Canada Post is honouring the late Salome Bey, widely regarded as this country’s first lady of the blues, with a stamp.
The commemorative stamp will be unveiled on April 21 in Toronto with her daughters, singers SATE and TuKu on hand.
Bey died in August 2020 at 86.
Born in New Jersey, she relocated in Toronto in 1964 and became a staple of the city’s live music and musical theatre scenes. She released her debut self-titled album in 1970 and recorded several others over the next three decades, including a pair with jazz pianist Horace Silver and one with the Montreal Jubilation Gospel Choir.
Her stage credits include Blue S.A., Justine, Spring Thaw, Dude, Don’t Bother Me, I Can’t Cope and Your Arms Too Short to Box with God. The latter earned Bey a Grammy nomination in 1977 for Best Inspirational Performance.
Bey created Indigo, a cabaret show about the history of black music, for which she won a Dora Mavor Moore Award. She also created Shimmytime about jazz-blues singer Ethel Water and Madame Gertrude about blues singer Ma Rainey.
She was honoured with a Toronto Arts Award and, in 2005, was made an honourary Member of the Order of Canada. Her album Your Arms Too Short To Box With God earned a Grammy nomination in 1977 for Best Inspirational Performance.
Canada Post has previously issued stamps honouring a long list of homegrown music artists, including Anne Murray, Gordon Lightfoot, Joni Mitchell, Paul Anka, Stompin’ Tom Connors, Bryan Adams, Rush, The Guess Who, The Tragically Hip, Oliver Jones, Bruce Cockburn, Kate & Anna McGarrigle, Robbie Robertson, Hank Snow, Tommy Hunter, Shania Twain and k.d. lang.
In 2019, a set of Leonard Cohen stamps was issued to mark what would have been the singer-songwriter’s 85th birthday.