Knowledge Overthrow Them!

2008-03-05T00:34:00.001-08:00

Bob Marley'in hayatı film oluyor

ANKARA- Reggae müziğini Jamaika sınırları dışına taşıyarak efsaneleşen Bob Marley'nin yaşam öyküsü beyazperdeye taşınıyor. Genç yaşta kanserden ölen Marley'nin hayat hikayesini anlatan ilk filmin yapımcıları arasında sanatçının eşi Rita Marley de yer alacak.

Sinema sektörü yayın organı Hollywoodreporter'ın haberine göre, Bob Marley'nin yaşam öyküsünü içeren filmle ilgili hazırlıklar, sanatçının eşi Rita Marley'nin gözetiminde başladı.

Filmin, Bob Marley'nin yaşam öyküsünün yanı sıra, Rita-Bob Marley çiftinin nasıl tanıştığını ve yaşadıkları aşkı da beyazperdeye taşıması hedefleniyor. Başrol oyuncularının seçilmesi ile ilgili ayrıntıları planlamaya başlayan Rita Marley, bir bölümü Jamaika'da çekilecek yapımda ünlü müzisyenin gençliğini ve sonraki yıllarını iki farklı aktörün canlandırmasını düşünüyor. Filmde, müzisyenin orijinal parçalarının düzenlemeleri kullanılacak.

TORUNU VE GELİNİ DE FİLMDE

Rita Marley'nin yapımcıları arasında yer alacağı filmde Marley ailesinin diğer fertlerinin de rol alması planlanıyor.

Rita Marley, filmde kendisini canlandırması için ailenin ünlü ferdi Lauryn Hill'i düşünüyor. Bob Marley'nin dördüncü oğlu olan Rohan Marley'nin eşi rap şarkıcısı, albüm prodüktörü ve oyuncu Hill ile temasa geçen Rita Marley, sanatçıdan yanıt bekliyor. Marley, filmde eşinin gençlik yıllarını da torunu Stefan'ın canlandırmasını düşünüyor.

Marley, yapımın prodüksiyonunu, 2004 yılında gerçekleştirilen ''No Woman No Cry: Bob Marley ile Hayatım'' adlı otobiyografide birlikte çalıştığı The Weinstein Co. ile birlikte yürütecek.

Rita Marley, filmin oyuncularının henüz belirlenmediğini belirterek, ''Lauryn'in beni canlandıracak en ideal kişi olduğunu düşünüyorum'' dedi. Hill'in, Bob Marley'nin eski eşi Janet Hunt ile evliliğinden olan Rohan Marley ile evli olduğunu ifade eden Marley, ''Çünkü Lauryn benim hayatımı da yakından biliyor'' sözleriyle efsane müzisyeninin gelininin filmde rol alması yönündeki isteğini dile getirdi.

Filmin çekimlerine gelecek yıl başlanması, 2009 yılında seyirciyle buluşması planlanıyor.

Tanınmış yönetmen Martin Scorsese'nin hazırladığı, Bob Marley'ye ilişkin bir belgeselin de sanatçının 65. yaş günü olan 6 Şubat 2010 tarihinde gösterime girmesi planlanıyor.

BOB MARLEY'NİN YAŞAM ÖYKÜSÜ
Asıl adı Robert Nesta Marley olan unutulmaz sanatçı, 6 Şubat 1945 tarihinde Jamaika'da dünyaya geldi.

5 yaşındayken annesinin Kingston'a taşınmaya karar vermesinin ardından Bob ve ailesi, yaşamı boyunca Bob'un en iyi arkadaşlarından biri olan Bunny Livingston ve ailesi ile birlikte yaşadı.

Reggae müziğinin sadece Jamaika sınırlarında kalmamasını sağlayıp, onu bütün dünyaya duyuran en önemli isimlerden biri olan söz yazarı, şarkıcı ve gitarist Marley, profesyonel anlamda müziğe The Wailers grubu ile başladı.

Bob, The Wailers'tan ayrıldıktan sonra, üç kadın reggae sanatçısının oluşturduğu The I-Threes adlı gruba müzikal alanda yardım etti.

Şarkılarında politik içerik de bulunan Marley, ''Catch A Fire'' adlı çalışmasını 1972 yılında yayımladı. Bu çalışmayı, 1973 çıkışlı ''Burnin?'', 1975'te kaydedilen ''Natty Dread'' ve 1975 tarihli ''Live'' albümleri izledi. İngiltere, Almanya gibi önemli Avrupa ülkelerinde büyük dinleyici kitlesine sahip olan Marley, bu sayede Avrupa'da özellikle o yıllar için büyük önem taşıyan konserler verdi.

En popüler şarkılarından biri olan ''Get Up, Stand Up'' ile sosyal karmaşayı konu edinen Marley'nin ''No Women, No Cry'' adlı parçası dillerden düşmedi.

1978'de Afrika insanına yapılan insancıl yardımlara şarkılarıyla destek olduğu için Birleşmiş Milletler Barış Madalyası'na değer bulunan Marley, bu ödülü aldığı sene insancıl yardım amacıyla Jamaika'da konsere çıktı.

Sanatçının ''I Shot The Sheriff'' ve ''Get Up, Stand Up'' gibi şarkıları, ünlü sanatçı Eric Clapton tarafından yıllar sonra yeniden düzenlendi.

Fırtınalı bir yaşamı olan ve bir kısmı evlilik dışı ilişkilerden 13 çocuğu bulunan Bob Marley, 11 Mayıs 1981 tarihinde 36 yaşında deri kanserine yenik düştü. (AA)

2008-03-05T00:12:00.000-08:00

The Weinstein Company Acquires Rights to Produce the First Ever Feature Film About Legendary Musician Bob Marley

NEW YORK, March 4 /PRNewswire/ -- The Weinstein Company is thrilled to announce that they have acquired the rights to develop, produce and distribute the first ever biopic about the legendary Jamaican singer, songwriter, guitarist, and activist, Bob Marley and his wife Rita Marley. The feature film will be based on the autobiography "No Woman No Cry: My Life With Bob Marley" written by Rita Marley, the widow of the legendary reggae musician. The book is an intimate and epic account of their relationship, which went from the streets of Trenchtown to the heights of the international music and political worlds. Rudy Langlais ("The Hurricane") is set to produce the film from a script written by Lizzie Borden ("Working Girls"). Rita Marley will serve as executive producer. More details about the project will be announced soon. The announcement was made today by Harvey Weinstein, co-chairman of The Weinstein Company.

Rita Marley stated, "Bob always told me, 'Wherever you are I will be there' and I didn't understand it until much later. Our lives began in a government yard in Trenchtown with hopes of reaching the world through music and through our dreams. I wrote my book to tell my story -- of the dreams we shared and those days we spent living and believing in our hope. I saw it and now we get to tell it through our movie. I have waited a long time to tell this story, about growing up in Jamaica and meeting Bob and making our music and falling in love and making our family. All that, and all that we went through went into this. Now is that time. This is my story."

Harvey Weinstein stated, "I could not be more excited about this film and about bringing audiences around the world a true look into the delicate and dynamic lives of Rita and Bob Marley. Bob Marley was a prolific individual who has influenced and impacted the world with engaging messages he expressed through his moving and socially observant music. His voice commanded attention, it commanded compassion, and it commanded peace. He was a profound musical prophet, whose voice and words inspired generations across the world. We hope this film will resonate across all classes and creeds."

Rudy Langlais stated, "Rita Marley is the only one and the only way to tell this extraordinary love story. There's a reggae song, 'She who lives it, knows it.' Rita lived it all with Bob - the rugged years in the Trenchtown ghetto, the rise to fame and stardom with the Wailers, the complex love affair that spanned his short life, the attempted assassination of both of them on the eve of a concert, and his tragic death at 35. Rita was there, she saw it all -- and she is taking us into the heart of it all through her amazing book and story. This is Rita's story of her life with Bob."

Production Executive, Ben Famiglietti brought this project to The Weinstein Company, along with Michael Cole, Co-Head of Production. They will oversee the project on behalf of The Weinstein Company. Eric Roth, EVP of Business and Legal Affairs negotiated the deal on behalf of The Weinstein Company. Mickey Freiberg from ACME Talent Literary along with Eric Weissmann from Weissmann, Wolf, Bergman, Colman & Silverman negotiated on behalf of Rudy Langlais and Lizzie Borden. Attorneys Bob Epstein, Marvin Zolt and Claude Ismael represented Rita Marley in negotiations.

"No Woman No Cry: My Life with Bob Marley" written by Rita Marley with Hettie Jones, was published by Hyperion in May of 2004.

About Rita Marley

Rita Marley was born in Santiago de Cuba, Cuba, married Bob Marley in 1966 and remained married to him until his death in 1981. She was the mother of two of his children, who displayed musical talent like their parents. Rita was also a musician, and performed with a girl-group called the I-Three who had been the back-up singers to Bob Marley and the Wailers. After having witnessed the visit of Ethiopian leader Haile Selassie to Jamaica in 1961, Rita Marley converted to the Rastafarian religion and introduced it to Bob as well. He began to devote his spiritual life to its beliefs and adopted its traditions, which included wearing his iconic dreadlocks. As Marley's music and persona became more and more controversial in Jamaica, the political turmoil it stirred resulted in an assassination attempt on the eve of a concert in Kingston, at which Bob and Rita were shot. To this day, Rita Marley is a benefactor of numerous humanitarian causes. She continues to perform worldwide and lives in Ghana, West Africa.

About Bob Marley

Bob Marley was born under the name of Nesta Robert Marley in the Jamaican countryside town of Nine Miles in 1945. His father was a white Jamaican Marine Officer and Captain of English descent, while his mother was a young black Jamaican girl. After his father's death, Bob moved with his mother to the Kingston ghetto of Trenchtown. There he began playing music, imitating American R&B, and soon formed a band with several other musicians, including Neville O'Riley Livingston and Peter Tosh, calling themselves The Wailers. Their music evolved into what they called "reggae," expressing their rebellious spirit against British colonial rule. Financed by Island Record owner and fellow Jamaican Chris Blackwell, Marley and the Wailers soon were brought to international attention and broke out into world fame. Marley went solo under Blackwell's direction and became an international legend, his music addressing everything from passionate love to revolution in the third world, to humanity's unity in the anthem "One Love." Bob Marley died of a long- gestating cancer in 1981. At the end of the century, Time Magazine and The New York Times named him the most important popular artist of the 20th Century and his record "Exodus" the important record of the century. He was also awarded the United Nations Medal of Peace for the Third World.

About The Weinstein Company

The Weinstein Company (TWC) was created by Bob and Harvey Weinstein, the brothers who founded Miramax Films Corporation in 1979. TWC is a multi-media company that officially launched on October 1, 2005. Dimension Films, the genre label that was founded in 1993 by Bob Weinstein, is also included under the TWC banner.

During the Weinsteins' tenure at Miramax Films the company released some of the most critically acclaimed and commercially successful independent feature films which received 249 Academy Award(R) nominations and won 60 Oscars(R), have generated billions of dollars in worldwide box office receipts and billions more in home video sales. In its history, Dimension Films has released some of the most successful franchises including "Scream," "Spy Kids" and "Scary Movie.

The Weinstein Company

2008-02-06T02:32:00.000-08:00

Ten Best: Contributions of Bob Marley

Brian Clarey
Editor

Bob Marley Day

Everybody loves reggae music. Okay, maybe not everybody. But we can all agree on the cultural significance of Bob Marley, the genre's godfather and one of the pioneers the sound in the '60s and '70s before his death in 1981 at the age of 36. But the aftereffects of his short life are still felt today, particularly on Feb. 6, his birthday and also the date each year of Bob Marley Day, which I believe is a paid holiday in Humboldt County, Calif.

Rastafarianism

Marley didn't invent Rastafarianism, but he did help popularize it - kind of like the religion's Tom Cruise to Haile Selassie's L. Ron Hubbard. Before Marley and the Wailers hit it big with their first album, Catch A Fire in 1973, the religion was virtually unknown outside of Jamaica, Ethiopia and a few other countries, and has now spread throughout the world. You can even find certain elements of it practiced on college campuses across the United States.

The Wailers

Marley formed the Teenagers, a ska and rocksteady group, in Jamaica in 1963. It morphed into the Wailing Rudeboys, then the Wailing Wailers and the finally settled on the Wailers. The group, which included longtime associate Bunny Wailer, underwent a lineup change in 1974, a configuration that still exists and tours today.

Peter Tosh

Also in the original Teenagers lineup was one Peter McIntosh, a product of Kingston's Trenchtown slum. Angrier, funnier and more politically intense than Marley - Tosh called cities "Shitties," called Island Records President Chris Blackwell "Whiteworst" and crafted a song, "Legalize It," which would become an anthem of the pro-marijuana movement - Tosh also folded layers of heavy, rock-influenced guitar into the traditional reggae paradigm like no one else. Give a listen to "Rastafari Is" and you'll see exactly what I mean.

His children

Bob Marley had 13 children. Five were by his wife Rita - two of which were adopted by Marley - and the remaining eight each had a different baby-mama. Of them all, the most famous are Ziggy, who scored a big hit in the '90s with "Tomorrow People" and still tours today; Stephen and Damian, who worked together on several albums; Ky-Mani, who recently opened for Van Halen; and Rohan, who played linebacker at the University of Miami and went on to play pro football in Canada.

The Ocho Rios hustle

Don't ask me how I know, but cab drivers in the Jamaican tourist town of Ocho Rios offer any and all out-of-towners a chance to visit Bob Marley's house, which they'll describe as being up in the hills by scenic waterfalls. In truth, the house they describe is a nearly two-hour drive from the port, following a route that traverses rough roads and poverty-stricken neighborhoods. But really all they're trying to do is sell marijuana.

"Master Blaster" by Stevie Wonder

Stevie Wonder was onstage with Bob Marley & the Wailers on Oct. 4, 1975 in the National Arena in Kingston, the last time the original Wailers ever played together. Wonder wrote this song in 1977, when Marley was diagnosed with cancer, as a tribute to the man. It also kicks ass.

Tuff Gong Records

Tuff Gong was Bob Marley's nickname, derived from the fact that he was such a badass - after discovering cancer in his toe, Marley refused to have it amputated due to his Rastafarian beliefs. But it was also the name of a record label begun by the Wailers in 1970 to promulgate reggae music's message. Its headquarters in Kingston now houses the Bob Marley Museum.

The Bob Marley Foundation

After he passed, Marley's wife Rita founded the Bob Marley Foundation in order to, according to the website, "fulfill his comprehensive vision of social development through advocacy for social change." Its current projects include Africa Unite, which sponsors events in different countries on that continent with an eye toward unification.

"No Woman No Cry"

Enough said.

2008-01-15T06:30:00.001-08:00

Proudly his father's son

May 18, 2007

Ashante Infantry
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.

2008-01-15T06:28:00.000-08:00

Bob Marley's classic Exodus album re-released for 30th anniversary

Bob Marley’s Exodus album will be reissued on USB memory sticks to mark the 30th anniversary of its release on May 28.

The USB memory stick will be limited to 4,000 copies and will also include three videos filmed at London’s Rainbow Theatre in June 1977.

n addition, it will also be released on micro SD memory card format – of which just 2,000 will be released – and two different CDs.

One CD will come in a hardback case, while the deluxe CD version will also include a DVD featuring 12 songs recorded live at Bob’s concerts at the Rainbow Theatre in London.

2008-01-15T06:27:00.000-08:00

David Corio's best shot

'I was chest-deep in water and down to my last frame. I clicked the shutter - and got it'

Interview by Leo Benedictus
Thursday May 17, 2007
The Guardian

In 1980, the last full year of Bob Marley's life, the NME asked me to shoot his gig at Crystal Palace Bowl. He only performed about eight more before he died. There was a big lake right in front of the stage, so photographers had to stand 50 yards away. I remember Joe Jackson performing there once. Someone found a dead duck and threw it at him. It hit him in the chest and he just walked off, understandably.

after a few shots, I hadn't got anything, so I put a camera and film in a carrier bag, and just waded in. It was chest-deep. A bunch of fans had jumped in, so there was lots of splashing. It was difficult holding a carrier bag up in the air with one hand and the camera with the other.

Bob was also really difficult to shoot. He was almost in a trance, dancing like a shaman. His locks were thrashing around and it was hard to capture a good expression when they weren't totally covering his face. I wouldn't have known at the time that he was ill.

I got down to my last shot, the 37th frame on my last roll of film, and waited - and just managed to capture it all at the right moment. There have been a few times over the years when, just as you click the shutter, you feel that you've got it. This was one of them.

But the NME didn't print it. They chose a singing-into-the-microphone shot. I was 20, just starting, and I'd only done a dozen jobs, so I was glad to get the gig. But I was a bit peeved.

The picture has been used over the years because of its graphic quality as much as anything. I tried getting rid of the little bit of the microphone stand in the corner, but the result just looks too clean to me. The image sums up that day. I went home on the tube covered in green slime and stinking of old pondlife.

· Memoirs from the Mosh Pit, an exhibition of photographs by David Corio, is at the Rockarchive Gallery, London, until June 1. Details: 020-7376 7129

David Corio's photographs of Bob Marley and other subjects can be seen on his website

2008-01-15T06:16:00.000-08:00

Europe, Africa, Jamaica (Pt III)
published: Wednesday | May 16, 2007

Peter Espeut

I have been commenting on the powerful 1997 book, Jamaica Genesis by anthropologist Diane Austin-Broos, in which she proposes a plausible theory of the evolution of Jamaican culture. It is a theory of conflict: after Emancipation the African-based religion dominant in Jamaica came into conflict with (non-Anglican) Protestant Christianity from England to produce a Jamaican version of Christianity underpinned with an African understanding of spirits and how to control them. And in the early 20th century this synthesis came into conflict with ecstatic Pentecostalism from America producing a new synthesis more in tune with the African view of spirits and how the world works.

In the 19th century, adopting non-conformist Protestant Christianity was one way of challenging Jamaica's oppressive domestic economic, social and political arrangements supported by the British Parliament and the Anglican Church. In the first half of the 20th century adopting American Pentecostalism was one way of challenging the rigid colour/class system of pre-Independence Jamaica dominated by the colonial state and the now mainstream (British) non-Conformist Christianity.

Religious hybrid

Remember that neither the 'pure' Baptist faith brought by the English nor the 'pure' Pentecostalism brought by the Americans was what we adopted in Jamaica; over the last 200 years we developed a religious hybrid - a syncretism - with a strong African foundation in the background. Beneath the surface is belief in duppies, dreams and divination; and some resort to obeah if Christian prayer fails. The more ecstatic (Puk-)Kumina, Revival Zion and Myal are in the picture, but on the fringe, since they are less respectable and less socially acceptable.

Jamaica's culture of protest is deeply ingrained. Remember that in Atlantic slave history Jamaica had the greatest number of slave revolts, and (except for Haiti) the most serious ones. And after Emancipation there were: the Kingston John Canoe Riots of 1840; the Buie Riots of 1859 in Falmouth; the Morant Bay Rebellion of 1865; the Montego Bay Riots of 1902; the riotsagainst the Chinese in 1918 beginning in Ewarton; the 1938 disturbances in Islington, Frome and the Kingston waterfront; the Rodney riots of 1969; widespread blocking of roads in the 1970s, '80s and '90s; all these indicate a seething discontent with Jamaica as it is, and readiness to take to the streets.

The emergence of Rastafarianism in the 1940s was another profound protest against Jamaican society which had failed to produce real equality after Emancipation. Dressed in religious garb, Rastafarianism began as a rejection of Jamaican economy, polity and society containing the unrighted wrongs of slavery. The fact that Rastas pay no homage to the Jamaican flag (the Black, Green and Gold) but rather to the 'Ites' (Red) Green and Gold is an indication of where true loyalties lie. Disrespect for the national anthem shows that many Jamaicans do not believe independent Jamaica is organised for their benefit, any more than slave Jamaica or colonial Jamaica was.

The spread of Rasta as a religion to the far corners of the globe is due less to belief in the divinity of Selassie than to its rejection of capitalism and warmongering. The characteristic dress and hairstyle of Rasta, and its rejection of wage slavery (employment), are a profound rejection of Western ideals and standards.

Rasta elements captured popular music in the 1960s, and reggae was born, songs of protest which matched Bob Dylan and Joan Baez, and then went further. Its worldwide popularity is not just because of its pulsating beat, but because of its message rejecting the domination of so many by Western white Christian capitalism. Globally, reggae has positioned itself as the musical voice of the oppressed, because it is grounded in an experience of oppression at home. We need to understand what Bob means when he sings, "I want to disturb my neighbour".

The protest continues today: on talk shows, in the music, rejection of mainstream churches, refusing to register to vote and refusing to vote, dropping out of the formal economy, street protests; and by the large numbers who migrate elsewhere to work hard for the rewards they cannot get here. And most notably, a main vehicle of protest against injustice is through crime. Crime won't be contained until Jamaica becomes a more just society, and comes to closure with our oppressive past.

2008-01-15T06:15:00.001-08:00

Icon: Marcia Griffiths - Feel like jumping after 40 years
published: Tuesday | May 15, 2007

Marcia Griffiths in performance. - Nathaniel Stewart/Freelance Photographer

Howard Campbell, Gleaner Writer

THE MUSIC scene in Jamaica was on the verge of international acceptance in 1967 when a young singer named Marcia Griffiths broke through with Feel Like Jumping, an uptempo song for producer Clement Dodd.

Forty years later, Griffiths is still making hit songs. She may be approaching 60 but she remains young at heart and can still rock with the youngest of them.

Recently, VP Records released Melody Life, a two-CD collection of 30 songs that tracks Griffiths' career to the days of Dodd's Studio One, to her time with producers Harry 'Harry J' Johnson, Lloyd Charmers and Sonia Pottinger in the 1970s.

