Demetrius (Demo) Cates is an American-Canadian musician. [1] He is most noted as a two-time Juno Award nominee for R&B/Soul Recording of the Year, receiving nominations at the Juno Awards of 1985 for "Memories of Moments" [2] and at the Juno Awards of 1989 for "Secret Love". [3]
Cates began his musical career in Detroit, Michigan as a member of the soul/funk band The Fabulous Counts. [4] After that band recorded part of its 1971 album What's Up Front That Counts in Toronto, Ontario, Cates opted to stay in the city, performing as a session musician for Lenny Breau and Wayne St. John. [5]
In 1981 he collaborated with Bobby Boyer and Jay W. McGee on Rap the Night Away, [6] which has been credited as the first known full-length Canadian hip hop album. [7] He recorded a number of soul, rhythm and blues and jazz singles, and was a regular performer in Toronto jazz clubs. [8]
Although principally a saxophonist, Cates has also performed as a jazz and R&B vocalist. [9] He has also had occasional supporting or guest roles as an actor, including in the television series Forever Knight , Goosebumps and The Jane Show , and the films Blues Brothers 2000 and A Raisin in the Sun .
The Juno Awards, or simply known as the Junos, are awards presented by the Canadian Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences to recognize outstanding achievements in Canada's music industry. They were originally called the Gold Leaf Awards, and the trophy resembled a metronome. Alongside the Canadian Screen Awards, they are considered one of the main annual Canadian entertainment award shows. The first Juno Awards ceremony was held on February 23, 1970 to honour the musical accomplishments of performers for the year 1969. New members of the Canadian Music Hall of Fame are also inducted as part of the awards ceremonies.
Norman Jeffrey Healey was a Canadian blues, rock and jazz guitarist, singer and songwriter who attained popularity in the 1980s and 1990s. He reached No. 5 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart with "Angel Eyes" and reached the Top 10 in Canada with the songs "I Think I Love You Too Much" and "How Long Can a Man Be Strong".
Kashtin were a Canadian folk rock duo in the 1980s and 1990s, one of the most commercially successful and famous musical groups in First Nations history.
The Canadian hip hop scene was established in the 1980s. Through a variety of factors, it developed much slower than Canada's popular rock music scene, and apart from a short-lived burst of mainstream popularity from 1989 to 1991, it remained largely an underground phenomenon until the early 2000s.
Canadian blues is the blues and blues-related music performed by blues bands and performers in Canada. Canadian blues artists include singers, players of the main blues instruments: guitar, harmonica, keyboards, bass and drums, songwriters and music producers. In many cases, blues artists take on multiple roles. For example, the Canadian blues artist Steve Marriner is a singer, harmonica player, guitarist, songwriter and record producer.
The Fabulous Counts were an American soul/funk group from Detroit, Michigan. They won local acclaim as an instrumental group and as a backing ensemble for visiting solo acts after their formation in 1968. Working with producer Richard "Popcorn" Wylie, they released the instrumental single "Jan, Jan" on Detroit's Moira Records that year, which narrowly missed hitting the US R&B charts that winter. Their second single, "Dirty Red", passed without trace, but the third single, "Get Down People", hit #32 R&B and #88 on the US pop charts. A full-length, Jan, Jan, was released in 1969 on Cotillion Records, but the group left the label in 1970.
William Taylor Bryans was a Canadian percussionist, songwriter, music producer and DJ, known as one of the founders of The Parachute Club, among other accomplishments in music. As a producer, he worked on projects for artists as diverse as Dutch Mason, Raffi, Lillian Allen and the Downchild Blues Band. He was born in Montreal, but spent most of his adult life in Toronto, and was particularly supportive of world music as both a promoter and publicist, focusing on bringing Caribbean, Cuban and Latin American music to a wider audience.
Danny Brooks is a blues and Memphis-style R&B musician, singer-songwriter and author now living in Llano, Texas, United States. He performs with a full band as Danny Brooks and The Rockin' Revelators, Danny Brooks & The Austin Brotherhood or Danny Brooks & The Memphis Brothers.
Digging Roots is a Canadian musical group consisting of husband and wife duo Raven Kanatakta and ShoShona Kish, whose musical style blends folk-rock, pop, blues, and hip hop. They won the Juno Award for Aboriginal Album of the Year in 2010 for their album We Are....
Kim Richardson is a Canadian singer and actress, who won two Juno Awards as a solo recording artist in the 1980s.
Tchukon was a Canadian funk and R&B band, active from 1978 to 1990. Best known for winning CBC Television's 1985 music competition Rock Wars and being named Best Vocal Group in the 1986 edition of Star Search, the band ultimately released just one Juno Award-nominated album before dissolving.
Fathead was a Canadian multiple Juno Award and Maple Blues award-winning blues band, founded by Al Lerman and originally formed with members Mike Fitzpatrick, Ted Leonard, John Mays and Bob Tunnoch.
Patrick Leonard Carey is a Canadian baritone and tenor saxophonist, clarinetist, vocalist and is best known for his longstanding association with the Downchild Blues Band.
Erroll Starr Francis is a Canadian rhythm and blues singer. He is most noted for winning the Juno Award for R&B/Soul Recording of the Year in 1989 for his single "Angel".
Freddie James is a Canadian dance and rhythm and blues musician, most noted for his 1979 disco hit "(Everybody) Get Up and Boogie".
Simply Majestic was a Canadian hip hop and dance music collective, active in the early 1990s. They are most noted for winning the Juno Award for Best R&B/Soul Recording at the Juno Awards of 1991 for their single "Dance to the Music ". Members of the collective included producer Anthony Bond, rappers B-Kool, Frank Morrell, The Russian Prince and MC A-OK, rap groups Point Blank, Brothers from the Ghetto, the Boys of the Greenhouse and the Forbidden Ones, and rhythm and blues singer Porsha-Lee.
2rude, birth name Richard Coombs also known as Richard Rude or Richard Rudimental, is a Canadian hip hop and rhythm and blues record producer. He is perhaps most known as a producer of the songs "Thinkin' About You", a collaboration with Snow, rapper Smoothe tha Hustler and singers Miranda and Latoya Walsh, which won Juno Award for R&B/Soul Recording of the Year at the Juno Awards of 2000, and "Bout Your Love", a collaboration with Glenn Lewis which was nominated in the same category at the Juno Awards of 1999.
James Wesley McGee was an American-Canadian musician. He was most noted for several early rap singles released under the stage name Mr. Q, including "Ladies Delight", the first known Canadian hip hop single.
Efajemue "Efa" Etoroma Jr., is a Canadian jazz musician most noted for his 2021 album Aesthetics, which was a Juno Award nominee for Jazz Album of the Year – Solo at the Juno Awards of 2022.
SATE is the stage name of Saidah Baba Talibah, a Canadian rock singer from Toronto, Ontario. Her 2021 album The Fool was named a Juno Award nominee for Alternative Album of the Year at the Juno Awards of 2022.