Pop & Jazz Critic
You expect to hear Bob Marley songs at a reggae concert, whether it's the DJ spinning them during intermission or covers by the headliner; 26 years after his death, the King of Reggae still resonates.
When the performer in question is his widow, former bandmate or offspring, the nostalgic medley is typically relegated to the bottom half of the show, after the crowd (and there is always one, even when the Marley connection is tenuous) has been dazzled by their material.
Though he took the stage an hour late for his Tuesday night gig at the Phoenix, Stephen Marley didn't waste time.
The first song from the second of Bob's seven sons was the late great's "Roots, Rock, Reggae."
With a guitar strapped across his torso and that mid-reverie tendency to hold his left hand to his forehead, locks swinging, 35-year-old Marley was in full dad mode.
He followed with "Chase Dem" from his acclaimed solo debut Mind Control and continued alternating his tunes with his father's gems for the first half of the 90-minute set.
Accompanied by an 11-piece Wailers-style band and two fierce back-up dancers updating the I-Three's moves (despite one with a distracting, oh-so-impolitic hair weave) his works are rootsier than eldest brother Ziggy's current fusion fare and more traditional than youngest brother Damian's dancehall reggae-rap oeuvre.
But like those better known brothers, Stephen Marley executes the King's originals with aplomb, branding them with precision endings and modern grooves.
With his own lyrics echoing the family's trademark call for unity, he halted the music to lecture: "They use politics and race and religion to divide us, (but) we are one people."
A more contemporary vibe emerged once he brought out little brother Damian "Jr. Gong" Marley, 28, to perform several of the hits from his Grammy-winning disc Welcome to Jamrock.
That album was produced by Stephen, who has been criticized for dipping into his dad's catalogue to fashion dance remixes and rap collaborations for his brothers and others.
But with a sold-out Phoenix audience of 1,100 frat boys, Rastas, hipsters and Boomers, and his own young son onstage dancing and waving a flag throughout the gig, which ended past midnight, it would appear the father of eight has the Marley legacy well in hand.
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