Most of the second disc covers the 1990s when Griffiths' career enjoyed a renaissance at producer Donovan Germain's Penthouse Records.

Melody Life (the name of one of her hits at Studio One) is not just a tribute to Griffiths' staying power, but shows her refusal to be linked to a particular sound or era.

The Studio One songs reflect the party mood of post-Independence Jamaica. Her work with Pottinger is homage to the social impact Rastafarianism had on the country's popular culture during the 1970s, when Griffiths toured the world as a member of the I-Three, Bob Marley's backup group.

Rubbing shoulders

While most of her contemporaries were relegated to the oldies circuit in the 1990s, Griffiths was rubbing shoulders with the new wave of dancehall acts. With Germain at the helm, she had an energetic chart run, recording with Penthouse regulars like Buju Banton and Wayne Wonder.

Two collaborations from that period, Live On with Beres Hammond and Half Idiot (with Cutty Ranks), are included on Melody Life.

One of the high points of Marcia Griffiths' endurance is her ability to fit in. She is just as comfortable performing at 'vintage' shows like Heineken Startime or contemporary roots events such as East Fest.

No matter the demographic, the reception to songs like Feel Like Jumping, Dreamland or I Shall Sing is the same: rapturous.

No matter the demographic, the reception to songs is the same: rapturous.

2008-01-15T06:14:00.000-08:00

Ghanaians celebrate Bob Marley

Reggae Lenged Bob Marley

Myth about Bob Marley remains in music and philosophy. Last friday marked the 26th anniversary of Bob Marley as one of the greatest music legends of all time.

As a tradition, many radio and FM stations, night clubs and theatres have been running programmes to pay tribute to him.

By all standards the late Bob Marley is comparable with other music mortals like Elvis Presley, Sam Cooke, John Lennon of Beatles fame and Jim Hendrix.

However there is an extraordinary force in Marley’s music synonymous with rhythmic eloquence in thought and philosophy which goes to distinguish him from other legends.

To prove this, a decade ago when Island records released a catalogue on a cassette disc format, Marley turned the charts upside down, shook and leapt on to the pinnacle of the charts with meritorious speed.

‘The legend,’ an album of a compilation of his memorable hits out sold everything previously released in his life time.

Globally his unique style and poly rhythmic music stirred not only romantic hearts but also conscientise the human race and even gingered the effort of politicians in their strife to find peace, justice and freedom.

It is indeed an irony of history that Zimbabwe whose President Robert Mugabe acknowledged the musical resourcefulness of Bob Marley and extended an invitation to him with a government guarantee and a role to play at the country’s independence ceremony in April 27 years ago, should now be seen as being diametrically opposed to the very freedom for which the reggae legend was expected to harp on, when he sang among other tracks, Zimbabwe, being connotative of political independence and dignity of man at the ceremony.

The effect which his album ‘Survival’ released in 1979 including ‘Zimbabwe’ ‘so much trouble in the world,’ ‘Stand up get up’ underscores a common thing about him that he defiantly scorn mistreatment, injustice done to people and always showed a disgust with a swelling tide of fury at such things.

2008-01-15T06:13:00.000-08:00

Bob Marley inspires artistes
15 May, 2007
GABORONE - Botswanas Rastafarian community converged on Gaborone Civic Centre on Saturday to celebrate the life of Robert Nesta Marley commonly known as Bob Marley.

The commemoration of Bob Marleys life was a fitting celebration for the man who has affected all people of all races and ages.

The man still leaves through his music and it does not look like he will ever disappear from the music industry.

Marley, who died 26 years ago, still gets the respect of Rastafarians and reggae music lovers as he had contributed tremendously to the music genre and the religion of Rastafarism.

The show at the civic centre started at a slow pace with just a few spectators in the afternoon but as the night approaches the hall was filled with people from all ages.

The show had a predominantly reggae line up but was diverse as kwaito music (Mapetla), kwasa-kwasa (Chris Manto 7) and hip-hop (Steez) were all represented.

Among the reggae greats were Steppin Razor and Oom G, Jah Revelation Sounds, Jahman States and Chanty Killa.

One of the organisers of the show Ras Kabelo Mokgalajwe said Bob Marley stood for Africaness so the inclusion of musicians from different genres was to show unity among all artists.

We wanted to promote African consciousness and talent, he said. Mokgalajwe also stated that the show was organised to celebrate the life of a great man, a musician and a true ambassador of African culture.

All the musicians and the spectators alike admitted that Marley has influenced their lives one way or the other.

In his words, Mapetla said I listen to Bobs songs before I write mine so as to get inspiration from this great musician.

Mapetla further stated that he did not get any payment for this show, as he wanted to pay his respect to the legend Bob Marley.

Chris Manto 7 said he sings his songs in his native Hambukushu as Marleys encouragement of Africans to maintain their African culture inspired him.

Steez who gave quite a performance as he managed to get the reggae loving audience to transcend and listen to his good hip-hop songs said, Marley is a legend that should never be forgotten.

A Rastafarian woman, Sister Rita Maloko, who came with her two children, Dimpho,7, and Thabo, 12, said Bob was a great man and he deserves the respect from the entire world as he has touched all people of all races through his powerful music. BOPA

2008-01-15T06:12:00.002-08:00

One Love!

The Voice (Francistown)15 May 2007

Botswana's local Rastafarian community is pulling on all stops to host a show in honour of their hero figure, Robert Bob Nesta Marley.

The show, which coincides with the fallen legend's International day (May 12), will be held at the Civic Centre tomorrow (Saturday).

Hosted with the help of Bhingi Vibe Productions and Erad Cashan Squad, the gig will among other artistes feature Stepping Razor, Jah Revelation Sounds, Jahman States, DT, Mapetla, Chris Manto 7, Steez.

The anticipated show which kicks off at 1500hrs will also offer the audience a chance to learn about Marley's history as well as his significant role in international politics and his influences in spiritual forces.

There will also be an exhibition of reading materials such as books, pamphlets, thesis' and biographies.

A spokesman for the Rasta Community, Dithuso Selepeng, noted that patrons would also be treated to different teachings pertaining to spiritual enlightenment.

"We are going to have all the bands sharing the stage to sing one of Marley's outstanding hits called One Love. Most of the music at this show will be centered around the Reggae hero."

Rudie believes that Marley was a hero figure, in the classic mythological sense. His departure (May 11) from this planet came at a point when his vision of One World, One Love - inspired by his belief in Rastafari - was beginning to be heard and felt. The last Bob Marley and the Wailers tour in 1980 attracted the largest audiences at that time for any musical act in Europe.

Bob's story is that of an archetype, which is why it continues to have such a powerful and ever-growing resonance: it embodies political repression, metaphysical and artistic insights, gangland warfare and various periods of mystical wilderness.

And his audience continues to widen: to Westerners, Bob's apocalyptic truths prove inspirational and life changing; in the Third World, his impact goes much further.

Bob Marley never wrote a bad song. He left behind the most remarkable body of recorded work. "The reservoir of music he has left behind is like an encyclopedia," says Selepeng.

"When you need to refer to a certain situation or crisis, their will always be a Bob Marley song that will relate to it. Bob was a musical prophet."

It goes without saying that Jamaica has produced an artist who has transcended all categories, classes, and creeds through a combination of innate modesty and profound wisdom. Jah Bless!

2008-01-15T06:12:00.001-08:00

Marley Celebrated
New Vision (Kampala) 14 May 2007
Posted to the web 15 May 2007
Kampala

Winne Ngabirye receives her prize from Shem Semambo as Tshaka Mayanja looks on

MANY stories have been told about Bob Marley, the man believed to have started the reggae music genre, which has helped spawn many other derivatives. Although he passed away 26 years ago on May 11, many people still love his music.

Last Friday's Tuff Gong Night in Ange Noir discothèque fell on exactly the same date as that of the reggae icon and as expected, there was reason to celebrate. Scores of frenzied revellers, many great fans of Marley, could not hide their joy while on the dance floor.

Be it corporate or lower class, reggae music has no boundaries. Kenya's King Tubbs of King Lion Sounds and Ange Noir's Mark Rebel alongside Ras Klan spun the wheels of steel like Reggae was born in Uganda. Good "chunes" is what was on most of the patrons' lips in reference to the music played.

This Friday will be the Gals Nights Out and there will be prizes from African Woman Magazine and Sylvia Owori Fashions, but only for lucky ones

2008-01-15T06:11:00.001-08:00

Bob Marley album to be re-released

Tuesday, May 15 2007, 12:02 BST

By Matt Houghton

The legendary Bob Marley album Exodus is to be re-released on USB Memory Stick and Micro SD Card.

It has been reissued to coincide with the album's 30th anniversary and is to be the first artist-specific album to be released on the two unprecedented formats.

The memory sticks will be made available from June 4th, and will be issued in the rastafarian colours, red, green and gold.

A special edition DVD will also hit the shelves for Bob Marley fans, in addition to a book to mark the occasion.

2008-01-15T06:10:00.000-08:00

bob Marley's Exodus Released On USB Stick
In a pioneering move...

By: Jason Gregory on 14/05/2007 15:10:27

Island records have announced plans to re-release Bob Marley’s pioneering album, ‘Exodus,’ on June 4th.

Reissued to coincide with the album's 30th anniversary, amongst traditional formats, ‘Exodus,’ will be available on USB Memory Stick and Micro SD Card - the first artist-specific album to be released on both formats.

The limited edition USB Memory Stick is limited to 4000 copies and comes in the Rastafarian colours of red, green and gold. The multi-compatible Micro SD Card will be limited to 2000 copies.

As well as the album, a specially-packaged 30th Anniversary DVD of ‘Exodus Live at the Rainbow’ will be released on June 18th and a commemorative book - which includes the album - will hit shops on June 7th.

2008-01-15T06:09:00.000-08:00

May 14, 2007

Music Review | Stephen Marley

Got Reggae: Marley and Marley (and Marley, Too)

Rahav Segev for The New York Times

Stephen Marley, left, was joined by his brother Damian Jr. Gong Marley on Friday night at the Nokia.

Rahav Segev for The New York Times

Stephen Marley interspersed his own songs with hits like "One Love" and "Jammin'" by his father, Bob Marley, on Friday at the Nokia Theater.

By JON PARELES

For brand recognition, the best family name in popular music may well be Marley. Bob Marley’s reggae hits are instant singalongs for multiple generations of listeners worldwide — feel-good music that lets fans equate dance grooves and ganja smoke with political and spiritual righteousness.

Bob Marley’s singing sons — including Stephen Marley, who headlined a sold-out show at the Nokia Theater on Friday night with his brother Damian Jr. Gong Marley as special guest — have latched on to their father’s vocal style and his mix of idealism and pleasure. Stephen has a strong share of the Marley voice, grainy with yearning and determination, and he adds some quirky timing of his own.

Stephen and Damian have been melding their father’s legacy with music that has spread since his death in 1981: the rhymes and electronic tracks of hip-hop and Jamaican dancehall ragga. Both brothers perform on Stephen’s hit “The Traffic Jam,” a ragga song about being stopped by cops who smell marijuana and envy their luxury car. Damian’s music leans toward dancehall while preserving a social conscience, and Stephen’s current album, “Mind Control” (Tuff Gong/Universal Republic), sometimes blends his father’s roots-reggae grooves with the ominous minor chords of gangsta rap. Mr. Cheeks, a New York rapper, joined him onstage for “Iron Bars.”

But for much of his set, Stephen Marley made clear that he was in the family business. His band was modeled on the Wailers, playing steadfast 1970s-style reggae, and he alternated his own songs with his father’s familiar hits. (Since the Nokia Theater has a Broadway address, he couldn’t resist opening with Bob’s “Reggae on Broadway.”) Songs like “No Woman No Cry,” “One Love” and “Jammin’ ” are surefire, and Mr. Marley sang them as well as anyone; the audience enthusiastically joined in. But singing so much of his father’s material made him more like an oldies act than he needs to be.

His band replaced the minimal electronic beat of “The Traffic Jam” with a more standard live dancehall vamp. Backdating the music didn’t affect the roar of approval when Damian Marley arrived onstage. He took over the band for his own songs, among them “Pimpa’s Paradise,” which warns against crack addiction, and “Welcome to Jamrock,” which depicts crime alongside Jamaica’s tourist paradise.

With Damian chanting rhymes and Stephen singing choruses, the music turned contemporary; it was not always as rich as Bob Marley’s, but not nostalgic either. For the finale, Stephen fervently sang his father’s “Exodus,” and Damian reappeared with rapid-fire rhymes from his dancehall update on it, “Move!” They were holding, and extending, the family franchise.

The opening act, K’naan, brought his own social statements. He grew up in Somalia before coming to Harlem, and he rapped and sang — over djembe drumming, acoustic guitar and Ethiopian funk — about violence in the streets of Mogadishu and about facing the worst with a smile and a sense of purpose.

2008-01-15T06:08:00.000-08:00

Rastafari - co-opted by politics

SIZZLA

Today, Sizzla continues his reflections on Rastafari with a look at the relationship between politics and Rasta.

"In the last election Prime Minister X went to Ethiopia and met with the King of Kings and had a conversation with him. He came back to Jamaica and showed the people a rod, which he said was given to him by the King, Haile Selassie the First, to bring freedom to the black people of Jamaica. He carried that rod all around during the campaign. The Rastafarians heard this; the dreadlocks heard this; and this rod caused him to win a landslide victory for the party.

The Prime Minister came to power talking like a Rastafarian. He started some progressive moves on behalf of the African peoples of this country. But after a while he forgot the rod; he forgot to talk about Africa; he forgot to talk about the Rastafarians.

The other party was so anti-black that not even Elijah Muhammad could enter Jamaica as a black man. Today, it is a little better; there is freedom of speech for I and I. As you see, we even got the Marcus Garvey Park to use. Here and there we have seen a little change on the part of the government but not enough to bring the black masses out of the slums they are in right now."(Barrett 180)

This quote, along with numerous other readings, sparks interest in the political scene and situation surrounding Jamaica, Rastafarianism and reggae music in the 1970s and what it holds for the upcoming elections. It seems to me, despite the economic shambles of Jamaica and the staunch and deliberate refusal of Rastafarians to participate in 'politricks', that politics has had a deep impact on any and every aspect of life in Jamaica. A better understanding of Jamaica's political parties, what they stood for, why they sparked gruesome violence, and their impact on Rastafarians and reggae music are necessary.

At this earlier time Rastafarianism was gradually gaining attention in Jamaica. Although typically Rastafarians didn't participate in politics, the politicians were somewhat successful in wriggling their way into the Rastafarian scene through icons, music, language and symbols.

Prime Minister Manley's relationship with Bob Marley gained him support and admiration with many Jamaicans. Manley politics and Marley's music were integrated during the rule of the PNP, with Manley and Marley even living as neighbours on Hope Road. During the first four years of the Manley regime, Marley gave many free performances at the request of the PNP - two of the most significant being the 'Smile Jamaica Concert' in 1976 and the 'One Love Peace Concert' in 1978. Just prior to the Smile Jamaica Concert, Marley, his wife Rita, and his manager Don Taylor, were shot by gunmen at Bob's home on Hope Road. Many believe that this shooting was carried out by Jamaica Labour Party supporters although no concrete evidence has ever been brought forth to support this belief.

2008-01-15T06:07:00.000-08:00

Stellenbosch's Rastas say they 'puff' ganja

Kerry McCatty
Sunday, May 13, 2007

STELLENBOSCH, South Africa - Stellenbosch is probably the last place one would expect to see a chanting Rasta man draped in red, green and gold, obligatory rod in hand and carrying a boom box playing Bob Marley's Soul Rebel.

The South African college town is one of terrace restaurants, expensive boutiques. It is the kind of romantic, Hollywood artist pad, which, come to think of it, is probably the reason we found Zebulon Tafari there.

Rueben Tafari (left) and Ras Simon.

"You have to give me something for the picture," Tafari shouted as he saw the camera. Ten Rands gets him talking. His speech, one of a sing-song, rehearsed, high-pitched nature, is littered with 'I mans,' and proclamations that "Rasta is the right order".

Tafari, who is South African by birth, is one of roughly 300 Rastafarians living in and around Stellenbosch, according to another Rasta, Rueben Tafari.
The Rastafarians are members of the Nyabingi order, Ruben Tafari, who was selling assorted wares under a tree with his friend Ras Simon, said.

They share practices associated with Rastafarianism, such as smoking marijuana. Correction: "We don't smoke, we puff," Rueben Tafari, pointed out. Born into African ethnic groups, the Rastas of Stellenbosch have chosen the faith for a simple reason.

"Rasta livity is good livity. It is a African levity," Ras Simon said. Zebulon Tafari shared similar sentiments.
"I stand for the right of Jah," Zebulon said, explaining that he was involved in illegal activities and his life was lost, "but God pick me up".

Soon, Tafari was giving a street side homily. He doesn't really work, but gets some money from tourists who want to take his picture. He also sells 'ital' food occassionally.
"I don't worry," Tafari said.

2008-01-15T06:06:00.000-08:00

Marley lives in Motherland
published: Sunday | May 13, 2007

Rastafarian vendor, Margaret 'Sister Yellow' Thays (left) and her children, Zebulon (second left) and Philoireen, at their mini sidewalk shop near Cape Point, in Cape Town, South Africa. - Janet Silvera/Freelance Photographer

Janet Silvera, Senior Gleaner Writer

Sun City, South Africa:

It has been 62 years since Cedella Booker gave birth to Robert Nesta Marley and, 26 years following his death, Jamaica's king of reggae, Bob Marley, is still revered by Black South Africans,who survived the cruel apartheid system.

"Bob was the person who kept me sane, especially during the period of oppression," Ngou Nthengeni, a South African porter, who resides in Soweto, the city of contrasts, told The Sunday Gleaner.

Ngou's English name is Patrick, and he is duly branded 'Patrick Marley' by his colleagues at the posh five-star Michaelangelo Hotel where he works, in Joburg (Johannesburg).

"I am constantly preaching the gospel of Rastafarian and one love to those around me, so it was automatic for them to tag me with the name of my hero," he said.

From 1980 to 1991 was an especially difficult time for blacks to make anything of their lives in South Africa, but through the music of Bob Marley, Nthengeni said he was given hope and a chance to see the light.

Segregation

Equal opportunity was a word that Nthengeni heard being bandied about, but at no time did he experience it. "We were not allowed to go to the same toilet as the whites, not allowed to travel on the same buses, even in the shops there were two queues," he said.

During this period, he said he felt like a lost sheep in his own country, and he saw no hope of betterment as blacks were at the bottom of the ladder, having to remain there while the whites stood at the top, coloureds ruled the second rung and Indians on the third.

"Having black skin was such an awful thing. I felt small, but Bob lifted me up spiritually through his songs, One Love, Africa Unite and Redemption Song, and made me big. He was my light, the passageway through which I would find salvation," Nthengeni said.

Ngou 'Patrick Marley' Nthengeni said he is richer today because of the influence of Bob. "I learnt about love, peace and harmony from him," he said.

Like Nthengeni, a young professional, who now owns a number of companies in Johannesburg, was empowered by the Jamaican icon.

Collin Mangena, a Zimbabwean, who has spent the latter part of his adult life in South Africa, said the inspiration drawn from Bob Marley spans his entire life. "I identify him with Zimbabwe's independence, as he gave one of his last performances on our Independence Day. I subsequently grew up to One Love and Is This Love. The latter helped my wife and me through a very difficult time financially," he said.

Today, he lives by the songs Satisfy My Soul and Jammin', which define the state of his life and mindset. Through Bob Marley, Mangena said, God gave him inspiration, hope and a sense of brotherhood as a black person, and with songs like Redemption Song and Buffalo Soldier he was introduced to Jamaica.

"Every man of my generation has gone through their Rastafarian stage, courtesy of Bob Marley and The Wailers. No artiste has done that to the world since," he said.

Jamaica, Bob Marley land

In every city and rural township in South Africa visited by The Sunday Gleaner, as soon as the people knew the newspaper was based in Jamaica, the next words to come out of their mouths were "Jamaica Bob Marley land".

With immense pride and love for their acclaimed idol, one coloured South African, Arthur Arries, who was forced to live with persons of his hue during apartheid, admitted marrying a black woman because he was following in the footsteps of Marley, whose wife, Rita, has dark skin as well.

Arries, a restaurant manager in Stellenbosch, Cape Town, said he was attracted to Marley's humility, and will to fight.

As early as age 17, he had become an ardent fan and today remains one of the biggest. He said Marley achieved a very important milestone before he died. "He said we were to stop the fighting, through his album, Uprising, and it was obvious that he had accepted a lot of things before he died," Arries said.

"I too lost a lot of hatred I had for whites then," he admitted.

Today, Rastafarianism is growing in South Africa, as a number of youngsters embrace the faith and most who look up to Haile Selassie as their God, saying that Bob Marley is their inspiration.

Margaret 'Sister Yellow' Thays, a Rastafarian for more than 20 years, said there was much hypocrisy in the country as theirs were the only belief that was not accepted. "They treat us like castaways. I don't know why they say there is freedom of religion," she lamented.

The mother of two, who is a vegetarian and does not believe in birth control, proudly displays a large piece of cotton material with Bob Marley's face on it. Her head in wrapped in a turban, her children are of the faith and she smokes marijuana daily.

"That is daily sacrifice and I smoke only high-grade marijuana," Thays said.

As she continues to give 'ises', she makes no bones about being the watchwoman, who sits beneath two columns in the hot winter sun at the entrance of Africa (Cape Point). She makes sure to identify her location with "this is where Babylon entered our land to invade our continent. It's where the oceans clash".

2008-01-15T06:05:00.002-08:00

Marleys mellow mood

Gabriel Singh
Sunday, May 13, 2007

BOB Marleys influence on Fiji was, and is, immeasurable. He paved the way for the greatest era in local music, giving birth to an unrivalled passion and creativity.

