "Making his own way serenading the city". The Globe and Mail, November 3, 2001.
  8. ^ Greg Quill, "Mother and daughter blues reunion; Grew up in famous moms' shadows: Daughters now making names for themselves". Toronto Star, November 25, 2006.
  9. ^ Errol Nazareth, "Lady sings the blues; Saidah Baba Talibah to perform at Massey Hall revue". Toronto Sun, November 23, 2012.
  10. ^ Errol Nazareth, "Think outside the box with Talibah". Toronto Sun, March 23, 2012.
  11. ^ David Paterson, "The irrepressible musical maven Saidah Baba Talibah ready to cook up a storm at Luminato". Streets of Toronto, June 6, 2014.
  12. ^ a b Nick Krewen, "Toronto rocker is following her path: Singer and songwriter SATE veers into tarot territory to help make sense of the signs life gives her". Toronto Star, December 21, 2021.
  13. ^ Graham Rockingham, "Graham Rockingham's best bets". Hamilton Spectator, July 21, 2016.
  14. ^ a b c Michael Raine, "SATE going back to the foundations to tear sh*t up". Canadian Musician, Jan./Feb. 2022.