Henry Hey Week Continues with FORQ’s “Va”

This Saturday, I’ll be publishing my full interview with Henry Hey—the musician, arranger, and musical director whose work with David Bowie helped shape The Next Day and Lazarus. In that conversation, we talk in depth about Hey’s time working with Bowie, but we also touch on his broader creative life—including a project that might surprise some Bowie fans: the jazz-funk band FORQ.

Hey is a founding member of FORQ (pronounced “fork”), a group of powerhouse improvisers who blend funk, jazz, and rock in inventive and highly rhythmic ways. It’s one of Hey’s most personal projects—he’s not just the keyboardist, but also a core composer and creative voice in the group. With five albums to their name and performances at major festivals like Montreux and North Sea Jazz, FORQ has earned a loyal following on the strength of its musical interplay and genre-bending style.

The current lineup includes Henry Hey on keyboards, Chris McQueen on guitar, Kevin Scott on bass, and Jason “JT” Thomas on drums. Collectively, they’ve played with everyone from Snarky Puppy and Bokanté to Lauryn Hill and Roy Hargrove.

While FORQ lives in a very different musical space from Bowie, it’s another window into Hey’s creative personality—especially his love of collaboration, rhythmic experimentation, and unexpected turns. If you want to see that side of him in action, check out the video below: “Va,” a track from FORQ’s 2024 album Big Party. The song captures the band’s sense of energy and playfulness in a way that’s both accessible and musically adventurous.

Here’s the video. And come back tomorrow for the full conversation with Henry Hey, where we talk Lazarus, Bowie, FORQ (briefly), and what it means to build a career around curiosity and collaboration.