Marley, the Rastafarian modern-day prophet and undisputed king of reggae died aged 36 this week 26 years ago, leaving behind a legacy of empowerment for the down-trodden of the world.

In stepping into eternal life and claiming his seat on the left hand of Jah, Marley became larger than in life.

Today, his influence continues to spread despite the efforts of the establishment to portray reggae and Rasta as marijuana mania.

Although reggae arrived in Fiji as early as the mid-1970s, it was largely ignored by the then still rock-loving locals.

There was little original work emanating here, although bands like the Dragon Swingers, Ulysses, Red Fink and Tumbling Dice, to name but a few, had enviable reputations as full-blown rock outfits.

Tourists arriving off cruise liners would clog the Golden Dragon nightclub and later Lucky Eddies to check the sounds of the premier groups that were making waves across the Pacific.

It was not unusual to find even larger crowds, often young, under age people, sitting outside the clubs to, as the Dobbie Brothers sing, Listen to the music.

But, while the country rocked and rolled on, roots rock was slowly but surely spreading it primal pulse among those very young people, many of whom would grow up basking in Marleys shadow.

Pockets of adherents were already gathering in the homes of the lucky few who had LPs or audio cassettes of albums like Burnin, which with songs like Small Axe, and its powerful biblical references, struck a deep chord in all who heard.

Little was known of Marley then, there were hardly any images of him available, certainly none in the media here.

Today, Marleys image is everywhere from Tee-shirts to banners and posters even in a supposedly religiously Christian State, the Rasta prophets visage outranks that of Christ himself in popularity.

With the advent of video, people began seeing the man himself in some of his greatest performances.

Countryman did for reggae here what Woodstock had for rock globally. But, it was Marleys very death and his disco-challenging Uprising album that finally emancipated the minds music lovers here.

Suva, at the time, was as wild as the West. Gang fights erupted violently, engulfing neighbourhoods.

Youths on every street, every suburb deemed it their duty to be brutally, even mindlessly macho.

Best of friends in school would often find themselves in the middle of pitched battles facing each other, knowing any backing down would lead to his own gang turning on him.

It was a time when one trod very, very lightly when on any turf other than ones home turf and even there, there was always a downpresser man.

In that pressure cooker atmosphere, Marley and his reggae had a startlingly calming influence on the youth, no doubt because with Marley came a greater desire to experiment with marijuana.

But marijuana had been around in Fiji for a long time before. The Fiji-Indian community is littered with tales of their ancestors squatting on the sands of Nukulau, the quarantine base for indentured labourers, and whacking a chillum at sunset, wondering where into the green mass they could see across the horizon they would be sent.

Before reggae, with its magnetic pull, drew marijuana out into the open, it was pun-pun, the sniffing of benzene, from which the ghetto and inner city youth graduated to booze. It was the perfect combination for igniting the mindless gang wars.

Redemption Song changed all that. For once, the youth sat and listened. Having a toke helped in slowing them enough so they could not only listen but actually hear. Suddenly everybody started latching onto the Jamaican patois. More importantly, it put to end gang wars over nothing.

In a miraculous transformation, rival youths could actually sit and do something together other than fight.

The common denominator was reggae and Marley, Tosh, Wailer, Jacob Miller, I Jah Man all the early angels and saints who pioneered what is today the most popular genre in Fiji.

Suddenly people couldnt get enough of the Tuff Gong.

Fittingly, it was Exodus, no not the Marley album rated by Time Magazine as the Album of the 20th Century, but the pioneering groupies from what was then known as Tombstone.

Led largely by the Heatley and Moore clans, Exodus took reggae public in Fiji, coming in from the cold to astound a generally conservative society.

They quickly established a reputation and a following.

Fittingly, Exodus is still the only reggae band still alive today.

Following Exodus came the greatest band this country has ever seen Rootstrata, whose blend of socially conscious music was decades ahead of its time. Rootstrata, which has given us Pacific anthems like Brother Kanaki, Unemp Lament, Warrior of Love and Street People led a pack of biting reggae sounds.

At the 1987 Cyclone ReggAid, Rootstrata headlined the 12-act charity gig where, for the first time, all of Fijis top reggae acts appeared under one roof. Then band leader Freddy Fesaitu even penned a special song for the concert to raise money for victims of Cyclone Raja.

By then Ben Rabaka had split Roots to drive the rhythm section of the deadly Kings Knights, a young Stephen Heatley brought Purple Haze, Exodus was still pushing its powerful sound and even Gabby Abarigas Gypsies joined the jam.

The then Governor General, Ratu Sir Penaia Ganilau, who opened the show, was deeply impressed by the wealth of talent, even asking one of the organisers whether that overpowering aroma smell in the then National Gymnasium was marijuana, jokingly saying it smelt better than cigarettes.

Ratu Sir Penaia was even more impressed when the proceeds of the show were handed over to him at Government House a month later that he asked to make arrangements for Rootstrata to join the army jazz band to play at that years Queens Birthday garden party.

Sadly, a month later a crazy colonel raped this country, unleashing a greed and sowing the seeds for a racism we are still reeling from today.

Of them all, Rootstrata stands the tallest for producing outstandingly original work, with even a tribute to Marley called Brother Bob Marley made up by putting lines from Marleys songs into a totally new song.

A few years earlier they had been the first group to have a concert at the Suva Civic Auditorium broadcast live nationally over Radio Fiji.

But that song was the first tribute to Marley song I heard and remains by far the best, although theres some new stuff cooking in a part of Raiwaqa that everyone should be raving about in the not too distant future, hopefully.

Rastafari.

BOB Marleys mother, Cedella Marley Booker, now 81, believes her son was killed.

The Rastafarian prophet and reggae pioneer who has given a meaning in life to millions of people across the world died this week 26 years ago, aged 36.

His death, at the prime of his career, shocked family, friends, music lovers and the Rasta faithful.

Marley died in Miami on his way back to Jamaica after undergoing a radical cancer treatment in the then West Germany.

The matriarch Marley, pictured below, who now lives in Florida, in an interview with the Classical Reggae Interviews website, lamented the death of her world-changing son, the Third Worlds greatest hero.

On Marleys untimely death, she said: "I dont think that Bob have cancer. If Bob have cancer, I think it was injected in him in some way.

"I really do think so. I dont think he really had cancer."

She does not say who she means by "they" but her claims add fuel to Rasta suspicions that Marley, whose rise, progress and growing influence over the world was viewed with alarm by the Central Intelligence Agency, did not die a natural death.

She believes Marley was "got at" in Miami. "

I leave all vengeance to God," she said.

2008-01-15T06:05:00.001-08:00

Recognise Asante Amen

By Debra Edwards Observer writer
Friday, May 11, 2007

"Mi nuh conquer no whey if mi nuh conquer mi yard, I am a Jamaican and would like to get recognition here," stated the self-proclaimed son of the soil and reggae artiste Asante Amen, with regards to his musical accomplishments and notable fan base abroad, but less-than-stellar acknowledgment here in his homeland of Jamaica.

Asante Amen

He continued, "The game is not easy in Jamaica, it is not just about talent, money talks. Many DJs don't grasp that if they played your music one time a day just on the basis of talent, it could make so much of a difference". With this understanding the 29-year-old lecturer of Cognitive Psychology at UWI, who made sure to get his education first, knowing that "academia is key", has tried to find innovative ways of getting his music heard with the help of, most recently, online marketing and the use of websites such as Myspace, on the advice of fellow reggae artiste Tony Rebel.

Asante explained that he has always had a passion for music, but began singing at his local church, school, fetes, birthday parties and weddings at the age of 12. His influences are first and foremost Jah, but include Chicago, UB40, Michael Jackson, Freddie Jackson, Marvin Gaye, Whitney Houston and Mariah Carey. But it is none other than Garnett Silk who he considers to be "a prophet whose life was cut short", who made him want to become a Rastafarian and sing reggae music.

"Reggae needs an ambassador that can articulate the views of Rastafari, Jamaica and reggae music, and I am that man." The Wolmer's high school alumnus sees himself as "an undiluted type of energy", which he has proven with his debut single entitled Ras Tafari's Love on the One Drop Music label, the 60th birthday celebration of Bob Marley's life in February 2005, and at Rebel Salute in January 2006.

Where does Asante Amen see the music taking him in the future? He says, "To the ends of the earth, bringing a resurgence with spiritual reggae to a fever pitch like Garnett Silk did in the 90s."

2008-01-15T06:04:00.001-08:00

Bob Marley not just a Cultural Ambassador

If he had done nothing but record Catch a Fire, Bob Marley would still be known as the person who introduced reggae music to millions of Americans.

But more than just a cultural ambassador, Robert Nesta Marley was a fabulously talented songwriter who could mix protest music and undeniable pop as skilfully as Bob Dylan; even before Marley’s death at age 36, he was becoming a true culture hero — the first major rock artist to come out of a Third World country.

More than 20 years on, his records sound as fresh as ever, something proved every week by the astonishing continued sales of his greatest-hits package Legend.

Although Marley is best known for the string of memorable albums he recorded during the ‘70s, the original Wailers — Marley, Peter Tosh, and Neville “Bunny Wailer” Livingston — were a leading Jamaican vocal trio in the ‘60s, cutting R&B-flavored sides with distinctive island rhythms.

The development of the Wailers into a self-contained band mirrors the evolution of reggae itself; gradually, the group shook off the singles-minded approach of the early Jamaican studios and forged an expansive new groove from established local styles like ska, mento, and bluebeat.

Emerging as a fiery topical songwriter and spiritually compelling frontman, Marley led the Wailers to international acclaim with the release of two startling albums in 1973.

With stalwart bassist Aston “Family Man” Barrett and drummer Carlton Barrett pumping out incendiary “riddims” behind the Wailers’ smoky harmonies, Catch a Fire is a blazing debut.

“Concrete Jungle” and “Slave Driver” crackle with streetwise immediacy, while “Kinky Reggae” and “Stir It Up” (a pop hit for Johnny Nash in ‘73) revel in the music’s vast capacity for good-time skanking.

“Stop That Train” and “400 Years,” both written by Peter Tosh, indicate the original Wailers weren’t strictly a one-man show. Burnin’ glows even hotter; “Get Up, Stand Up” backs its activist message with an itchy, motivating beat.

“I Shot the Sheriff” (covered by Eric Clapton in 1974) and “Small Axe” show Marley’s verbal and melodic skills growing by leaps and bounds; he expertly blends personal testimony with political philosophy to make enduring points about institutionalized racism.

Tosh and Livingston left for solo careers after that album and were effectively replaced by the “I-Threes” trio: Marcia Griffiths, Rita Marley (Mrs. Bob), and Judy Mowatt. Natty Dread captures the refurbished Wailers at an ambitious peak.

“No Woman, No Cry” features Marley’s most soulful vocal performance; while avoiding crippling despair, “Them Belly Full (But We Hungry)” and “Rebel Music (Three o’Clock Roadblock)” articulate the anger of the oppressed and downtrodden; the title track and “So Jah Seh” posit the tangled web of Rastafarian belief without slipping totally into the cosmos. Live! documents a thrilling, tight-as-a-drum 1975 London performance of highlights from the first three albums.

On Rastaman Vibration, Marley starts to fall back on pat formulas and ganja-stoked rhetoric. But the grimly prophetic “War” and the deceptively feel-good “Positive Vibration” stand out on an album that holds up to repeated listening (and dancing).

2008-01-15T06:03:00.000-08:00

Marley's living musical legacy

Keith Smith

Friday, May 11th 2007

"So, if you're not too busy at 3.40 p.m. Friday, remember Marley,'' Nicholas St Bernard e-mailed me as he must have e-mailed a million others, reminding us that today marks 26 years since the passing of the "Masta Rasta...at age 36...''

Who is Nicholas St Bernard, you ask? Who, indeed? For a while there, I used to think that he must be the son, or at least related to Eric St Bernard of radio fame, Nicholas knowing more about local radio music programmes than just about anybody I know, "Nikko'' regularly writing things like:

"I personally, first heard of his death, as a likkle yute (little youth) back in 1981, on Tuesday 12th May, while listening to "Projection 3'' with guest host, Eddison Carr. He played the live version of Bob Marley & The Wailers' "Exodus'' from the Babylon by Bus double album, and informed listeners that the brethren (Marley) died the day before (Monday 11th May), at 3.40 pm.....''

Listeners like myself back then, learnt Bob was born on February 6, 1945 in Jamaica, and had met his father twice. Bob Marley left to mourn his mother, his wife Rita, and children, Ziggy (David) and Stephen, among others.... Songs played during the tribute were "Trenchtown Rock,'' "No woman No Cry," "Exodus," "Three Little Birds," "I Shot the Sheriff," "Rat Race," "War," and the "live" versions of "Positive Vibrations" and "Lively Up Yourself."

"Both Steveland Morris in 1980, on the track, "Master Blaster (Jammin')," and Sister Sledge paid tribute to the brethren. There were other tribute songs to Marley, almost immediately following his death. There was "Symphony of Love" by Patti Austin, a track from her 1981 Every Home Should Have One album. The year after Marley's death, 1982, Lord Melody (the late Fitzroy Alexander), sang on the reggae legend with the track, "Bob Marley", featured on his Brown Sugar album....''

Sweet serendipity. Without reference to any of this, one day this week I said to some young people:

"What would I do to hear a new Bob Marley song now!"

It was not that I had grown tired of the Marley music that there is. It is that like so many of the world I have long grieved over the fact that he died so young, presumably with so many songs still in him, Cindy Breakespeare, the Jamaican "Miss World'' who became his lover and mother of one of his children, recounting in one of the books written about him, how as they sat together at night he would break into song, only to forget the next morning both the melody and the lyrics - ganja having a way of doing that to you.

"He would tell me,'' Cindy said, "you mean you didn't write down the words?''

Well, of course, she didn't and I remember her ruefully lamenting in the passage of the said book:

"When I think of all those lovely songs just disappearing in the air.''

Interestingly enough, the young 'uns to whom I had expressed a yearning to hear a new Bob Marley song had an answer:

"Then,'' they said, "you now have to listen to his children's,'' one of them rushing to tell me that the magazine Rolling Stone had described one of them - Stephen Marley, I think it was, or it must have been Damian - as "the best reggae singer of the decade.''

So now even as I write I am looking forward to playing for at least some part of today, songs from Damian's Welcome to Jamrock album including "Confrontation'' (now that title has a Marleyesque ring to it), "The Master Has Come Back'' (Jah, could that be what I think it will be?), "Road to Zion'' and, of course, his cover of "Pimper's Paradise'' from Bob's Uprising album which I remember hearing for the first time in Almond Drive, Morvant, Muhammad Shabazz and me exulting with the neighbourhood, Marley "hot on the box'', as Stevie Wonder had sung some time earlier.

Also on today's playlist is Stephen's Mind Control album with the title song, "Officer Jimmy", "Chase Dem", "Let Her Dance'' among the others which again the young 'uns among you are certain to know and feel better than me. Still, I am going to keep an open mind, not really expecting that the junior Marleys would ever match their senior (How could they? Born or at least growing up in wealth how could they feel the pain of that Trench Town sufferer) but just to see how far did these fruits drop from the ackee tree.

2008-01-15T06:00:00.000-08:00

Marley's Memorial Gigs Lined Up

The Herald (Harare)

NEWS
11 May 2007
Posted to the web 11 May 2007
Harare

IT'S commemoration time and people from all walks of life celebrate the illustrious life of the late reggae music legend Robert "Bob" Nesta Marley who died on this day 26 years ago.

In Zimbabwe, numerous commemorative gigs have been lined up to pay tribute to Marley's life and music with two major shows to be held at the Kebab Centre in Harare tonight and another in the Harare Gardens tomorrow afternoon.

Ras Jabu Trevor Hall, Potato, Bootkin Klan and Sister Sunshine among others will feature at the Kebab show while Assegai Crew, Crucial Mix and Sniper among a host of other reggae artistes will spice up tomorrow's show.

In the sungura realm, Hosiah Chipanga -- whose new album Sahwira Wenyika that carries the hit song Ngoda and has sent many tongues wagging -- teams up with Alick Macheso to invade Chegutu Arms for a musical romance tonight where Kapfupi will partner them.

The three sungura musicians head for Takashinga Cricket Club in Highfield (Machipisa) tomorrow where they will entertain Fiyo -- Highfield -- fans.

Club M5 in Westlea tonight celebrates its fifth anniversary and BV Labien Musica will entertain revellers.

Labien Musica engages Letwin Berebende at Babylon Night Club in Tafara tomorrow night.

This marks the end of Berebende's tour of the country before she returns to the UK.

Isaac Tazvida continues causing "Smoke" around the country with a performance tonight at Pamusasa at Chans in Hatfield.

Tazvida completes his weekend performance with a show pitting him against Takesure Muronzi of Pasi Vanhu Mbira Group at Sunningdale Bar tomorrow night.

An Battle of Supremacy looms as Nicholas Zakaria clashes with Alick Macheso far away from the madding crowd at Mutangaz Hideout on Sunday afternoon.

Zakaria plays at Machokoto Nite Club tonight.

Innocent Mjintu -- the man who played with the legendary Leonard Dembo -- performs at Nyaguwa Night Club in Dzivaresekwa 2.

Mjintu and his Zare Music outfit move into the heart of the city for a performance at the Sports Diner tomorrow night where they share the stage with Girls la Musica.

Sonny songmaker Allan Chimbetu leads the Orchestra Dendera Kings for a show at Jimalo Sports Bar in Highfield tonight.

Burly Cephas Mashakada begins his weekend tonight with a performance at Pamview Complex in Willowvale together with Zalabantu, Platinum Queens, Klassic and Iwisa Dance Groups.

Tomorrow, Mashakada performs at Mbizi Night Club in Zengeza 2.

Prince of Sungura First Farai returns to his roots as he takes his act to Chirundu where he plays at Offroad Night Club tonight and tomorrow.

On Sunday, First Farai and his Hurudza Express are at As You Like It Restaurant (KwaZiki) in Karoi where they were nurtured for five years.

Whispers Night Club paGazaland tonight presents Real Sounds of Africa and tomorrow the joint hosts the former Karoi-based Bana des As.

Tomorrow, Bana des As will be happening at Pagomo Ranch.

A clash of dance looms as New Vision Dance Group and Go Girls lock horns tonight at Club Matute in Mbare.

Mawungira Enharira return to their hunting ground -- Book Café -- tonight while Victor Kunonga performs at the Mannenberg.

Leonard Zhakata does his things at Club Mutomba in Glen Norah tonight before taking his act to Dzivaresekwa where he plays at DZ Sports Bar tomorrow night.

Bob Nyabinde performs at the Sports Diner tonight where he shares the stage with Banyana Bafana and Jazz Imbongi.

On Sunday, the joint hosts a Bob Marley Commemoration show featuring Trevor Hall.

Dimond Entertainment with DJ's Flavah and Cut brings back Saturday Night Party at club Synergy tomorrow.

Stars Rainbow towers presents Friday night with DJ's Tich Mataz, Smilez and 4Tune Soul.

The same joint host LXG DJ's -- Dee Nosh, T-Beats and Pee Styles tomorrow night.

2008-01-15T05:59:00.001-08:00

Arts and Culture, Travel Talk, Entertainment & Whatagwan, Society, Society & Development

Remembering The King of Reggae Bob Marley
Friday 11th May 2007

Reggae aficionados and rastafarians around the globe will today celebrate in full tilt the anniversary of the death of Bob Marely, the king of reggae. Bob was a giant musical icon whose militant voice has endeared him to many including Africans and Europeans.

In this special edition of ENTERTAINMENT we bring you a detailed profile of the man in recognition of his monumental contribution to the culture of reggae and rastafarianism. Please read on.

Marley (born Robert Nesta Marley) was born in the small village of Nine Mile in the Saint Ann Parish, Jamaica. His father, Norval Sinclair Marley, was a white Jamaican born in 1895 to British parents from Sussex. Norval was a Marine officer and captain, and a plantation overseer, when he married Cedella Booker, an eighteen-year-old black Jamaican, Bob Marley's mother. Norval provided financial support for his wife and child, but seldom saw them, as he was often away on trips. Marley was ten years old when his father died of a heart attack in 1955 at age 60.

Marley suffered racial prejudice as a youth, because of his mixed racial origins,[3] and faced questions about his own racial identity throughout his life. He once reflected:

I don't have prejudice against myself. My father was a white and my mother was black. Them call me half-caste or whatever. Me don't dip on nobody's side. Me don't dip on the black man's side nor the white man's side. Me dip on God's side, the one who create me and cause me to come from black and white.

Marley and his mother moved to Kingston's Trenchtown slum after Norval's death. He was forced to learn self-defense, as he became the target of bullying because of his racial makeup and small stature (5'4" or 163 cm tall). He gained a reputation for his physical strength, which earned him the nickname "Tuff Gong".

Marley became friends with Neville "Bunny" Livingston (later known as Bunny Wailer), with whom he started to play music. He left school at the age of 14 and started as an apprentice at a local welder's shop. In his free time, he and Livingston made music with Joe Higgs, a local singer and devout Rastafari who is regarded by many as Marley's mentor. It was at a jam session with Higgs and Livingston that Marley met Peter McIntosh (later known as Peter Tosh), who had similar musical ambitions.

In 1962, Marley recorded his first two singles, "Judge Not" and "One Cup of Coffee", with local music producer Leslie Kong. These songs, released on the Beverley's label under the pseudonym of Bobby Martell,[4] attracted little attention. The songs were later re-released on the album Songs of Freedom, a posthumous collection of Marley's songs.

Musical career
The Wailers

The Wailers in the mid-1960s. From left to right: Bunny Wailer, Bob Marley, Peter Tosh.

