Jeff Tennyson Quaye is a professional Ghanian musician, record executive, sound engineer, record producer, keyboardist, and songwriter. Born on September 12, 1970, in Osu and going by the stage name of JayQ The Legend, the talented musician is well-renowned and loved by the masses worldwide.
Personal Life
Born to and raised by Jeff Tennyson Quaye senior and Miss Comfort Adjin-Tettey, the brilliant songster lived in the metropolitan of Accra, the capital of Ghana.
JayQ The Legend’s artistic endeavor got support early on in his life when his church, the Emmanuel Assemblies of God, sponsored and backed his keyboard studies at the Oriental School of Music in Adabraka, Accra.
Later on, JayQ The Legend joined the Resurrection Power and Living Bread Ministries. Here, he met Fred Kyei Mensah of the Fredyma Studio. Fred taught him music programming and opened his world and views to the wonders of recording.
Career
Under the guidance of Fred Kyei Mensah, JayQ The Legend’s productions started getting airtime on the radio from the mid-1990s to the late years of the decade. It was then that his music began to reach people all over the world.
In the late 1990s, JayQ The Legend started working with several renowned artists in different and distinct music genres. This list of well-known and famous people included Alhaji K. Frimpong, Obuoba J.A. Adofo, George Jahraa, Sibo Brothers, and many more. Additionally, he associated with the Gospel that encompassed Suzzy and Matt, Jane and Dan, Andy Frimpong, Osuanu Afrifa, Mr. and Mrs. Nyantakyi, and so on. He also worked with the cultural and live band comprising Saneko, Wulomei, Adams family, etc.
All of JayQ The Legend’s ’90s’ productions were Analog. He and his team produced and recorded them in the Combined House of Music (CHM) in Accra. However, in the early stages of the year 2000, Technology was rapidly evolving. As such, digital recordings started gaining the love of the masses. Owing to the issue that people were now downgrading analog recordings, JayQ had to move from the Analog Studio, CHM. He shifted from the Cubase and Notator on an Atari computer to the wholly digital recording studio of Virtual Sound Lab. In this place, he fell in love with the convenient working of Pro Tools on Apple Mac, using them even to this day.
Famous Track
In Virtual Studio, JayQ The Legend experimented with and compiled his style of music. It was here that he made the Jama or Kpanlogo that made him a worldwide phenomenon and sensation. He introduced to the world of hiplife his Bukbak’s track “I’m Going to Come.” The core of the music’s rhythm is the fusion of indigenous instruments that included the maracas, cowbell, whistle, claps, bass and guitars, congas, jembe, etc.
However, it received much criticism from the people predominately because hiplife then was primarily hip-hop and undefined. Nevertheless, the movement gained mass recognition and popularity. It soon became unstoppable as other music engineers and producers got into it.
Gradually, JayQ The Legend’s track got embedded in the definition of hiplife, and music journalists and publicists started recognizing it as so.
