Finley Quaye was inspired early on in his childhood by jazz musicians Pete King, Ronnie Scott, who started his musical career making tea and running errands in Finley’s father’s band, and Lionel Hampton. Quaye heard jazz as a child, living in London with his mother, who would take him with her to Ronnie Scott’s jazz club to catch performances of American jazz musicians touring Europe such as Buddy Rich, who recorded his live album there in 1980. Quaye’s mother had long term relationships with musician Pete King, who hosted and performed at Ronnie Scott’s club in Frith Street, London, as well as Dodi Fayed, a film producer who produced Breaking Glass with Hazel O’Connor.

Quaye made a solo recording contract with Polydor Records and moved to New York City. He began working with Epic/Sony when Polydor let him out of contract, and in late 1997 he reached the UK Top 20 twice, with “Sunday Shining” and “Even After All”. His reputation was established by Maverick A Strike, released in September 1997. It went gold less than three weeks later, and led directly to the BRIT Award victory. The album is now certified 2× platinum in the UK. In 1998, Quaye performed George Gershwin’s “It Ain’t Necessarily So” for the Red Hot Organization’s compilation album Red Hot + Rhapsody, a tribute to George Gershwin, which raised money for various charities devoted to increasing AIDS awareness and fighting the disease.

Quaye performed with his band at the Roxy in LA and at SOB’s in NYC, as an introductory tour in 1998. They played alongside Ben Harper and Eagle Eye Cherry, they also played San Francisco. He recorded most of Maverick A Strike at Fire House Studios in NYC in 1994 whilst signed to Polydor. Over the past 20 years he has based himself in NYC, Miami and in Los Angeles. He has played at Rio Free Jazz Festival alongside The Roots in Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo. He has also performed as the first UK band to headline a festival in Hong Kong at Rockit Festival. Quaye was the first UK act to play a festival in Serbia at EXIT festival and performed live at Vancouver Folk Festival and Star Belly Jam in 2010. He also performed in France at L’Elysée Montmartre, La Grand Halle De La Villette, Le Bataclan and La Cigale, and in Germany at Columbia Halle in Berlin and E Werks in Köln. Quaye has also performed at Music Box in Lisbon and supported Julian Marley in Cascais and toured South Africa twice, performing in Limpopo, Durban, Cape Town and Johannesburg.

Two more albums were released on Epic, Vanguard (2000) and Much More Than Much Love (2004). “Spiritualized” became his last single to score a top 40 landing in the UK chart when it was released in September 2000, reaching number 26. In 2004 the single “Dice” was released in collaboration with William Orbit and featuring Beth Orton. The song featured in Fox Network’s The OC and on the season 1 soundtrack, becoming a minor hit.

He released the EP Pound for Pound with Intune Records in 2008, with Norman Grant of the Twinkle Brothers featuring Sly Dunbar and Lloyd Parks. He recorded in 1998 with Buju Banton and Sly Dunbar in Kingston, Jamaica at Penthouse Studios and also recorded with Tricky and Iggy Pop at Sony Music Studios, in Manhattan, New York City.

In April 2012, Quaye was charged with aggravated assault in Edinburgh. He was subsequently found guilty and sentenced to 225 hours of unpaid work. In November of the same year, he was declared bankrupt with a tax debt of £383,000 after HMRC applied to the courts to recover the money. Official documents stated that Quaye had “zero assets”. Quaye also admitted possession of cannabis in 2003.