In 1963, Bob Marley, Bunny Livingston, Peter McIntosh, Junior Braithwaite, Beverley Kelso, and Cherry Smith formed a ska and rocksteady group, calling themselves "The Teenagers". They later changed their name to "The Wailing Rudeboys", then to "The Wailing Wailers", and finally to "The Wailers". By 1966, Braithwaite, Kelso, and Smith had left The Wailers, leaving the core trio of Marley, Livingston, and McIntosh.

Marley took on the role of leader, singer, and main songwriter. Much of The Wailers' early work, including their first single Simmer Down, was produced by Coxsone Dodd at Studio One. Simmer Down topped Jamaican Charts in 1964 and established The Wailers as one of the hottest groups in the country. They followed up with songs such as "Soul Rebel" and "400 Years".

In 1966, Marley married Rita Anderson, and moved near his mother's residence in Wilmington, Delaware, for a few months. Upon returning to Jamaica, Marley became a member of the Rastafari movement, and started to wear his trademark dreadlocks (see the religion section for more on Marley's religious views).

After a conflict with Dodd, Marley and his band teamed up with Lee "Scratch" Perry and his studio band, The Upsetters. Although the alliance lasted less than a year, they recorded what many consider The Wailers' finest work. Marley and Perry split after a dispute regarding the assignment of recording rights, but they would remain friends and work together again.

Between 1968 and 1972, Bob and Rita Marley, Peter McIntosh and Bunny Livingston recut some old tracks with JAD Records in Kingston and London in an attempt to commercialize The Wailers' sound. Livingston later asserted that these songs "should never be released on an album . . . they were just demos for record companies to listen to".

The Wailers' first album, Catch A Fire, was released worldwide in 1973, and sold well. It was followed a year later by Burnin', which included the songs "Get Up, Stand Up" and "I Shot The Sheriff". Eric Clapton made a hit cover of "I Shot the Sheriff" in 1974, raising Marley's international profile.

The Wailers broke up in 1974 with each of the three main members going on to pursue solo careers. The reason for the breakup is shrouded in conjecture; some believe that there were disagreements amongst Livingston, McIntosh, and Marley concerning performances, while others claim that Livingston and McIntosh simply preferred solo work. McIntosh began recording under the name Peter Tosh, and Livingston continued as Bunny Wailer.

Bob Marley & The Wailers

Despite the breakup, Marley continued recording as "Bob Marley & The Wailers". His new backing band included brothers Carlton and Aston "Family Man" Barrett on drums and bass respectively, Junior Marvin and Al Anderson on lead guitar, Tyrone Downie and Earl "Wya" Lindo on keyboards, and Alvin "Seeco" Patterson on percussion. The "I Threes", consisting of Judy Mowatt, Marcia Griffiths, and Marley's wife, Rita, provided backing vocals.

In 1975, Marley had his international breakthrough with his first hit outside Jamaica, "No Woman, No Cry" from the Natty Dread album. This was followed by his breakthrough album in the US, Rastaman Vibration (1976), which spent four weeks on the Billboard charts Top Ten.

In December 1976, two days before "Smile Jamaica", a free concert organized by Jamaican Prime Minister Michael Manley in an attempt to ease tension between two warring political groups, Marley, his wife, and manager Don Taylor were wounded in an assault by unknown gunmen inside Marley's home. Taylor and Marley's wife sustained serious injuries, but later made full recoveries. Bob Marley received only minor injuries in the chest and arm. The shooting was thought to have been politically motivated, as many felt the concert was really a support rally for Manley. Nonetheless, the concert proceeded, and an injured Marley performed as scheduled.

Marley left Jamaica at the end of 1976 for England, where he recorded his Exodus and Kaya albums. Exodus stayed on the British album charts for 56 consecutive weeks. It included four UK hit singles: "Exodus", "Waiting In Vain", "Jamming", and also "One Love", a rendition of Curtis Mayfield's hit, "People Get Ready". It was here that he was arrested and received a conviction for possession of a small quantity of cannabis while travelling in London.

Main article: One Love Peace Concert

In 1978, Marley performed at another political concert in Jamaica, the One Love Peace Concert, again in an effort to calm warring parties. Near the end of the performance, by Marley's request, Manley and his political rival, Edward Seaga, joined each other on stage and shook hands.

Survival, a defiant and politically charged album, was released in 1979. Tracks such as "Zimbabwe", "Africa Unite", "Wake Up and Live", and "Survival" reflected Marley's support for the struggles of Africans. In early 1980, he was invited to perform at the April 17 celebration of Zimbabwe's Independence Day.

Uprising (1980) was Bob Marley's final studio album, and is one of his most religious productions, including "Redemption Song" and "Forever Loving Jah".

2008-01-15T05:48:00.000-08:00

Who Killed Bob Marley?
Actor Roger Guenveur Smith asks a 'cultural question':

By Michael A Edwards Entertainment editor edwardsm@jamaicaobserver.com
Friday, May 11, 2007

Twenty-six years ago today, Robert Nesta Marley died in a Miami hospital. For about eight months prior to that he had battled cancer, a disease which brought what many still feel is a premature end to one of the greatest careers in all of popular music.

En route to becoming the first Third World superstar, Marley helped to solidify the acceptance of Jamaican popular music as a global medium (a process which pre-dated his emergence but was surely catalysed by it) and forged a cultural identity that remains a major drawing card for the island to this day.

Roger Guenveur Smith (left) with director Spike Lee at the New York premier of A Huey P Newton Story.

It was somewhat less of an international draw in Marley's late-70s heyday, but it was powerful enough to attract a student by the name of Roger Guenveur Smith, who was then on a fellowship at Yale University.

"I came down to Jamaica around the time when Bob was recording the Survival album," Smith told Splash in a telephone interview from Los Angeles. "It was a very powerful experience meeting him, and that really began what for me is a really personal and deep connection to Jamaica."

That connection has proven powerful enough to see Smith returning on several occasions, most notably for the annual Calabash Literary Festival in Treasure Beach, St Elizabeth, which will be the staging ground for his latest one-man show, Who Killed Bob Marley?
Of course, given the actual turn of events, Smith's title raises obvious questions, but he said that he's going way beyond the historical fact. "For me, it's a cultural question, it's very personal. It has everything to do with how I identify myself with Jamaica, with music, as represented by Bob and the overall culture."

Those questions will be explored via the story of a suicidal poet who comes down for the literary festival with the intention of performing a piece referenced by the title. Like his searingly brilliant exploration of the life and soul of late Black Panther Party co-founder Huey P Newton (A Huey P Newton Story) the new show juxtaposes his spoken word passages with footage from his own experiences in Jamaica, not all of them pleasant.

"I had an encounter late one night going onto the Flat Bridge," he recalled. "I was driving and had some other persons in the car. I really wasn't familiar with the lay of the road and just as one of the passengers was calling out a warning, I found that we were going over." The vehicle did not actually enter the Rio Cobre, but it remained for Smith a harrowing experience and is included in the piece.

Jamaica also has a somewhat sombre, but sad memory in respect of his father, who accompanied the actor - part of the 'unofficial Spike Lee team' with roles in Lee features Do The Right Thing, Malcolm X and He Got Game among others - on his first visit and reading at Calabash, a partial gift for the elder's 80th birthday (he died in 2003).
For his appearance this year with the Bob Marley piece, Smith has brought along a special prop that also makes its way into the performance. "He had this blue hat that I'd bought him and he really loved it," Smith said. "And I thought I'd include it in this piece. It really brings everything together."

Smith will also be visible to Jamaican and international audiences via the currently in-production full-length feature, Better Must Come, the short version of which played at last year's Flashpoint Film Festival.
"I had had met Storm [the film's director] in LA years ago, and this is something we had talked about doing, and I'm very excited that it's now come to fruition," he said of the Firefly Films project, inspired - perhaps not coincidentally - by the socio-political turmoil of the late 1970s, a scenario in which Marley figured quite prominently.

Smith just completed an extensive LA run with Who Killed Bob Marley, a set of performances that have been well-received by critics and general audiences alike. In the meantime, he continues a somewhat established pattern of balancing smaller roles in larger films with his own projects and more independent features. He'll be seen later this year in the screen bio-pic American Gangster, and has also completed work on The Take alongside Tyrese and John Leguizamo.

But it's 'the natural mystic' and his music that remain his primary inspirations. "I remember him opening at the Apollo for Kurtis Blow and how he was trying to get that cross-fertilisation between reggae, r&b and hip hop, which itself was just coming up at the time," said Smith. "He was way ahead of his time, but his sons have carried on the process."

When asked if Marley's efforts have borne sufficient fruit, Smith replied: "The world has embraced Bob Marley. His music and the values in it still resonate with people all over the world and the world can still find what it needs in it."
In that, surely, is enough to keep 'The Gong' alive in the hearts and minds of many.

2008-01-15T04:46:00.000-08:00

Bob Marley's oldest son is on a different mission

by Len Righi

The Morning Call (Allentown, Pa.) (MCT)

8 May 2007

Though it may unsettle fans who believe the struggle against political and social injustice is a crucial component of the best reggae music, Ziggy Marley, eldest son of reggae’s most transcendent figure, Bob Marley, doesn’t quite see it that way.

Marley says his struggle is “spiritual,” unlike the “physical” striving embodied in the protest anthems that gave hope to the downtrodden and made an international superstar of his late father, who died in 1981.

“That generation that had that fight made a good fight,” says the 38-year-old singer-songwriter and keyboardist, who as a child often sang and danced with his father on stage. “But that time for physical struggle is now changing into a spiritual struggle. That is where I am.

“The solution for mankind is of a spiritual nature. It is not a political or religious solution. It’s the ability to love each other. That’s the only solution I see.”

The message is all over his second solo CD, “Love is My Religion.” Generally, the disc, released last July, is a genial collection of modern-sounding ska- and R&B-influenced reggae tracks. It won the Grammy Award for Best Reggae Album in February.

To be sure, “Love is My Religion” has several ear-catching tracks, including the sprightly “Into the Groove,” originally meant for the 2005 film “Into the Blue,” and the slinky, seductive “Make Some Music.”

But it is the title track, written by Marley midway through recording the disc, that Marley points to as “the father figure of the album.”

“When it came out, it was like it completed the album,” he says. “It kind of put its arms around the other songs and gave them a big hug, like `We are one. We are all together here.’”

On it, Marley sings, “I don’t condemn, I don’t convert ... I don’t want to fight,” sentiments that might make more militant reggae fans blanche, especially coming from Bob Marley’s son.

Marley says his beliefs really began to change during the recording of 1999’s “Spirit of Music,” his final disc with the Melody Makers, the three-time Grammy-winning group he formed with three siblings, singer-guitarist-drummer Stephen and vocalists Cedella and Sharon.

But the seeds of change were sown a few years earlier during a conversation with Alpha Blondy, an Afro-reggae musician from the Ivory Coast and a staunch supporter of African unity.

“We were talking about changes in Africa,” Marley recalls. “We were asking, `Is it possible for you to change millions of people on the physical level? Or is the mission more to sing music so people can look into themselves?’ I was about changing things, but things weren’t changing, not at the rate they should.”

Marley says that he tried solving “the physical struggle” in Jamaica by giving money and material goods to people. “But that did not solve the problems.”

Eventually, Marley came to the conclusion that “using political tools to change social conditions won’t work. It’s spiritual conditions that need changing. It’s what’s inside of people that counts. I’ve spent my whole life’s journey realizing that fact.”

That is not to say there can’t be music about social issues, he adds.

In fact, “Love is My Religion” ends with an incisive one, “Still the Storms,” about the debt still owed to the victims of slavery, and the countries on two continents that people would prefer to forget.

“It’s the black sheep of the family,” Marley chuckles. “It may not fit in the overall concept, but there was so much inside of me I couldn’t not put it on the record.”

In the song, he explains, “I talk about the spirits of slaves, African people killed and murdered and their spirits still not at peace. Nothing has been done to make up for that calamity, that holocaust. It’s a struggle I cannot forget.”

“Be Free” is another track that unbottles a deeply held Marley belief - that the willingness to speak out in the U.S. eroded noticeably after 9/11.

“I’ve spent a lot of time in America since Sept. 11, 2001,” says Marley, who has been living in Beverly Hills for three years and also has homes in Jamaica and Nassau. “Being here I was noticing that the people, who in the `60s used to voice their opinions about their rights, are much different today. People are afraid to voice opposition to the government in a mass way. Before the war in Iraq, I thought, `How come nobody’s asking this question? Why aren’t news organizations asking that question?’ How did the Patriot Act pass without people asking any questions?”

On a lighter note, Marley takes up the cause of the underdog on “Black Cat,” a sure-footed ska track based on an experience at a Beverly Hills recording studio.

“There were a lot of scary cats around and at one point a black cat walked across the doorway,” Marley remembers. “My friend made a superstitious comment, and I totally reversed it on the spot. `I told him, `Stop being stupid. It’s just a cat. It’s doesn’t mean to hurt anyone.’ ...

“It started from that, and (the song) means don’t judge people without knowing them and don’t be superstitious.”

Though purists may carp about Marley’s attitude toward his father’s legacy, he draws inspiration from dad in a way that may surprise them - Marley recorded and produced “Love is My Religion” independently, and negotiated an exclusive yearlong distribution deal with Target.

“They were lessons I learned from my father,” says Marley. “He was an entrepreneur. He was a good businessman. He started the Tuff Gong record label and record stores in Jamaica. There were always rumors of him wanting to own his own music, so the idea was always in my subconscious. When I had the opportunity, I did it.”

2008-01-15T04:45:00.000-08:00

Rasta Paradise - Completing Circle of Understanding

Addis Fortune (Addis Ababa)

NEWS
8 May 2007
Posted to the web 8 May 2007

By Brian Burrell
Addis Ababa

Rasta's Paradise, a documentary film by Parine Jaddo, premiered at City Hall on Saturday, May 5, 2007. The film aims to connect the historical and spiritual Rastafari movement to its local context in Ethiopia. Combining musical performances, interviews and shots of the scenic Ethiopian landscape, Jaddo explicates the movement as it exists here and now in Ethiopia as a living embodiment of its philosophy.

The 50 minute film documents the grievances leading to the "exodus" of Diaspora Africans and movement from the Western world to return to their native land, resisting "neo-colonial" systems. As one of the few film makers to receive access to detail Bob Marley's 60th birthday celebration in Ethiopia during February 2005, Jaddo delivers a unique perspective on the mind and soul of the Rasta movement.

The exclusive access and close connections Jaddo has to the movement gave her the opportunity for interviews shown in the film with Rastafari elders such as Bongo Rocky, Congo Rupert and Mama Baby I; artist and musician Teddy Dan; and activists Ras Tagassa King and Dr Desta Meghoo. Professor Abiyi Ford of Addis Abeba University (AAU) puts the current state of affairs into historical perspective as the film takes the viewer through rural Ethiopia, Wondo Genet and the "Promised Land" of Shashemane.

The Africa Unite event in 2005 served as both a catalyst and inspiration for the filmmaker who interviews Rastas in Shashemane to apply the Rastafari philosophy to contemporary world and local events. Through this effort, Jaddo believes that the film can dispel many of the misconceptions people in Ethiopia and around the world have about Rastas.

"Many view them as dope smoking good for nothings who just hang around," Jaddo said. "But the majority that I have met are deeply philosophical and spiritual."

Interviews with Dr Desta, managing director of the Bob Marley Foundation; Shaft, owner of the Rift Valley Hotel; and Rasta teachers at the Jamaica Rastafari Development Community School in Shashemane attempt to show the practical applications of the philosophy to development projects.

After Emperor Haile Selassie donated land to Diaspora Africans, much change in both the perception and physical attributes of the land. Jaddo's film connects the movement to the physical realities on the ground.

"The pan-African movement helped to put Ethiopia on the map on a worldwide scale," Jaddo said. She believes her film, budgeted at over 10,000 dollars, will help to dispel misconceptions and show the positive face of the Rastafari movement.

Jaddo, the wife of the World Bank's (WB) representative in Ethiopia, Isaac Diwan, hails from a working class intellectual and artistic family in Iraq that was displaced due to political turmoil in the Middle East. Part of the inspiration for the film comes from Jaddo's embracement of the Rastafarian messages of peace and justice, ideas that she wishes to spread not just in Ethiopia, but to reach her homeland where so many problems currently face citizens.

She completed her Masters in Film at Howard University with Abiyi Ford and Haile Gerima who mentored and influenced her. It was here where Jaddo was introduced to the ideas of Marcus Garvey, a prominent proponent of the pan-Africa and back to Africa movements.

Some of Parine's other films include Tayh (2003), 28 minutes; Aisha (2000) 32 minutes; and "Atash" (1995), 10 minutes. She has also worked on Sankofa, a film about the transatlantic slave trade, with award winning Ethiopian film maker Haile Gerima.

2008-01-15T04:44:00.002-08:00

Local Rastas Plan Huge Bob Marley Fiesta

Mmegi/The Reporter (Gaborone)

NEWS
8 May 2007
Posted to the web 8 May 2007

By Maureen Odubeng

Reggae king Bob Marley may be dead but he will never be forgotten, his legend still lives on, and has continued to be celebrated by Rastafarian and non-Rastafarian communities across the globe.

Every year individuals who appreciate the greatest among the great in the music industry find a day to remember the departed hero, whose music not only touched many lives but also made a huge difference worldwide.

In this regard, a group of locals have come together to commemorate - through song and teachings on Rastafarism - the history of one of the world's greatest songwriters, Robert Nesta Marley, to many simply known as Bob Marley.

People around the globe who choose to celebrate the Rasta prophet, choose to celebrate his birthday or his death, and the local community has chosen to mark May 11, the day on which Marley died in 1981. The scheduled events however will take place on May 12 at the Gaborone Civic Centre in the main mall.

The local Rasta community, as they call themselves, hopes to organise a show guaranteed to give members of the public a good time to remember the short life of one of the greatest maestros that ever lived. Organised with the help of Bhingi Vibe Productions, and Erad Cashan Squad, the show is scheduled to start in the early afternoon and run until the next morning. The planned activities will feature musicians from different disciplines/genres. Groups and musicians billed to perform at the Civic Centre, according to the Rasta Community spokesperson Dithuso "DT" Selepeng, include Stepping Razor, Jah Revelation Sounds, Jah Man States, DT, Mapetla, Steez, Chris Manto Seven and other up-coming local artists. He explained that the show would kick off at 1500 hours "to allow people to be introduced to the history of Bob Marley" and his significant role in global politics and influences in the spiritual realm.

"There will also be an exhibition of reading materials, including books, pamphlets, and biographies. Patrons will also be treated to different teachings pertaining to spiritual aspects," he explained.

Since it is a Marley commeration event, the reggae groups will mostly sing Marley's songs, while DT will give patrons one of Marley's greatest hits of all-time - Redemption Song - from his acoustic guitar.

Eugene Jackson, the son of Clement Jackson, will perform another of Marley's hits, No Woman No Cry, a classic still enjoyed by many. At the end of the show all musicians will get-together and-feel-alright, by performing Marley's uniting song, One Love.

Robert Nesta Marley, the legend fondly remembered as Bob Marley, was born on February 6, 1945 in Nine Miles, (St. Ann) Jamaica. In the early years of his music career, Marley joined forces with Bunny Wailer and Peter Tosh, which gave birth to the group known as the "Wailers".

The group recorded its first album, Simmer Down, in 1963, immediately becoming one of Jamaica's foremost groups. In 1965, Marley established his own recording/retail company called Tuff Gong, the premises which now houses The Bob Marley Museum.

During the 70s, the group gained international recognition after signing a contract with Island Records in London, under which they released Catch A Fire that won wide acclaim. In 1973 Marley emerged as a solo artist with a newly formed Wailers Band, which included Rita Marley, Marcia Griffiths, and Judy Mowatt, now known as the I-Three. With the new band Marley took reggae to an international level having a succession of record breaking albums and tours.

In 1975 Bob Marley and the Wailers released the extraordinary Natty Dread, and toured Europe that summer. The shows were recorded and the subsequent live album, together with the single "No Woman No Cry" both made the United Kingdom (UK) charts. The release of Rastaman Vibration, the album that contains popular songs: Crazy Baldhead, Johnny Was, Who the Cap Fit and War, cracked the American charts. Marley continued to release hit albums and singles, including hit singles "Exodus", Waiting In Vain, and Jamming. Other albums that followed include Kaya, Survival, and Uprising.

On May 11, 1981 Marley died at the age of 36, and later that year the Jamaican government awarded him the Order of Merit, and in 1991 proclaimed that his birthday should be observed as "Bob Marley Day".

2008-01-15T04:44:00.001-08:00

> News & Features Tuesday May 8, 2007

Bob Marley's oldest son is on a different mission

By LEN RIGHI

Though it may unsettle fans who believe the struggle against political and social injustice is a crucial component of the best reggae music, Ziggy Marley, eldest son of reggae's most transcendent figure, Bob Marley, doesn't quite see it that way.

Marley says his struggle is "spiritual," unlike the "physical" striving embodied in the protest anthems that gave hope to the downtrodden and made an international superstar of his late father, who died in 1981.

"That generation that had that fight made a good fight," says the 38-year-old singer-songwriter and keyboardist, who as a child often sang and danced with his father on stage. "But that time for physical struggle is now changing into a spiritual struggle. That is where I am.

"The solution for mankind is of a spiritual nature. It is not a political or religious solution. It's the ability to love each other. That's the only solution I see."

The message is all over his second solo CD, Love is My Religion. Generally, the disc, released last July, is a genial collection of modern-sounding ska- and R&B-influenced reggae tracks. It won the Grammy Award for Best Reggae Album in February.

To be sure, Love is My Religion has several ear-catching tracks, including the sprightly Into the Groove, originally meant for the 2005 film Into the Blue, and the slinky, seductive Make Some Music.

But it is the title track, written by Marley midway through recording the disc, that Marley points to as "the father figure of the album."

"When it came out, it was like it completed the album," he says. "It kind of put its arms around the other songs and gave them a big hug, like `We are one. We are all together here.'"

On it, Marley sings, "I don't condemn, I don't convert ... I don't want to fight," sentiments that might make more militant reggae fans blanche, especially coming from Bob Marley's son.

Marley says his beliefs really began to change during the recording of 1999's Spirit of Music, his final disc with the Melody Makers, the three-time Grammy-winning group he formed with three siblings, singer-guitarist-drummer Stephen and vocalists Cedella and Sharon.

But the seeds of change were sown a few years earlier during a conversation with Alpha Blondy, an Afro-reggae musician from the Ivory Coast and a staunch supporter of African unity.

"We were talking about changes in Africa," Marley recalls. "We were asking, `Is it possible for you to change millions of people on the physical level? Or is the mission more to sing music so people can look into themselves?' I was about changing things, but things weren't changing, not at the rate they should."

Marley says that he tried solving "the physical struggle" in Jamaica by giving money and material goods to people. "But that did not solve the problems."

Eventually, Marley came to the conclusion that "using political tools to change social conditions won't work. It's spiritual conditions that need changing. It's what's inside of people that counts. I've spent my whole life's journey realizing that fact."

That is not to say there can't be music about social issues, he adds.

In fact, Love is My Religion ends with an incisive one, Still the Storms, about the debt still owed to the victims of slavery, and the countries on two continents that people would prefer to forget.

"It's the black sheep of the family," Marley chuckles. "It may not fit in the overall concept, but there was so much inside of me I couldn't not put it on the record."

In the song, he explains, "I talk about the spirits of slaves, African people killed and murdered and their spirits still not at peace. Nothing has been done to make up for that calamity, that holocaust. It's a struggle I cannot forget."

Be Free is another track that unbottles a deeply held Marley belief - that the willingness to speak out in the U.S. eroded noticeably after 9/11.

"I've spent a lot of time in America since Sept. 11, 2001," says Marley, who has been living in Beverly Hills for three years and also has homes in Jamaica and Nassau. "Being here I was noticing that the people, who in the `60s used to voice their opinions about their rights, are much different today. People are afraid to voice opposition to the government in a mass way. Before the war in Iraq, I thought, `How come nobody's asking this question? Why aren't news organizations asking that question?' How did the Patriot Act pass without people asking any questions?"

On a lighter note, Marley takes up the cause of the underdog on Black Cat, a sure-footed ska track based on an experience at a Beverly Hills recording studio.

"There were a lot of scary cats around and at one point a black cat walked across the doorway," Marley remembers. "My friend made a superstitious comment, and I totally reversed it on the spot. `I told him, `Stop being stupid. It's just a cat. It's doesn't mean to hurt anyone.' ...

"It started from that, and (the song) means don't judge people without knowing them and don't be superstitious."

Though purists may carp about Marley's attitude toward his father's legacy, he draws inspiration from dad in a way that may surprise them - Marley recorded and produced Love is My Religion independently, and negotiated an exclusive yearlong distribution deal with Target.

"They were lessons I learned from my father," says Marley. "He was an entrepreneur. He was a good businessman. He started the Tuff Gong record label and record stores in Jamaica. There were always rumors of him wanting to own his own music, so the idea was always in my subconscious. When I had the opportunity, I did it."

2008-01-15T04:43:00.001-08:00

K’naan with the Marleys: A young lion on the rise

By Deborah Sengupta | Sunday, May 6, 2007, 08:43 PM

Photos: K’naan and the Marleys at Antone’s

Understand this — the Marleys are not ordinary human beings like you and me. Born into a lineage revered in many parts of the globe as a form of divine royalty, brothers Stephen and Damian brought a sense of ceremony to their sold-out Antone’s performance. And it began well before they even hit the stage, bringing with them, as always, a rasta cat to wave the ~~Jamaican~~ Ethiopian flag continuously throughout their performance.

The Marleys represent.

They carry with them their father Bob’s mission as a transcontinental cultural ambassador, framing the struggles of the Third World in the language of common humanity to bring a “One Love” consciousness to the West. On Thursday the voice of that struggle was most clearly articulated by the “young lion from Africa” whom the Marleys hand-picked to open the show: the Somali-Canadian rapper K’naan. With a slight figure, an affable smile and a humble demeanor, the 28-year-old musician played with a minimal backing ensemble anchored by African drums. But with his presence, his charisma and his clear sense of purpose, he had the audience fully engaged within minutes of taking the stage.

The message he carried was both of brutality and hope. Blending the pulse of the drum with East Coast hip-hop bravado on the track “Hardcore,” he painted a bleak scene from his childhood full of machine-gun-toting children, corrupt politicians and African-style gangland rule. When he brought it to a cadence with the stinger — “If I rhymed about home and got descriptive/ I’d make Fifty Cent look like Limp Bizkit” —many in the house screamed along. But the most powerful moments of the performance came when the earnest performer actively enlisted the help of the audience. Breaking it down a capella, he taught the willing crowd the chorus “When I get older/ I will be stronger/ they’ll call me freedom/ just like a waving flag,” then unwound a harrowing tale of childhood horrors and a journey to America fraught with struggle and pain. Each time the chorus repeated, the audience’s voice grew stronger alongside K’naan’s, reinforcing an overwhelming sense of triumph that actually moved me to tears.

The tone for the show was set and the intensity only increased as the Marleys hit the stage. Stephen, supporting his new album, “Mind Control,” was billed as the show’s headliner, but he actually ended up opening for his brother Damian, aka Jr. Gong, the larger superstar of the family. Stephen looks and sounds eerily like his father, and half of his set comprised new-school renditions of Bob Marley standards. Nobody seemed to mind at all, but it was when Jr. Gong burst onto the stage with a raucous version of “All Night” that the entire house went crazy. With a hard-driving dancehall-oriented edge, Damian, the youngest male Marley child, is the one who puts a ferocious new spin on the family sound, and the crowd at Antone’s couldn’t get enough of him. From the contemplative anti-cocaine joint “Pimper’s Paradise” to an explosive version of the 2005 hit “Welcome To Jamrock,” Jr. Gong put it down hard, and at the end of the show the crowd screamed ceaselessly for a full five minutes until assured of an encore (which ended up lasting for a good 15 minutes).

This show was ultra-super-sold out, with countless music lovers scouring the street outside Antone’s for available tickets before the show. It was also easily one of the top five shows I’ve ever seen in my life. Hopefully next time, the promoters will have the good sense to book a larger venue. I left the venue feeling both musically and spiritually revitalized. And man, it felt good.

Photos: K’naan and the Marleys at Antone’s

2008-01-15T04:40:00.000-08:00

Bob Marley & The Wailers - Roots, Rock, Remixed To Be Released July 24, 2007; First Bob Marley Remix Album To Receive Marley Family Blessing

Los Angeles, CA. (Top40 Charts/ Quango/ Rockr music) - Bob Marley is one of the most celebrated and beloved figures on the planet and the term reggae is synonymous with the musical legacy he left behind. Digging deeply into that sacred catalog, the dozen remixes of legendary songs on Roots, Rock, Remixed are taking the familiar and cherished and reintroducing it to sound systems worldwide. Roots, Rock, Remixed is slated for release on Quango/rockr music, July 24, 2007.

Featuring a crop of today's hottest producers - including Jimpster (Jamie Odell), Yes King (Rhys Adams & Mark Rae), Trio Eletrico (Boozoo Bajou), Fort Knox Five and DJ Spooky - Roots, Rock, Remixed balances that fine line of being respectful to the inimitable artist Nesta was, and using the bass-heavy, digital technologies available to us today. Nothing of the gorgeous, analog originals (including classics like "One Love," "Trenchtown Rock," and "Lively Up Yourself") is lost in translation.

While some bootleg remixes of these songs exist, Roots, Rock, Remixed is the first remix album to receive a certified blessing from the Marley family and Chris Blackwell, himself, who stated, "Roots, Rock, Remixed retains the songs and the spirit of the original Wailers' recordings and creates a great dance party record."

"We thought there was a lack of quality Bob Marley remixes for the underground," says David Hargis, co-producer and VP of A&R at rockr music, which spearheaded this project. "There have been a few high profile, mass market projects, but we wanted to present something for dance club audiences. There's a lot of warmth and humanity in these songs. None sound too electronic or far from the analog originals. Everyone who worked on this project had deep respect for the music."

Yet, those drum beats and bass lines are completely new - the studio refurbishing of skilled hands and ears. Cordovan's hip-hop slick-kick adds punch to the sing-along "One Love," while Afrodisiac Sound System takes "Soul Shakedown Party" from ghetto blaster to mega club experience. Jimpster's excellent retelling of "400 Years," considered crucial in the Peter Tosh library, makes this song of rebellion available for the four-on-the-floor audience. Through and through, the Wailers shine in every moment.

"We're honored to work with such an important body of music," says Jeff Daniel, the album's co-producer and rockr music's chief. "Marley's sound was like no other and his indelible stamp can be heard all through these great new remixes. We took great care not to disrespect his legend."

"There's a really nice balance between those that stick to the roots, and the ones that create their own interpretations," says Bruno Guez, President of Quango Records. Adding to the sentiment, Hargis continues, "Some of the remixers stuck with the familiar song structure and layered modern elements into them, while others took samples of the originals and transformed them into something completely new. It was often astounding how creative these DJs & producers were."

Originally launching Quango under Chris Blackwell's Palm Pictures years ago, Guez knows the Marley catalog inside and out. While Blackwell was pivotal in introducing the young Rasta to global ears, this project is quite circular for the groundbreaking Quango.

"These are many of the seed songs for Bob," Hargis concludes. "He went back through his catalog and updated many of them for Island later in his career. In a sense, we're doing the same thing with these remixes. There are a lot of special songs here."
Special, indeed.

Bob Marley & the Wailers Roots, Rock, Remixed (Quango/rockr Music)

Track Listing:
1. Soul Shakedown Party (Afrodisiac Sound System Remix)
2. Lively Up Yourself (Bombay Dub Orchestra Remix)
3. Duppy Conqueror (Fort Knox Five Remix)
4. Sun Is Shining (Yes King Remix)
5. Soul Rebel (Afrodisiac Sound System Remix)
6. African Herbsman (King Kooba Remix)
7. Don't Rock My Boat (STUHR Remix)
8. Small Axe (Paul & Price Remix)
9. Rainbow Country (DJ Spooky's Subliminal Funk Remix)
10. Trenchtown Rock (Trio Eletrico Remix)
11. 400 Years (Jimpster Remix)

CD Bonus Track:
12. One Love (Cordovan Remix)

2008-01-15T04:30:00.000-08:00

Rasta's Paradise- a Journey to the Hearts And Lives of Rasta

The Daily Monitor (Addis Ababa)

NEWS
29 April 2007
Posted to the web 30 April 2007

By Binyam Tamene
Addis Ababa

In exclusive premier at the Asni Gallery on Thursday, the documentary film entitled RASTA'S PARADISE was launched to the excitement and thrill of followers of Ras Teferianism who attended the event.

Rasta's Paradise is a 50-mm documentary about Rastafarians living in Ethiopia, enlightening the historical and spiritual connection between the Rastafari movement and Ethiopia/Africa and also reveals a rarely seen side of the movement, providing a journey into the hearts, lives and minds of Rasta life.

Shooting the film starts in the capital Addis Ababa and then travels to Shashamene to voice-over a story as the black people were taken as slaves from Africa into the New World, Caribbean and North American.

It also gives the audience an idea on Rastafarian movement for the fulfillment of words by a man of African descent named Marcus Garvey who prophesized that "there shall be a black King crowned", and so it passed that when Haile Selassie was crowned in 1930 emperor of Ethiopia, the Diaspora Africans rallied behind 'HIM' (His Imperial Majesty Haile Selassie) and the Rastafari movement got its name.

RASTA'S PARADISE features fascinating interviews of Rastafari Elders such as Bongo Rocky, Congo Rupert and Mama Baby I; artist/musician Teddy Dan; and activists like Ras Tagassa King and Dr. Desta Meghoo.

Elders in the film explain their belief that they are the true Jews and aspire to repatriate to Africa and to find their way back to the "Promised Land": Ethiopia.

As the film depicts, Many Rastas who have opted to move back to Ethiopia settle in Shashemene in the gifted land that Haile Selassie 1st offered to Diaspora blacks for the support they gave to Ethiopia during the war against the Italians.

The viewers also paid a visit to their tabernacle (place of worship), their homes as they explain their trials and tribulations making geopolitical connections between their message and identity and "take" on current world events.

RASTA'S PARADISE includes, witness that the "Africa Unite" celebrations in Addis Ababa, in commemoration of the 60th birthday of musician Bob Marley.

From the time when Parine Jaddo, an Iraqi filmmaker, heard Bob Marley, what she calls, "...like treble in my soul," she was anxious to know the meaning and origin of the lyrics. That is when Rastafari began to unfold for her.

Listing through the songs of Bob Marley, a legendry reggae music singer, like "Exodus", "One Love", Get Up Stand Up", "War" she realized there was so much to know and even more to understand.

Parine, who has a vast experience working with famous film makers like the award winning Ethiopian film maker Haile Gerima, began her journey into Rastafari and their unique relationship with Ethiopia.

Being one of the few film makers given access to document Bob Marley's 60th birthday, she and her partner-Executive Producer- Ishac Diwan (who happens to be the World Bank Country Representative to Ethiopia, and Sudan), saw the opportunity "beyond the momentous celebration and chose to tell the inspiring story behind 'Africa Unite' a celebration of 60th birthday of Bob Marley " "It then travels to Shashemene where we meet the Rastas living there by the help of Professor Abiyi Ford of Addis Ababa University who also provides a historical analysis of the movement", she told the attendants at the launching ceremony.

She said the inspiration from the Movement brought her closer to the message of justice, peace and love and compelled her to make a film that could expose the message and hopefully influence the human family.

Parine also found a vehicle to help her people stay strong under the very terrible and present condition. Jaddo now found a way to help; hence she produced Rasta's Paradise a message of peaceful resistance from a heart of one love, where justice and reconciliation remain a reality to be achieved one day.

The film explains the reason behind every deed in the Ras Teferian society including why they make their heir dread-lock, which will make RASTA'S PARADISE so enlightening With the rare footage of 'Africa Unite' concert and beautiful shots of rural Ethiopia, Parine Jodd's documentary film creates an exiting and entertaining feeling in the hall of Asni Gallery; and a get-to-know feeling to those who have little knowledge to the movement of Ras Teferianism.

RASTA'S PARADISE will be screened to audience on Saturday, may 6th at the Addis Ababa City Hall and to the Shashamane audience will also have an opportunity to see on Tuesday, 8th of may at Rift Valley Hotel.

VIPs including Ministry of Culture and Tourism Mohammed Drir, Professor Richard Pankhurest and members of the international community attended the launching ceremony.

2008-01-15T04:28:00.000-08:00

Free concert with Ky-Mani Marley, Arthur Lee Land Saturday

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Ky-Mani Marley
Special to the Daily

By LESLIE BREFELD
Summit Daily News
April 20, 2007

BRECKENRIDGE — As one of reggae legend Bob Marley’s sons, Ky-Mani Marley carries on the vibration, but interpreted through his own life.

Marley grew up mostly in the States, and said he identifies with the culture and musical influences of Miami more than those of Jamaica. He is currently finishing off a new CD with a September release date which he says “is not going to be what most people expect.” His sound is often described as having an urban edge, and Ky-Mani reaffirms this, saying his latest album will not be hard-core reggae.

“This is only coming from me, directly from my heart, no fiction, all fact,” he said.

“I’m not duplicating what my father did. I have a strong background, but I have my own struggle to speak about.”

Ky-Mani didn’t test out his genetically favored musical capabilities (instead choosing sports) until high school when he tooled around in a studio with a friend. It sounded good, and led him to pursue expression through music. Yet he’s also acted in films, saying he loves to perform on screen or on stage.

Ky-Mani is the only child of table tennis champion Anita Belnavis and Bob Marley.
He is tight with his brothers, and often performs with them.

“Dad left such a great legacy ... I always say that’s why he had so many sons — no one son could do it,” Ky-Mani said.

Ky-Mani puts on a free show Saturday at the Riverwalk Center in Breckenridge at 3 p.m. for Breck’s closing weekend.

2008-01-15T04:27:00.000-08:00

Would Marley Sing for Us Today?

Financial Gazette (Harare)

19 April 2007
Posted to the web 20 April 2007

By Jah Gidi
Harare

I WAS 13 years old when we crossed from Waterfalls to Rufaro Stadium that Friday night, back in April of 1980.

I fell in love with reggae that night. There he was, Bob Marley, in the flesh, and here I was, watching him from the eastern stand of Rufaro, then a mere mound of dirt.

I was too young to have realised at the time that only a day earlier, the new establishment had shown us what it was really all about.

They had sought to have Bob play exclusively to themselves and to their selected invited foreign dignitaries -- including Prince Charles. This caused a riot, and teargas was used on the crowds.

We later learnt that Marley demanded another show, for the people. How we danced into the night. We were young, but we knew we were celebrating something really special. And when Marley sang the opening lines of Zimbabwe, we were ecstatic.

Zimbabwe had been released on Marley's 1979 album, Survival, and had already premiered at the Amandla Festival (contrary to what I heard an SFM radio DJ -- Terrence Mapurisana I believe -- tell his audience this past Sunday, that the song was composed at a local's house. Marley only rehearsed there). Zimbabwe later became something of an unofficial anthem. It was also the only song from the Survival album that Marley regularly performed on his final tour, Uprising.

There are events in every man's life that shape his view of the world forever. For me, it was that breezy April night with Marley. I was to grow up on reggae -- I've been to 56 Hope Road and the Sumfest six times.

That night, Marley made me believe in Africa's future. But now, 27 years on, I am a 40 year-old Zimbabwean pharmacist who at some point had to flip burgers to get by, driven to America -- great Babylon herself -- not by the actions of colonialists, but by the economic mismanagement of my fellow black man. Home for a break, I am saddened by the number of young, black, professionals seeking escape from their homeland.

I wonder whether Marley was, in his own prophetic way, warning us that night.

Soon we'll find out who is the real revolutionaries;

And I don't want my people to be tricked by mercenaries.

What Marley's performance at Independence did was to demonstrate the African Diaspora's unflinching support for our struggle. Today, much of that same Diaspora is ashamed. Over the past decade, I have lived in the Caribbean and in the US. And I have often found myself cornered, by black people, asked to explain the actions of a black government against fellow black people.

The disappointment among black people everywhere is plain to see. Damien Marley, Bob's youngest child, has recorded a song critical of President Mugabe.

Wrote one newspaper of Damien's song, Road to Zion: "The irony of his father singing about liberating Zimbabwe at independence and subsequent events is not lost to many."

The black consciousness movement everywhere feels betrayed.

In Kingston a few years ago, I came across an article in which the Jamaican Observer writes: "...In Mr Mugabe's hands the land issue is chimera. President Mugabe has found a theme that he can milk linguistically for the perpetuation of his own power. He, in the process, declared a willingness to trample the rights of his people..."

Another Jamaican journalist - and this one gutted me -- wrote that the government has done more harm to the advancement of black people than George W Bush. "Mr Mugabe does more. He marches on his people's future and on our own dreams as black people. He diminishes Zimbabwe as well as those who also felt that the struggle was also theirs. He weakens the Diaspora."

I can't help but wonder whether Marley, were he still here, would accept another invitation to Rufaro.

Perhaps, just as Marley's protest songs had inspired those brave liberation fighters in the bush back in the 1970s, his words now might just inspire a new generation to stand up and, once again, demand our dignity as black people back. So I end with some lyrics to Marley's Zimbabwe.

Every man got a right to decide his own destiny,

And in this judgment there is no partiality

So arm in arms, with arms, we'll fight this little struggle,

'Cause that's the only way we can overcome our little trouble

No more internal power struggle;

We come together to overcome the little trouble

Soon we'll find out who is the real revolutionary,

'Cause I don't want my people to be contrary

To divide and rule could only tear us apart;

In every man chest there beats a heart

So soon we'll find out who is the real revolutionaries;

And I don't want my people to be tricked by mercenaries.

2008-01-15T04:21:00.002-08:00

Tuff Gong DVD Out

The Monitor (Kampala)16 April 2007

By Edgar R. Batte

If you missed out on Angenoir's first Tuff Gong Reggae Night anniversary or you attended but want to relive the moment, in the comfort of your home, the event's DVD is out just for you.

On the DVD, dubbed Natural Mystiq, you'll enjoy the moments of the international reggae crew that performed on the anniversary, right from the time they set their feet at Entebbe airport.

But the main action is during the show as the combined band of international talent with the likes top roots reggae artiste Prince Malachi croon some of Bob Marley's classic hits. This was fitting as the Tuff Gong anniversary also coincided with Bob Marley's birthday celebrations.

The stage was also shared by veteran Henry 'Button' Tenyue, a former player with the UB40, whose masterly act with the trombone was breathtaking. There was Everald 'Fart' Forrest who did the percussion.

Short of having the Wailers in town, these veterans lived up to the billing of an international reggae concert. Of course not forgetting our own reggae man Tshaka Mayanja of the Black Roots Unlimited who was playing the bass guitar.

The DVD also captures an exhibition and other activities that marked the Bob Marley anniversary week. Some of our local stars like Bebe Cool, Peter Miles, Kids Fox and Jeckaki band who performed at the anniversary are also captured rocking the crowds.

You could secure yourself a copy of the footage at any music store next to you.

2008-01-15T04:21:00.001-08:00

Music is the message for Bob Marley's sons

Stephen Marley turns a Florida drug bust into an inspiring track that is far away from the mainstream

Christine Clarke

CanWest News Service

Thursday, April 12, 2007

CREDIT: Joe Traver, Reuters

Stephen Marley, son of reggae legend Bob Marley, will take the stage at the Commodore on Saturday.

On top of the wailing sirens and aggressive beat-box of his first single, Traffic Jam, from solo debut Mind Control, Stephen Marley joins his brother, Damian (Jr. Gong), to trade rhymes about a marijuana bust the two were involved in back in 2002.

But it's not the usual drug-bust-as-badge-of-honour rhymes that guarantee the album will have massive record sales: for the Marleys, the track highlights an unjust police action in the face of something that, as devout Rastafarians in the tradition of their iconic father, Bob Marley, they consider to be an expression of their culture.

"I came back from a concert and the police pulled me over -- for what, I don't know. They found two spliffs [in our car] and locked us up," Marley says about the incident, which occurred in Tallahassee, Fla., on Feb. 13.

After the arrest, the brothers were booked and spent a few hours behind bars after being charged with possessing less than 20 grams of marijuana.

"It didn't feel right," he says of the arrest. "When you do something wrong, you feel it. If I run a red light, I know I did something wrong. But it never felt right for me, where they put me. The ward where they put me, I wouldn't even wish that on an animal."

It was this experience that inspired Marley to write The Traffic Jam. That track and two others from the album (Officer Jimmy and Iron Bars) form a trilogy about the incident.

While The Traffic Jam is the bonafide club track and Officer Jimmy is a humorous interlude, the prison song, Iron Bars, proves to be the most powerful. Over a menacing guitar riff, Marley wails, "Rebels for life / We rebel for the right / Let me out / Let me out / I'm an angry lion."

Whether or not you agree with Marley, it's undeniable that an artist using his music as a platform to protest seems as far away from this generation's musical climate as when Bob Marley used to do it back when he was recording in the 1970s.

One could argue the reason for lack of messaged music is the musician-as-soapbox pundit is no longer welcome (just ask the Dixie Chicks). But it's this climate that Marley seeks to outwit to get his message across.

The music industry "is a radio-driven thing and basically... what we are trying to say isn't what they are trying to feed the people. We are trying to educate the people when they are trying to brainwash them," says Marley, whose titular track Mind Control speaks heavily to this point.

"But, at the same time, if you can trick them so that, by the time that they listen to [the music], it feels so good, they don't realize that there's a message we slipped through the gate. So, we have to come up with a formula where it feels so good to them that they don't realize."

Marley's formula is characterized by a coupling of head-nodding grooves with lyrics that break listeners out of complacency by asking questions, challenging accepted social mores and spreading positivity.

It's something he's carried out not only on this album but also in his 20-year career as a member of family group Ziggy Marley & The Melody Makers and as a prolific producer, whose credits include work on Jr. Gong's Grammy-winning 2005 effort, Welcome to Jamrock.

"If you give the people enough positivity [through music], then it's going to have an effect," he says.

"But they don't want that, obviously. They want to hear, 'Smack that ass' and things like that. I'm not trying to downplay that music. It's fun music, too. I dance to it. But, at the same time, positive music should be given an equal chance, so that people have an opportunity to learn things."

Marley's music provides an opportunity to learn, but he doesn't want to be the lone voice, which is why he's adamant more artists get the chance to create music that runs counter to the status quo. His ultimate suggestion?

"Let's do it half and half. Half conscious music and the other half can be playful."

2008-01-15T04:20:00.001-08:00

Babylon By Bus
Groundins

With Charles HE Campbell
Sunday, April 15, 2007

In our Jamaican lingua, the word 'Babylon' has two meanings depending on the context in which it is used. In the case of Bob Marley's famous live album, Babylon By Bus, it refers to the dominant Eurocentric nations (including the US) and their socio-political systems. The local police are seen as the main agents perpetuating such a system and in the streets they are referred to collectively and singly as 'Babylon'.

On Thursday, March 29, Bembe, the weekly dance, was invaded by busloads of 'Babylon', or so it seemed. The dance was going along fine. Everyone was in high spirits - spliffs lit and the scantily-clad ladies were doing their thing, on and off the stage - literally. They were even dancing on the stage props and trusses.

Suddenly, out of nowhere, (or was it our worst nightmare?) and without provocation, numerous police personnel, armed to the teeth with high-powered weapons and dressed in bullet-proof regalia ("uniforms of brutality" - Bob Marley from Burnin' And Looting), entered the premises. Immediately an officer grabbed one patron, presumably with the intention only to detain and/or search but consequently sent those close-by into a stampeding panic. Even Sister Pat, who was standing more than 50 feet away, was unintentionally dragged to the ground by another lady who obviously experienced fright at what was occurring at the other end of the venue. Luckily, the experienced selector quickly and masterfully calmed down the crowd, thus preventing potentially more chaos and serious injury.

The police had arrived at 1:30 am and until the dance wrapped up at 2:15, the selectors repeatedly told the crowd that the police wanted motorists who were illegally parked on the road and sidewalks to move their vehicles.

Incredibly on leaving, the scene felt surreal, like the aftermath of a violent riot or battle zone, as we had to pass through a gauntlet of police, mostly dressed in blue denim battle fatigues. Furthermore, there were over 75 officers and 14 police vehicles including two buses parked haphazardly, even in the middle of the road, restricting the free flow of traffic. If it was intended to be a display of overwhelming force, then the tactic succeeded. In my view, it was overkill.

Certainly to most people there, it seemed totally irrational, but characteristic, given the crowd control methods employed by our police force since its formation and throughout its history. Sometimes, one still gets the feeling that since the Paul Bogle revolt of 1865, and their reactionary formation to quell the struggles of the dispossessed, there has been an unofficial ongoing war between citizens of the lower strata and the police. In the 1970s, Lee 'Scratch' Perry, aka Pipe Cock Jackson, penned the lyrics while Junior Murvin sang the refrain, "police and thieves in streets fighting the nation with their guns and ammunition". In the end, everyone left the dance in a hostile and angry mood.

Now, why I have taken so much interest in Bembe is because Weekenz on Constant Spring Road, since its inception, has traditionally been regarded as an uptown venue with an entertainment programme geared towards the middle-class youth.

They have experimented with promoting young upcoming musicians and artistes, poetry and retro parties. Bembe however, is a different cup of tea and right now, it is the hottest event for the average youth on their weekly entertainment calendar. In our contrasting local sociological landscape of uptown-downtown, many times we disregard or overlook the pockets of poverty in the heart of uptown and therefore their social space is even more severely restricted.

Politically tribal allegiances compound these conditions, hence under normal circumstances, Grants Pen youth and Cassava Piece youth "doan mix an' mingle". Miraculously however, Bembe patrons, in the main, come from these two traditionally hostile areas with a sprinkling of patrons from other parts of the city. Bembe therefore, has been able to authentically replicate the true downtown cultural art form in an uptown setting and supposedly in a safe environment - until the police actions of March 29 that is.

Now don't get me wrong, I'm all for law and order (the TV series too) and over the years the police force has played a constructive and critical role in the management of public events. In this vein, one of the first things that impressed me about Bembe was the fact that they abided relatively strictly to the 2:00 am lock-off stipulation. Secondly, while their front of house gate system is basically rudimentary, it flows surprisingly smoothly, as people unexpectedly line up in an orderly fashion.

Thirdly, I have been body-searched every time I have attended by someone in a police flak jacket. This factor is very important to me, given conditions in Jamaica today. Finally though, the promoters do manage their stage quite well and it stays clean until the dancers come up, on cue, to thrill us with their moves and sexy bodies. On the whole, I would say it is a fairly well-managed event.

The police actions I have described above disturbs me therefore, because while I keep hearing the Commissioner describe a strategy of intelligence-driven actions and the need for cooperation of the citizens, these actions on the ground will not engender those laudable objectives.

For instance, MC Nuffy, who in the past I have had to criticise for his histrionics at Sting 2004, got a hold of the mic to giveaway gifts on behalf of Mrs D'Angel Davis (wife of Beenie Man), who was promoting her birthday dance, and began to agitate against the cops saying "den a so much a dem haffi come fi lock up big artiste like Ghost".

Now I don't know if there is any truth to those allegations, but my point is, even if that were so, surely that was the wrong way of executing an arrest. As Jacob Miller sang many years ago, "Please Mr Officer, cool down yuh temper. be careful what you do because the people are watching you". Mr Commish, might I suggest a name change of the Jamaica Constabulary from Force to Service, so as to begin the reorientation that you speak so eloquently of.

On a different topic, I have been attending some poetry sessions recently, and wish to make the following comments and suggestions to our young poets. Firstly, I have found the quality of your lyrics in general to be excellent. From a performance standpoint however, the level of organisation of all the functions I have attended so far are below par in comparison to the rest of the industry. Moreover, many of you poets need to review and in some instances upgrade your style, the quality of your self-projection and especially stage presentation.

Finally, I have become a little weary of the repetitious references to Rastafari after every line or sentence. I humbly suggest that there is no need to further legitimise or demonstrate so forcibly to your audience the authenticity of your religion and your adherence to its tenets. Some might even think it displays a subconscious insecurity in the sheer impact of your poetic offerings. Rastafari.

2008-01-15T04:16:00.000-08:00

In his father's footsteps

Jeff Chang

Sunday, April 15, 2007

When your last name is Marley, your birthplace is Kingston, and your chosen career is reggae musician, you could be in danger of never meeting the public's high expectations.

But to Bob Marley's second son, Stephen Marley, the inevitable comparisons his cheekbones and dulcet tones draw to his late superstar father are no burden.

"No, man!" he says, on the phone from New York two days after the March release of his solo album, "Mind Control." "It is an honor being compared to such a great man. Even better that he's my dad."

Although the record uses his father's trademark one-drop as just one of a wide palette of grooves, Stephen doesn't worry about what his father's fans might say.

"I think after time they will get it, they will be convinced, in that sense," he says. "But at the same time, my father would say, 'We can't run away from ourselves.' This is who we are. We are the children of Bob."

Stephen, who will be 35 on Friday, is releasing his premiere CD at an age when most pop stars are in their golden years. (His father died at age 36 in 1981 from complications of cancer, with more than a dozen albums completed.) But he realized what his destiny would be early on. Born in 1972, as his father was perched on the edge of international success, Stephen spent his early years dancing and singing onstage with his dad's band the Wailers. At age 7, he joined brother Ziggy and sisters Cedella and Sharon in the Melody Makers, and had a global hit with "Children Playing in the Streets." He spent his teenage years touring the world with them, trying to live up to their billing as the rightful heirs to their father's throne.

Perhaps such expectations explain why Stephen Marley has taken a relaxed approach to his 27-year career. Since the Melody Makers ended, he has played primarily a background role, bringing musical muscle to releases that usually feature his brothers in the Ghetto Youth Crew. He executive-produced the 1999 hit compilation album "Chant Down Babylon," an update of his father's music for the hip-hop generation. He has overseen the breakout career of his half brother Damian "Jr. Gong" Marley, whose 2005 album, "Welcome to Jamrock," slowly grew into a critical and popular smash. He has quietly amassed five Grammys. "Mind Control" is, characteristically, off to a low-key but promising start. It sold 20,000 in its first week and premiered at No. 1 on the Billboard reggae chart and No. 35 on the album chart.

"You know in soccer? I'm like the link man. I put that ball through so that we can score the goals," he says, also calling himself "the leader of the (Marley) army."

Perhaps Stephen is the midfield general of the new Marley generation. "Mind Control" is polished, assured and casually virtuosic in a way that most premieres are raw, edgy and ferociously single-minded. In the same way that hip-hop producers like Timbaland and Just Blaze have renewed rap by emphasizing the music's omnivorous rhythmic appetites, Stephen Marley updates Jamaican music for an era of globalized pop by tracing the connections between local styles. Reggaeton influences show up on "Let Her Dance," bossa nova stylings on "Fed Up." He updates nyabinghi drumming on "Juna Di Red" and pairs classic hip-hop beatboxing with a tried-and-true dance-hall riddim, "The Answer/Never Let Go," on "The Traffic Jam."

"My influences are very vast and wide, from Africa to Mexico," he says. "This music is so close to each other. It's close to Brazilian music. It's close to Nigerian music. So it's universal."

Marley sees his music as "conscious music," and he hopes to turn North American audiences not just toward his own family's messages but to the rebel music of youths from Brazil, Africa and the Caribbean. Yet he disavows any political agenda, in part because of his experiences during the tumultuous years in the 1970s, when his parents were attacked in the midst of warring Jamaican political parties.

"My mother got shot in her head through our voice and our opinion. My father got shot also. In my family, we have had our hands-on experience with politics, and me can tell you that it's a dirty game," he says. "At the same time, not to be naïve, of course we need to have governing bodies for oversee the people's interest. But until we see those people that have the people's interest, I have to be an advocate against politics, because I have seen nothing good out of it in Jamaica. It has been the same from my father's time till now. It even get worse. A lot of youths don't live past 16. It's like a plague."

Stephen brings his family -- now living in Miami as well as in Kingston -- with him on the road as much as he can. "Mind Control's" most moving number is "Hey Baby," a song that began as a lullaby he would sing via phone to his children from the road.

"Every day I pray to Jah that one day you will see and overstand the fact I must fulfill my destiny," Marley sings, before adding in a gentle falsetto, "I'll be coming home to you again."

The album ends with his children singing an old Rastafari chant, and Marley laughing at the sound.

"I tell you the truth, I am always surrounded by my family," he says, noting that Damian and another half brother, Julian, are usually touring with him if his children are not. "Not having my old man around as much as we would have wanted him -- some of that has been missing, of course, so with me and my kids, I make sure that I see them as much and do as much with them to fill that little void. I make sure that I double that for them."

2008-01-15T04:13:00.000-08:00

Rastafarianism: Origins and beliefs

By Tim Hall

Last Updated: 2:15am BST 13/04/2007

Rastafarianism developed in Jamaica in the 1930s among working-class black people.


	Bob Marley helped spread the Rastafarian message

It began in part as a social stand against whites and the middle-classes, whom the Rastafarians saw as oppressors.

Among their grievances, the Rastafarians believed that by being taken to the Caribbean by slave traders they had been robbed of their African heritage, which they sought to recapture and celebrate.

The Rastafari movement, or Rasta, takes the Bible as its sacred text, but interprets it in an Afro-centric way in order to reverse what Rastas see as changes made to the text by white powers.

The movement took as its spiritual head Haile Selassie I, former Emperor of Ethiopia, who was lauded for being a black leader in the heart of Africa.

To the Rastas, Haile Selassie became Jah, or God incarnate, who would one day lead the people of African origin to a promised land.

Although Haile Salassie died in 1975, his death is not accepted by Rastafarians, who believe he will one day return.

Rastafarians also looked up to Marcus Garvey, the Jamaican socialist, whose philosophies they believed could help open the way to a new world order.

From the beginning, Rastafarianism was associated with communal living.

Leonard Howell, often called the “first Rasta,” set up the first Rastafarian commune of 5,000 people at Pinnacle, St Catherine, Jamaica.

His subsequent persecution by Jamaican authorities encapsulated for many people the decades of oppression suffered by black Africans.

From Jamaica, the Rastafari movement spread around the globe, thanks in part to the huge popularity of its most famous member, Bob Marley.

The reggae star’s lyrics were full of Rasta doctrine and encapsulated the spirit of the movement.

In addition to Marley, other Rasta symbols include dreadlocks and cannabis. Although not worn by all Rastafarians, the movement believes the hairstyle is supported in the bible.

The smoking of cannabis - commonly known as Ganja among followers - is regarded as a spiritual act, often accompanied by Bible reading.

Rastafarians believe smoking cannabis is sanctioned by the Bible, cleans the body and mind and brings the soul closer to God.

Today there are thought to be more than one million Rastafarians around the world. Some live in communes, which double as temples, where the Bible is studied and prayers are offered.

However, Rastafarianism has never been a highly organised religion, and many Rastas see it more as a culture or way of life.

2008-01-15T04:11:00.000-08:00

April 12, 2007

Stephen Marley might save reggae from itself

By Alexander Varty

Too many low-budget productions and monotonous digital rhythms have given reggae a bad reputation, one that's not entirely undeserved. But if Stephen Marley has his way, that's going to change. The second son of the greatest songwriter the form has ever seen knows that reggae must evolve if it is to be anything other than a musical dead end. And on his new Mind Control CD he pushes the sound of Jamaica forward by mixing it up with Latin dance rhythms, the hip-hop phrasing of rapper Mos Def, Ben Harper's bluesy slide guitar–and a few well-placed sound effects.

Mind Control's jailhouse anthem "Iron Bars" opens with the sound of sirens. Set up by a brief satirical monologue in which "Officer Jimmy" encounters some spliffed-up Rastafarians, it's about the victimless crime of marijuana possession–something Marley and his brothers know a little about.

"It was based on kind of a personal experience," the singer confesses, reached at a Kansas City sound check. "Damian had a show in New Orleans, and me and Julian went to the show. And then we were driving back to Miami, and on the way back, going through Tallahassee, we got pulled over and them find some herb."

Unlike the prisoner in his song, Marley didn't end up in shackles; if anything, the bust was more profitable than not, given that it also inspired a second Mind Control offering, "Traffic Jam". Along with the title track's scathing denunciation of media trickery, "Iron Bars" and "Traffic Jam" set a militant tone, but that's soon leavened by the moody lovers' rock of "You're Gonna Leave", the flamenco-inflected "Let Her Dance", and a Wailers-style take on Ray Charles's "Lonely Avenue".

Marley says he's a lifelong fan of the late soul shouter. "He's passed on, but he is one man I would have liked to have met," he explains. "And when I heard that song, man, it hit me, because it has more than one meaning to me. You know what I mean? There are a lot of people in the world whose rooms do not have windows, and the sun does not shine for them. So it doesn't just mean a man-and-woman relationship; it means life. A lot of youths face that kind of struggle, where the sun does not shine for them."

The singer does more than just sing for the young and poor: through the Marley family's Ghetto Youths foundation, he and his siblings are quietly providing education and health care for some of Jamaica's neediest.

"Right now, the youth, them need schooling," he states. "The youth in Jamaica need schools and books and those type of things. So we're trying to concentrate more on education and health, and them will take it from there. But we don't really talk about the things that we do for people. It's more personal. It's just part of our life, and we don't want to go on in the media about it."

More important, he says, is to offer an alternative to the gun culture that has taken over Kingston's streets.

"To tell you the truth, the youths look up to us," Marley allows. "They do, and we cannot deny that. The youths look up to us, they idolize us, they dress like us, they want to talk like us. So we have to use that in a positive way if we want to see a change."

2008-01-15T04:10:00.001-08:00

Dread beauty
published: Thursday | April 5, 2007

Melville Cooke

Me sey fi stop spread propaganda pon de dread.

Because de dread no have no forty leg in a him head.

- Prince Mohammed (George Nooks)

Dreadlocks have come a long, long way, from something that instantly marked the wearer as a target for a 'check' from the police (and not a friendly check at that) to being on the head of someone who will represent the country in an international beauty contest.

That person is, of course, Miss Jamaica Universe 2007, Zahra Redwood, who has generated more press in the short time she has been on her figurative throne than most get in half their reign, all because she is a Rastafarian. And while I still put a small fire on beauty pageants I am happy that, since the contests do exist, this is the lady who has won this particular one.

You could say, in Jamaican street parlance, that she "have it lock". And hey, coming on the heels of Sara Lawrence's announcement of the baker having left a bun a rising upon withdrawal from the oven, Redwood's victory made that particular occurrence a three-day wonder in a country of nine-day wonders, where the Trafigura payment is all flogged out before the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) can use it as an election card. (Talk about they that labour and labour in vain.)

'Dread' or 'locks'

There is a tendency, though, much as Bob Marley is sometimes sanitised from Rastafarian convictions to be presentable to an audience as a loveable minstrel who sings One Love and Three Little Birds, to separate the 'dread' from the 'locks', to make the matted hair more fit for polite company. Because to say someone wears dreadlocks has a very different impact from saying that they wear locks.

'Locks' is a style that a perky young professional woman or a musician huddled over a guitar can wear to announce their hip rebel stance while working hard at conforming to materialism; 'dreadlocks' has overtones of fierce men in crocus bag clothing calling down lightning and thunder on Sodom and all they who dwell willingly therein.

I cannot help but think about how far locks have come when I see pictures of Redwood, who has not, I must note, positioned herself as a crusader for the Rastafarian movement. She is who she is before she won the title and, based on the level of intelligence in her discourse, she will be who she was before the competition when her year is over.

But hair is here or there, when one considers that not too long ago it was mumbled that Rastafarians used cow dung in their hair to get it to lock up. Then there were the rumours of creepy crawly critters infesting the nasty masses of hair (hence Prince Mohammed's Forty Leg) and I can still remember, as a child, how there were some adults who did not want locks to touch them. And this was long after Bob Marley died, long after the 'consciousness' of the 1970s.

Locks as an option

The 'Sisterlocks' style of locking hair, which hit Jamaica in the very late 1990s, presented locks as an option - an expensive one - to the professional woman who wanted her hair groomed from the get go. An there are some Rastafarians who took issue with that systematic system of locking hair, I believe that it helped set the stage for the 'dread beauty'. Locks became more visible in the workplace, on women whose positions made them pre-approved for acceptance (you know, like how Courts pre-approves credit), changing the image of the ropy strands and generating a higher level of acceptance.

A higher level that has given us a Zahra Redwood, with dreadlocks.

You don't have to be dread to be Rasta.

- Morgan Heritage

2008-01-15T04:09:00.001-08:00

Bouncy Beats: Wailers to play at Davis Cup party

Thursday, April 5, 2007

By Ed Bumgardner

relish reporter

Aston "Family Man" Barrett was already the go-to session bass player in Kingston, Jamaica, when he got a call from a friend in 1969 telling him that a singer named Bob Marley wanted to meet him.

"I told my friend to get up, go lickity-split, set this thing up, as I knew of Bob as one of the singers in The Wailers, a favorite vocal group in Kingston," Barrett said during a recent phone interview, his speech a colorful tangle of Jamaican patois and Rastafarian idiosyncrasies. "I knew also that he had been away to America, and me interested in hearing what he was now about."

A meeting was set up. Barrett, barely out of his teens, was to meet the more-worldly Marley outside a club. The assigned time for the meeting came - no Marley. It turned out that Marley had arrived, looked around, seen only a kid, and had gone back to the house of their mutual friend to complain.

"Him a-go back, and him say, 'What kind of devilment you play? I a-go to this meeting, and there is only a boy.' My friend take him back to where we meet, and he point to me and him say, 'That boy, that is Family Man, true enough.'"

Marley was perplexed. He expected to meet someone much older, given Barrett's nickname. He asked if this was the same Family Man whose innovative bass work he had heard all over the radio. Assured that it was, he then approached Barrett. "He look at me like I and I was some kind of duppy (ghost)," he said. "He say to me, 'Is it truth, boy, that you are this same Family Man who play those tough bass lines, and who play with Scratch (Lee Perry) in the Upsetters?' I tell him yes, that is I and I.

"He look at me and say, 'Feel no way, mon, but if this prove to be true, you and me, we have work to do, no problem.'

"And that was that. I was by his side from that time on, taking care of the Wailers' music, up to when he passed away. And I still take care of his music, straight up, you know?"

Barrett, now 60, continues to lead a version of The Wailers, balancing playing Marley's legacy for a new generation with performing new songs that he contends will be "a new roots vibe, pure and absolved, righteous and true in the eyes of the Almighty."

The Wailers will perform Saturday at the Racket in the Streets block party in the Downtown Arts District, part of the Davis Cup festivities.

Barrett feels that it is his calling to maintain the Wailers' reputation as the most ferocious and influential band in reggae history. He had a hand in the music's creation - he co-wrote songs with Marley, was responsible for the majority of the band's arrangements, and worked as a co-producer and engineer on all recordings by Marley and the Wailers.

He points to his name, "Family Man" as proof of his musical purpose. The name does not stem from the long-rumored tale of his having fathered 52 children. "Yah, man, that story make laugh. If that foolishness be true, then I and I never play music, as me would have long ago gone to the grave," he said, laughing. "That name show the responsibility me bear, because me the head of my musical family. Me the General who gave reggae music that backbone, that fresh feel. In the Wailers, Bob take care of the songs and the business. Me take care of the band, the music."

History backs Barrett up. All of Marley's biographers credit Barrett and his late brother, Carlie, with creating the funky "one-drop" groove that defined the music made by Marley and The Wailers.

Barrett's distinctive approach to playing bass - all loping bass lines and unyielding pulse, articulated slightly behind the beat, dancing between notes, sketching melody and anchoring groove - is considered the crucial bridge between Jamaican rock-steady music and the roots reggae that followed.

"When I play, I sing the part first, then I sing it again with my hands," he said. "Me draw the melody and then me also drop down on the heartbeat of the song. At that point, I and I are the guiding light to take this song to that place where the rhythm is wicked."

He laughed, a low, lazy rumble. "It like I and I say, with praise to the Almighty - me originate, others imitate."

Barrett is aware that some people think he has no business leading a Marleyless version of The Wailers. Said detractors include Rita Marley, Bob's widow and the executrix of the Marley estate, which has been a legal quagmire since Marley's death in 1981 (he left no will). Barrett and the Marley estate have long been legally entangled over dispersement of royalties that Barrett believes that he, and other members of the Wailers, are entitled to collect.

A 1994 suit brought Barrett some "justice," he said, but a larger suit, filed last year in London, was dismissed. Barrett points to his well-documented contributions to Marley's musical legacy. Rita Marley maintains that Barrett and his fellow Wailers were merely sidemen attending to her husband's vision.

"This I say - Bob was a great man, a positive force, whose songs, whose message, was the heartbeat of man and the very soul of universal love, no matter what culture," Barrett said. "He create this force out of the environment and he speak the truth of this world through the eyes of the Almighty.

"But he not do this thing alone. Bob was me bredren. But Bob, me brother Carlie and I and I, we were the trinity of Bob Marley and The Wailers as the world knows it. Listen close to what I and I have to say about this matter now - first there was The Wailers, with the great Peter Tosh and Bunny Livingston (Bunny Wailer). Then, with Carlie and I and I, come Bob Marley and The Wailers. Now it is just The Wailers once again.

"Same leaves, same branches, but I am the root," he said. "What was built cannot be taken away."

2008-01-15T04:08:00.001-08:00

Global Beat Fusion: The Marleys and Mind Control

[5 April 2007]

The efforts of major corporations to disarm their consumers is a reminder that music used to be judged by how it made the listener feel, not how many times it was downloaded.

by Derek Beres

The fact that reggae music—the very definition of catchwords like “freedom” and “revolution”—should continue in such a clean lineage, from Nesta’s globalization of this rootsy technique straight through to his offspring’s overstanding of the digital age, is not a surprise. Now that Stephen Marley has finally launched into a spotlight already shared by Ziggy, Julian, Damian, and Ky-Mani, a long and industrious circle is completed, or, depending on how you look at things, just beginning. Reggae, like the Jamaican Rasta culture that spawned it, relishes in paradoxes, knowing them to be flip sides of one coin.

When cultures collide, new identities are born. Such was the case when a shipload of indentured servants landed on the shores of Jamaica in 1845. The cargo—a group of Indian workers—would go on to influence what would become Nyabhingi communities, which of course gave birth to Rastafarianism. In a little-known cultural connection (considering Rastas point to Ethiopia, the archaic catchword for all of Africa, as the birthing place), India’s vast philosophical and social landscape gave birth to numerous things associated with reggae culture: bhang, a ganja (the word is Hindi) elixir; jatawi, or thick, matted locks of hair, that Sadhus had been twisting for centuries; vegetarianism and Ayurvedic nutrition, which inspired ital cooking; and, most interestingly, karma. That last one continues uninterrupted this day, as the very theory dictates.

The indoctrinated Africans and indigenous islanders were forced to believe in a form of Christianity claiming that no matter how hard we tried in life, we are never free because of an original sin. (Interestingly the word “sin” originally meant “ignorant”, which is the basis of yoga: avidya, ignorance, is what traps the individual in a world of illusion.) The best we can do is to achieve something great after we die. The Indians showed their new neighbors doctrines rich with karma, how not only do we return from life to life, but that the idea of moksha (liberation) is attainable right now. This idea would eventually creep down to a man named Bob Marley, and the rest, as we know, is history… and the present.

Marley was steadfast in making the African connection, mostly due to his personal and spiritual connection to Haile Selassie and the teachings of Marcus Garvey. As African heritage grew on the island and its music rose to power, the underlying theme in India was severed. When the façade of a building is revamped, however, the stone that the builder refused remains the same. And Marley knew karma well; he sang of it, and his life, while pictured today as the clean rebel of peace and love, was full of discord and weaponry. He knew that to make an impact in the industry, some not-so-civil measures had to be taken, and he took them. Point being, he got where he needed to go, for the better of us all.

I can’t help but think the same thing happened with Mind Control (Tuff Gong), Stephen Marley’s excellent debut. The brother has been undercover in most of his sibling’s works, including Julian’s finest effort, A Time & Place, and, of course, Damian’s breakthrough Welcome to Jamrock (as well as his lesser publicized, though more adventurous, Halfway Tree). Stephen was also Badu-ized on Erykah’s Mama’s Gun, joining the soul diva on the unforgettable ballad “In Love With You”. To say people have been waiting for Mind Control is an understatement—in more ways that one.

We can only speculate on why Stephen renamed the record from its original title, Got Music?. I received a promo of this over three years ago, and was instantly hooked by his bluesy takes on the music his family’s name is synonymous with. It had the stirring strums of Ziggy mixed with the jazziness of Julian, backed up by Damian-sized beats. In the middle of all this was a voice that, every time I’ve played it for friends, warrants the question, “What Bob song is this?” Stephen is the patois-thick doppelganger of all Marleys, and one hell of a songwriter to boot.

Eager to write a piece on Got Music?, I was in constant communication with the publicity department to secure a release date. Every time I queried, another pushback would arrive into my inbox. He needed to do more production. Nothing was firm yet. And then, eventually, “Welcome to Jamrock” happened, and the Marley name reached a stature it hadn’t since—well, we’d like to say since Catch a Fire or Exodus dropped, but we have to be realistic. Bob, much to his chagrin (mostly pertaining to his desire for Africans and African-Americans to accept his music), was not a truly global name until after he died. That little bit of biblical karma may sting, but we can only equate Jamrock with Legend.

Got Music? would have to wait. Jamrock was the perfect balance between the bass-heavy headnods of hip-hop without being overtly Bronx-bound, while it had that thumping luster of dancehall without over-stimulated hype. Damian, and by extension producer Stephen, rubbed the sonic G-spot on this one, and the family once again struck musical gold. Stephen’s debut was indeterminately shelved until they could make sense of a few things.

One of those things, ironically, is property control. What annoyed me about Got Music? was its watermark, which prevented me from playing the CD in my computer. To listen I had to hook up my failing Discman. I’m fully cognizant this is a trite complaint, but—and this is an important one—I’m realistic about where music is going. And for me, and many journalists like myself, it’s into my iPod. Most of my reviewing time is done on subways and street corners. These little copy-protected nuances are just an irritation, since it took no more than an hour to rip the songs into mp3s. And that’s the exact disclosure record labels don’t want to hear, because it means their mind control is failing.

At 31, I was born into an era that really believed the path to musical stardom involved being snatched up by a record company that took you on a multi-million dollar ride onto MTV and national radio. End of story. That fairy tale suited the labels well, and the illusion held for quite some time. It began when Thomas Edison started pimping his oversized boxes door to door, and was mastered by Motown. By 1975 that was the rule, not the exception, much like our ancestors were taught you could not be free in this life. (As Richard Dawkins so ingeniously wrote, when he first met his wife she had never realized she could not believe in God. The record labels had constructed a similar sort of hypnosis upon its consumer market. If the connection seems implausible, remember we are dealing here with a concept, not the form of the concept, which can assume many shapes.)

We can’t blame Stephen. His music is worth purchasing. But he had to play along with at least some of the rules. Remember, we’re not living in an American-dominated Jamaica 40 years ago, where local stations were forced to play R&B, country, and jazz from the States. Bob, like other local heroes, broke his own cultural mind control by stampeding into these studios and forcing deejays to play his songs. Peace and equanimity pays a price, after all.

All these years have not been waiting in vain. Mind Control is a fierce album, with beats like iron and lyrical tirades of a lion. Yet it’s not Got Music?. For the most part, the blues have been stripped and replaced by beefed-up bass and thick drums. His work on Jamrock tapped him into what our culture craves: a cadence that depends on the four to find the rhythm. This does not detract from the songwriting by any means, and some of the adjustments were for the better. Mos Def steps in to give a smooth rap on “Hey Baby”. The hypnotic guitar line is down while the kick is up. The same holds true for “Chase Dem”. And “Iron Bars”, by far the catchiest track, was completely revamped, adding a dancehall vocal section and rearranging numerous lyrics. Both hold up, but the latter hits harder.

Most interesting is what’s been removed. Gone from Mind Control are the straight blues of “My Way” and “Winding Road”. The pleasantly analog “Someone to Love” is also absent, as well as the title track and “Baby Mama”, another quaint ballad. The two strong slower tracks to remain, “Fed Up” and “Inna Da Red”, are only partially touched, and tastefully so. And “Mind Control” remains, with a bit more bravado.

There is nothing lacking from the newer version, and indeed, the songs he replaced these with deserve mention. The most dance floor-ready cut, “Let Her Dance”, with a soaring vocal hook by Maya Azucena, is gorgeous. Ditto “Lonely Avenue”, a slower jam worthy of the status of “Stir It Up”. And, of course, the leadoff single: the crunchy beat-boxing, herb-celebrating flow of “The Traffic Jam”, featuring Mr. Jamrock himself, Damian. Any way you cut it, Stephen’s debut is a welcome addition to the reggae pantheon.

Still, I keep coming back to “Iron Bars”. The lyrics parallel the modern state of affairs in the music industry: “I’m a prisoner, locked up for what? / Freedom of speech, ain’t that all we got.” In many ways what has been termed the “downloading scandal” is really just a leveling off of the playing field. It doesn’t take Marshall McLuhan to tell us that whoever controls the media controls the mind of those the media reaches. And the major label releasing Mind Control, Universal, has vested interest in the sales of this and other artists, as well as a large percentage of media. Remember, its parent company, Vivendi, has helped it achieve the sales of one in four CDs worldwide.

To my slight annoyance, Mind Control also arrived watermarked. Nothing a quick wiring couldn’t solve. So as I sit here with both versions of “Mind Control” playing back-to-back on iTunes, I’d love to let you hear the difference, the ways in which this young Rasta warrior has gone to great lengths to express his disapproval of major corporations strong-arming consumers to disarm them. Writing is a limited art, when it comes to describing music. Yet the simple two-click process that can virtually transport these versions from my player to yours could land me in a physical jail, or, at the very least, into an unthinkably absurd lawsuit.

As I listen to these beautiful blues so few ears will chance to hear, I can only reminisce about a time when that very genre was created, when all that those musicians had was a guitar and problems to contemplate, well before this beast of an industry began controlling the minds of its listeners. All we can do now is dream up this former day, when music was judged by how it made the listener feel, not how many times it was downloaded or how many markets it penetrated. The music business acquired its name for a reason, thought perhaps without weighing in the karma they’d have to face.

2008-01-15T04:06:00.000-08:00

04/10/07

Danny Glover Joins Bob Marley Tribute

Danny Glover thrilled film fans at the launch of Bob Marley tribute concert documentary Africa Unite on Saturday by recalling his first experience of the reggae great. The late Marley's family invited the actor to speak before the New York premiere of the film, which recounts the 2005 concert in Ethiopia held to celebrate what would have been the reggae legend's 60th birthday.

Glover, who co-produced the documentary through his Louverture Films Company, gladly accepted and used the moment to recall a fateful night in 1970 when he begrudgingly agreed to accompany a friend to a Marley show, and being "forever inspired." The film features behind-the-scenes footage and snippets of the 12-hour concert, including performances by Lauren Hill and members of the Marley family.

Saturday night's premiere concluded with Marley's widow Rita leading Rastafarian chant accompanied by a group of drummers.

2008-01-15T04:00:00.000-08:00

Documentary Chronicles Marley Birthday Bash

Ky-Mani Marley / Photo: Wes Orshoski

April 09, 2007, 10:50 AM ET

Wes Orshoski, N.Y.

"Africa Unite," the documentary film capturing the 2005 concert in Ethiopia that celebrated Bob Marley's 60th birthday, received a work-in-progress preview Saturday in New York, with a little help from Marley's family and actor Danny Glover.

Before the screening at Lincoln Center's Walter Reade Theater, Glover remembered being dragged to a 1970s performance by Marley, and being forever inspired. With the Marley family's Tuff Gong Pictures, Glover's Louverture Films executive produced "Africa Unite,"

The film blends on-the-street and behind-the-scenes footage with snippets of the 12-hour concert, attended by an estimated 350,000. It features performances by Lauryn Hill, Angelique Kidjo, reggae mainstays Bob Andy, Rita Marley and Marcia Griffiths, and several of Marley's children, including Ziggy, Damian, Stephen, Cedella, Julian and Ky-Mani.

The latter also performed renditions of "Redemption Song" and "No Woman No Cry" with a small backing group before the film.

Directed by Stephanie Black -- who had previously worked with the Marleys on "Life and Debt," a look at the saga of Jamaica's beleaguered, post-Independence economy -- "Africa Unite" also delves into the purpose behind the 2005 concert: to inspire Africans, especially youths, to help themselves.
It introduces the viewer to students hailing from across the continent who were brought together in the Ethiopian capital of Adidas Ababa as part of the concert to discuss ways in which they could spur economic and educational reform and combat poverty and strife in their respective nations. It also follows the Marley brothers and a Rastafarian elder on their journey to Ethiopia.

Following the film Saturday, Marley's eldest grandchild, and his widow, Rita Marley, made brief comments before a group of drummers led a Rasta chant.

2008-01-15T03:53:00.001-08:00

Marley makes Swiss teen's dreams come true

All Magalie Billod ever wanted was to visit the birthplace of her idol

BY KERRY MCCATTY Sunday Observer staff reporter mccattyk@jamaicaobserver.com
Sunday, April 08, 2007

BOB Marley made 18-year-old Magalie Billod's dreams come true yesterday. The late Reggae icon passed away eight years before Magalie was born, yet yesterday he proved that he still has the power to make women happy. In life he did it through music, and yes, charm. But even in death, he continues to keep people happy the world over through the legacy he has left behind.

So powerful is that legacy that 26 years after his death, this young Swiss girl - who is the first to admit that she did not understand a word he sang initially - travelled thousands of miles to experience that legacy first-hand.
Two years ago, then 16-year-old Magalie made one wish from her home in La Neuville, Switzerland - to visit Bob Marley's home country.

Eighteen-year-old Swiss national Magalie Billod (centre) poses with her parents Marlene (left) and Claude-Alaine, who arrived in Jamaica Friday on Magalie's granted wish from the Make-a-Wish Foundation to see Bob Marley's home country. (Photos: Joseph Wellington)

She began living that dream yesterday thanks to the Make-a-Wish Foundation, which specialises in granting wishes to children with life-threatening medical conditions.

Magalie wrote a letter to the foundation, explaining her passion for Marley's music and her desire to see Jamaica.
"I explained exactly what I wanted," Magalie told the Sunday Observer yesterday.

Within six months, Magalie, who suffers from Muscular Dystrophy, a genetic disease in which the muscles gradually weaken, got a phone call that her wish had been granted.
"I was very surprised and excited," Magalie said, her face lighting up as though she still had not gotten over that initial surprise - even though she was sitting in the cafe at the Jamaica Pegasus Hotel in Kingston.

Since Magalie arrived in Jamaica on Friday, she has experienced many firsts. She had her first taste of Jamaican beer shortly after she landed. But she got her first real taste of Jamaica yesterday with a visit to the Bob Marley Museum.

Among the other items on Magalie's itinerary, which was organised by My Tropic Escape, is a visit to Tuff Gong Recording Studio, the kite festival in Seville and a meeting with Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller. She will also get a chance to visit Marley's resting place in Nine Miles, St Ann.
She will spend a week in the island.
"It's [being in Jamaica] incredible," Magalie said. She was sitting with her parents Marlene and Claude-Alaine, and her hosts from My Tropic Escape, Imani Duncan Waite, Stewart Wanliss and Robert Alexandre.

Before she departed the airport in Geneva on Thursday - the day Magalie turned 18 - the Make-A-Wish Foundation presented her with a special Bob Marley birthday cake.
There was a buzz of French and English around the table yesterday morning, for while Magalie speaks fairly good English, her parents don't. Alexandre is their translator.
But Magalie wasn't always an English speaker. In fact, when she just started listening to Marley, who died in 1981, she never understood the words.

"First I never used to listen for message or lyrics, just for the music. Then I learnt English, and listened for message. Then I wanted to see his country, where he has grown," Magalie said.
Now, she listens to other reggae acts, including some French artistes and Burning Spear, who she has seen in concert in Switzerland.

Magalie and her parents travelled for more than 24 hours from Switzerland to Jamaica. In fact, mom Marlene admitted that she had concerns about geographic distance when she first learnt that her daughter's wish to visit Jamaica had been granted.

"It was her wish and she wanted to go, but I said 'Oh, it was too far,'" Marlene said.
Because of her illness, she is not able to walk. But she uses a four-wheeled, moped-like machine to get around.
The affable high school student says she has many friends who will definitely be hearing more about Jamaica.
"I'm going to tell them about the trip and take some gifts," Magalie said.

Magalie and her family will leave Kingston today for Breezes Runaway Bay where they will spend the duration of their visit.
They will return to Kingston and see the Tuff Gong studio before they depart next Friday, and Duncan Waite hinted that there might be a Marley surprise in store for Magalie.

2008-01-15T03:51:00.001-08:00

Roots Reggae Samples

Big Fish Audio announce Dread: Roots Reggae is now shipping 05-Apr-07

Big Fish Audio tell us that they are now shipping Dread: Roots Reggae, a sample collection with construction kits full of traditional reggae melodies and rhythm.

Here’s what the have to say about it in their own words:

‘Jamaica found its soul in 1962. Freed from colonial rule, Jamaicans were busy creating a new musical language, combining traditional African music with elements of American jazz and R&B, and broadcasting it from every street-corner sound system on the island. This is the birth of reggae. Big Fish Audio cranks up the sound system and takes you back to the island roots with Dread: Roots Reggae. From the frenzied sound of The Skatalites, to the rock-steady throb of the Heptones and Bob Marley, this rhythm is irresistible. These construction kits are full of traditional reggae melodies and rhythm. Come explore the roots of this infectious music.’

Pricing and Availability:
Available for AIFF/Apple Loops/REX/WAV/RMX
$99.95 USD

2008-01-15T03:50:00.001-08:00

Zahra can do it!
published: Saturday | April 7, 2007

THE EDITOR, Sir:

Recently, Superior Parts offices and myself have been flooded with calls related to our sponsorship of Zahra Redwood in the Miss Jamaica Universe competition. It has been an interesting mix, mostly congratulatory, however some were not as encouraging.

There is a sense of reservation as to whether this Miss Jamaica Universe can compete effectively internationally, with the view of taking home the coveted Miss Universe title in Mexico in May or placing in the top 10. We think she can.

At Superior Parts, we selected Zahra Redwood based on the confidence she displayed, above average intelligence, beauty and body. We thought she represented well, even while embracing the 'Out Of Many, One People' motto, thereby reaching the Jamaican diaspora and the globe, with her beauty, creativity and uniqueness which are associated with 'Brand Jamaica' which the world has logged on to.

Similar to Bob Marley, Zahra Redwood has created history in her area and we continue to put our support behind her and wish her all the best in Mexico as all Jamaicans should.

I am, etc.,

DERRICK JOHNSON

2008-01-15T03:47:00.002-08:00

Crown of Dreads

Monday, April 02, 2007

Dread natty dreadlocks' sang Bob Marley in the 70's as he flashed his dreads on the international stage. Many rastafarians might very well have done the same Sunday last (plus added Jah Rastafari) as Zahra Redwood became the nation's first dreadlock beauty to be crowned Miss Jamaica Universe with locks that fall to the waist.

Miss Jamaica Universe, Zahra Redwood. (Photo: Joseph Wellington)

With her win has come renewed interest in loc' care with many asking about the maintainance. allwoman writer Debra Edwards caught Zahra with her locks down and also sought additional advise from Princess Dunn of Jus Natural Hair Studio
Tips for maintaining locks:

1. Wash
"I have been doing my own hair religiously since I was nine. I simply wash it about once a week with shampoo. My preference being Suave Balsam and Protein Shampoo, because I like the fragrance. Then I make sure that it is properly rinsed," shares Miss Jamaica Universe.

2. Dry
"Locks are already heavy so I try to ensure that I get as much water out of them as possible through towel drying", explains Redwood.

3. Moisturise
"Moisture is important for maintaining natural hair in general. But moreso for locks." Princess Dunn of Jus Natural Hair Studio located at the Bob Marley Museum explains, "We use light moisturisers here such as liquid oils, because they absorb more into the lock. Our advice is to not use anything that will cake up in the hair. Miss Universe Zahra Redwood separates lock by lock, then uses castor oil, to ensure proper moisturisation of the whole scalp.

4. Groom
"To achieve my look I simply twist my hair overnight and when I wake up pull the twists out," explains Zahra.
Dunn adds: "There are two ways that we groom locks here. The first called palm rolling which is basically as your hair grows out, using the palm of your hand to wrap around the new growth creating the lock at the root. Then pin and go under the dryer.

After the drying is done remove the pins, and you're set for about another 2-3 weeks until the next time you wash your hair. This procedure is not as long lasting as the method known as interlocking, where you are actually using a needle to create the lock from new growth. This results in a style that lasts some 4-6 weeks even when washed.

The grooming of locks is not a necessity because back in the day people never did that, But these procedures just make it a lot easier to have visually appealing locks."

Instant Dreads!
So you want locks but are worried about having to cut off the chemically treated parts of your hair and dread (pun intended) the in between stages of growth. Dunn explains, "ladies can come to Jus Natural, even with chemically treated hair and leave with dreadlocks, through a process called lock extension.

We use human hair, to create locks in your hair. My advice is to make sure that you are committed to having locks as this procedure is permanent. It is also not cheap as it takes about seven packs of hair at $3,000 a pack, plus labour to achieve. It is however worth it."

2008-01-15T03:47:00.001-08:00

Queen Rasta reigns
published: Monday | April 2, 2007

Zahra sports locks that trail all the way below her buttocks. - Winston Sill/Freelance Photographer 'Everything that is great and glorifying is good for Rasta because Rasta don't always get the respect they deserve.'

Sacha Walters, Staff Reporter

With locks that flow all the way down her back, Zahra Redwood does not represent the average Miss Jamaica Universe.

Last Sunday night the 25-year-old made history when she became the first Rastafarian woman to win a national beauty pageant in Jamaica.

"I've received a lot of positive feedback because I took a leap that has never been taken," Zahra, who was raised in the religion, explained. However, she never focused on her religion much when she decided to enter. She entered as the whole package; her intelligence and drive to help others being a few. The pageant was the ideal platform to bring her points across. "I'm entering as me, Zahra," she explained.

In addition to the crown, she was voted most aware and congenial.

Flair asked a number of popular Rastafarians what they thought of Zahra's win.

Yasus Afari, poet and author of 'Overstanding Rastafari: Jamaica's Gift to the World'.

"It goes against the traditional grain of Rastafari but we know that we are experiencing a paradigm shift," which he explained the youth is instrumental in leading. He added that this could not have happened to a better family as he has known her parents for years.

"We are not sure if it's an orchestration and with brand Jamaica being touted all over, and the Rastafarian presence being a part of the Jamaican culture (it is possible). But being the person she is, very enlightened and humble, she'll be able to make Rastafari and Jamaica proud.

"We can come away from this with some advantages despite the alluded disadvantages."

Zahra Redwood, Miss Jamaica Universe 2007, steps confidently in a swimsuit.

Capleton, entertainer

"Everything that is great and glorifying is good for Rasta because Rasta don't always get the respect they deserve." While this deviates from the traditional faith, he said, "It's her choice."

L'Antoinette Stines, choreographer

"For a Rasta woman to have done that, she had to have a lot of guts. Not only have the guts to do it but to have actually won."

"Big up to her man 'cause I know a lot of Rasta man going to cuss her. But if you say she is beautiful, humble and intelligent, I know she will represent Jamaica in a different way."

Asked whether they believed having a Rastafarian contestant in the competition would increase or decrease Jamaica's chance of winning, no one was sure, but they all said it will be interesting to see.

Kingsley Cooper, CEO of Pulse Entertainment, organisers of the competition, believes Zahra's religion may give her the edge.

"Personally, I think that being a Rastafarian will work for Zahra and will give her an edge at Miss Universe, because she is the real deal. Also, Rasta have religious and cultural significance for Jamaica and stands out in any company. However, Rastafarianism could be a double edged sword and how much of an advantage or disadvantage it is, will depend very much on the individual."

2008-01-15T03:42:00.000-08:00

Forever Loving Bob Marley

One-Man Gang Roger Guenveur Smith Conjures the Jamaican Superstar at the Bootleg Theater

BY LEA LION

The first time that actor Roger Guenveur Smith went to Jamaica, he
met Bob Marley. During a trip to the capital city of Kingston, Smith stopped at Marley’s Tuff Gong studios, where the legendary reggae singer was in the process of recording his 1979 album Survival.

“I walked right into the studio and he was recording a song called ‘Africa Unite,’” Smith recalled last week. “Obviously, that was a mind-blowing experience.”

That was not the first time that Smith had crossed paths with
Marley. They had met when the singer was in exile in London in the late ‘70s. Smith saw Marley perform several times in Los Angeles, at the Apollo Theater in New York and, perhaps most notably, at the singer’s last full-length concert at Madison Square Garden. Marley died of cancer less than a year later, in 1981.

Now Smith, an acclaimed actor known for his solo performances about historical figures, stars in Who Killed Bob Marley? an hour- long, one-man show that opens April 14 at the Bootleg Theater on Beverly Boulevard, just west of Downtown. Featuring music by composer Marc Anthony Thompson (also known as Chocolate Genius) and video by cinematographer Arthur Jafa, Smith’s monologue weaves memories of his father, thoughts about Marley and footage of Jamaica into a
multimedia tapestry that is part personal memoir and part Marley tribute. The show runs through April 29.

Despite its title, Who Killed Bob Marley? is not an investigation into Marley’s still controversial demise. (It is also not related to the website whokilledbobmarley.com, which explores conspiracy theories surrounding the singer’s death.) Rather, Smith said, the title is meant to pose the philosophical question, “Who killed the spirit of Bob Marley?”

“I had the opportunity to meet Bob in several contexts and it was always a very influential encounter,” Smith said, during a recent phone conversation from Philadelphia. “I consider him to be a patron saint and his loss is a profound one.”

The seed for Who Killed Bob Marley? was planted, fittingly,
in Jamaica, where Smith and Jafa were working on an improvisational film about a suicidal poet named Albert (who turns up in the theater piece as well.) The film project was put on hold, however, when Smith had a real-life near-death experience.

“During the course of the filming, we had an experience that was life-threatening, which became more compelling than anything that I could possibly have fictionalized,” Smith said. “So I came back from Jamaica with a story of trying to make a film about a suicidal poet and almost killing myself in the process.”

Although Smith refused to divulge details about his brush with death for plot spoiler reasons, he described the experience as a rare example of life imitating art.

2007-12-05T04:45:00.001-08:00

Stephen Marley not afraid to get political

By ERIC SCHELKOPF -

Stephen Marley has already forged his standing as a musician as the son of legendary reggae artist Bob Marley and as a member of The Melody Makers.

Now the 34-year-old Marley is adding to his musical resumé through the recent release of his solo debut album, “Mind Control.”

But it’s not like Marley planned to release the album at this time. “I make music every day. Music is not something that I sit down and think about,” Marley said.

In recording the album, Marley had several goals.

“I wanted to enlighten people, but at the same time, I want them to have a good time,” Marley said. “It was fun making music, making music that comes out of our pores.”

Guest musicians like Mos Def and Ben Harper appear on “Mind Control.” ‘All of them are my friends,” Marley said. “It was pretty cool.”

The title track deals with such heavy subject matter as freeing oneself from slavery.

“They feed our minds – telling us what to watch on television, what to hear on the radio, what to read in the media,” Marley said. “That’s what they want, to keep us under control. We don’t even know what the truth is.”

Marley is used to being on stage. As a youngster, he danced and sang onstage with his father and his band, The Wailers.

“Those were the days,” Marley said. “It was great to see him work and to be a part of that.”

He also has appreciated spending time with siblings Ziggy, Cedella and Sharon in the band The Melody Makers.

“We are brothers and sisters, so it’s great,” Marley said. “Other families are not as close.”

Just like his father, Marley views reggae as more than just ‘good time’ music.

“My father said reggae music is news, reporting to the world about what is going on in the world,” Marley said.

“It just so happens that it gets political. It is going to get political in terms of writing about what is going on. I want my music to serve a purpose, more than just making people feel good.”

Stephen Marley will perform Saturday at the Vic Theatre, 3145 N. Sheffield, Chicago. The show starts at 8:30 p.m., and tickets are $23, available through all Ticketmaster outlets.

2007-12-05T04:44:00.000-08:00

Thank God for Rastafari
published: Sunday | April 1, 2007

Orville Taylor

"Dem all a dispute di truth! Pass di judgment and Jah shall execute. It's impossible for Immanuel to die!"

This is the preamble to Capleton's Heathen Rage, and has been characteristic of Rastafarian artistes over the years.

It is the first of April but having a 'follicularly' challenged social scientist advocating Rastafari is no (Uncle) Tom Fool Day joke. Don't be fooled by the photograph. It is perhaps the only way that I can show 'brilliance'. Despite my bald head I sure as hell am not a 'Ball Head.' In any event, like Rastafarians, I use no comb and the name 'Dibaba' is Ethiopian.

It was seven days ago, and it is clear why it could be called a 'weak end', because one of the most important days in the history of previously enslaved black people was commemorated. March 25, 1807, was the day when the English and American governments agreed that the transatlantic slave trade would end. The Americans saw it fit to do it a year later but the Brits gave it immediate effect.

After much scholarship and activism within the body of intellectuals and others, there was finally a committee appointed by the Jamaican Government at the 10th hour in 2005. It is actually a self-appointed committee headed by my colleague, Professor Verene Shepherd. Empowered, without funds, by then Prime Minister P.J. Patterson, this group found a smattering of five million Jamaican dollars from the CHASE fund and had to obtain more than seven times that to research the details of Africans who lost their lives in the struggle against enslavement.

Committee appointed

At 6:00 p.m. last Sunday morning, a small but powerful group of broadcasters, Africans, intellectuals, activists, ordinary folk and 'whole heap a' Rasta gathered at the Kingston waterfront. The names of scores of victims of the trade were read, while the appropriately named Shepherd, led a tribute that read like an epic eulogy. No words from my lexicon can describe the 'vibe', but it was spiritual, beyond eerie and irie.

It was well known that the politicians would be attending the afternoon session when we would have had the burial ceremony starting at 3:00 p.m. After all, that was their camera moment. Needless to say, I was terribly disappointed. First of all, the United Nations (U.N.) did not see it fit to mark the real anniversary but opted for the more convenient Monday, March 26.

That is bad enough. But worse, it was such an insignificant day that cricket matches were scheduled. It is shameful that Antigua and Barbuda declared a national holiday to boost attendance at cricket while their celebrations were modest. Here, only one politician, Chief Pearnel Charles, with unblurred 'black and white vision', turned up for the more important morning session. The governing party, totally insensitive to the importance of the day, scheduled and had its National Executive Committee meeting. Bet you, Michael Manley, as white as he appeared, would not have disrespected our ancestors so. Even at the afternoon session, when we had visiting African dignitaries and the Governor-General, the parliamentarians were underrepresented.

The nonchalance of our elected political leaders is shameful and shows exactly how 'unconscious' they are of the need to confront our past.

Emotive speeches

Never mind the emotive speeches by Bruce and Portia. none impressed me because it was them making political mileage. If they were really committed to the continuation and preservation of Marcus Garvey's dream then it would not have taken a last-minute push by Mike Henry to place the issue of reparations on the agenda.

Thank Jah for Rastafari, for reparation and repatriation has been on their 'inyu' since their formation in the 1930s. Most people don't even recognise that it was this week in 1930 that Ras Tafari Makkonen ascended the throne of Ethiopi he waited until November for his ultimate 'crownation' as Haile Selassie I.

Throughout the decades, Rastafari have been relentless. African consciousness, truth and rights, black empowerment, have been their fight.

The Black Power Movement of the 1960s must have been inspired by Rastafari, since its leadership was West Indian in the body of Stokely Carmichael. Rastafari struggled for recognition and even suffered the massacre in Coral Gardens, Montego Bay, this week in 1963 as our Government under pseudo-white Prime Minister, Alexander Bustamante, authorised the "shoot first and ask afterwards" 'police-cy'.

In 1968, prodigy Walter Rodney was banned by the then blackest Prime Minister, Hugh Shearer, from returning to his legal position at the University of the West Indies (UWI). Rodney was not dreadlocked but wore copious amounts of hair like Leonard Howell, Rastafari's founding father. He introduced the concept of reparations in his book, How Europe Underdeveloped Africa. And Rastafari listened and spoke.

In the 1970s, under Manley, Rastas got a new lease on life and some degree of legitimacy. Rex Nettleford of the UWI had already added scholarship to their cause and later, other academics such as Dennis Forsythe, Rupert Lewis and Barry Chevannes among others, took them from the margins of obscurity.

On the other hand, the activities of Bob Marley and the Wailers, Burning Spear, Culture, Mystic Revelation and many more, transformed them from 'Dutty-head Rasta bwoy' to national icons, who now give Jamaica prominence. Sorry Ras, "Di I dem look towards Ethiopia but Jamrock is the home of Rastafari because I an I gave it to the world."

Since the 1990s, Rastafari have resurged in reggae and in society at large. However, check this! Except for a few, 'rascals,' including an artiste who has lost his way, Rastafari has no association with violence.

Yasus Afari launched a great book entitled Ovastanding Rastafari: Jamaica's Gift to the World, on Thursday. Read and be enlightened!

Dr. Orville Taylor is senior lecturer in the Department of Sociology, Psychology and Social Work at the UWI, Mona.

2007-12-05T04:42:00.000-08:00

Rastafarians embrace first beauty queen
Contradict traditional anti-pageant stance

By Basil Walters Sunday Observer staff reporter waltersb@jamaicaobserver.com
Sunday, April 01, 2007

Rastafarians have enthusiastically embraced the crowning of the first Rastafarian Miss Jamaica Universe 2007, Zahra Redwood, in apparent contradiction of their well-known anti-beauty pageant stance.

REDWOOD. first ever Rastafarian to win the Miss Jamaica Universe crown

Redwood, 25, strutted the Miss Jamaica Universe stage last Sunday, her dreadlocks rolled into a neat 'bun' to the back of her head, to beat out 15 other beautiful Jamaicans for the coveted title, grabbing sectional prizes for 'most aware' and 'most congenial' contestant at the same time.

"I think the event speaks to the redefinition of the concept of beauty, which speaks to the idea of a redefinition of self and identity and so on," Rastafaran poet Yasus Afari told the Sunday Observer.

"It is a great thing that a big-lip, black, picky picky natty head woman should a win a beauty contest," said Mutabaruka, the outspoken dub poet and entertainer. "So, it jus' show a level of change weh a tek place inna di mind and consciousness of whosoever a dweet, yuh nuh."

Some Rastafarians, members of a religious movement which was spawned in Jamaica and worships the late Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie as divine, read much significance into the crowning of Redwood.

They pointed to the coincidence that the pageant was held on the day commemorating the 200th anniversary of the abolition of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade; the 117th anniversary of the birth of Empress Menen, wife of Haile Selassie and the closing day of the Empress Zion's fourth annual conference at the University of the West Indies; in the 77th year since the emergence of Rastafari as the world's youngest socio-religious worldview; 44 years after the Coral Gardens' incident in which police rounded up Rastafarians and forcibly cut their locks, and 41 years since the visit of Emperor Selassie, "the King of Kings" to Jamaica.
Rastafarians have traditionally opposed beauty contests, describing them as akin to a cattle shows and that such pageants promoted a "Eurocentric perspective of the concept of beauty".

"...The emphasis was so much on the physical and too much on the glorification of the flesh and too much on parading the dawta dem as if dem a chattel fi di lust and the shenanigans of the power brokers of the society," explained Yasus Afari.

"The stereotypical concept that is attached to the competition and what else go with it, used to anti what Rastafari stands for," the poet said at the launch of his book, Overstanding Rastafari: Jamaica's Gift To The World and CD, Revolution Chapter 1 Yasus Afari.

But he added that despite the traditional Rastafari position on beauty contests, Redwood's history-making achievement - which would previously have stirred some disquiet or even now some measure of reservation among members - was still an important vantage point and an important occasion for the movement.

"This dawta kinda neutralised the radical response by her charm and her intelligence, her focus and her upbringing, yuh nuh," he said.
Rastafarian Abba Zero commented: "As a Rasta I know that beauty lies within. And the beauty within, I shall say to you here and now, she manifests the totality of such knowing. Externally manifest. We give thanks and praises to know that within Rastafari our beauty need not be validated by any forces, because we are so confident within knowing who we are. Give thanks that the external world can see us for who we are."

Ras Junior Manning, an elder of the Nyahbinghi Order, expected some "extreme Rastas" to oppose the event. "But the reality is, once the sister knows who she is...this is just a way how to break the barrier and go through the system. So I think this is the right direction," he said.

"The beauty bout it, it's something little different," added Manning. "That's the beauty bout it. And I like the parents' background. We see sey is a complete Rasta dawta...And so this is like a big new direction which will encourage other Rasta youths and will bring about a level of self-confidence among other youths out there who nuff a dem come from Rasta parents and dem end up inna Babylon..."

Dr Sonia Stanley-Niaah, lecturer in Cultural Studies at the UWI, Mona, hailed Redwood as the first Miss Jamaica Universe contestant "to self-identify as Rastafari".

"Rastafari is what put Jamaica on the map, Rastafari is what Jamaica is known for, coupled with reggae music," she said. "And for us as a nation to be celebrating something that has taken us so long to achieve, it means that we are backward. However, I wish her well and I hope that it is a sign that the nation is progressing towards greater acceptance and appreciation for what it is we have produced as indigenous products for this nation."

Chicago-based Rastafarian social scientist Sekou Tafari said: "I think it is about time, as our women have always been considered to be the most beautiful women; is just that the outside world never really look in and saw them."

Sister Mitzie was overwhelmed: "I'm very proud... Because these contests are usually stereotypical in terms of what they are looking for as far as beauty is concerned. And I think we would not have expected a Rasta sister to ever cop a title like that. So I'm very happy for her. She is very beautiful, intelligent and I think she can do the job just as anybody else. I hope she goes as far as she wants to reach."

Robin 'Bongo Jerry' Small saw the crowning of Zahra Redwood as significant. "I was first curious to know if she was Rastafarian or just have on locks. Now that I heard that she is a Rastafarian, it is kind of significant, especially in a year like this.... at the same time it shows a certain amount of withdrawal of the ignorance of the people who host such an event like this."
Dub poet, Nato Meeks of Royal African Soldier's fame noted that with a black Rasta woman winning, "it set a new concept or thought towards what is beauty, from what is the stereotypical concept. So jus pon dat alone, dem fi give it a greater hype".

Fellow poet/singer, Italee Watson added: "For me, a black Rasta woman winning the Miss Jamaica Universe is a phenomenal success. For one, we were trained to think that only European beauty is real beauty. So even when we look on our fellow black female and black male, if them don't have European attributes like straight hair, straight nose, thin lips, we wouldn't consider them beautiful. So it's good to see a black woman, not just a black woman, a black Rastafari woman winning this event."

From a religious point of view, Ras Fagan, head of the Blue Mountain-based Haile Selassie I School of Vision, thought it not fitting, "because of the nudity and the semi-nudity that would be observed in the way she has to portray herself by dictates".

"Based on what I've heard, and the fact that I've also seen other beauty contestants being crowned, I was thinking then, that she has to walk in her bikini and so forth. If that is not the case, there should be no opposition... because, the time is now for the locks to be shown in all its glory."

Rasta Beauty Queen

2007-12-05T04:41:00.000-08:00

Through a woman's eyes

The eye of the beholder

By Cheryll Springer

Sunday, April 1st 2007

A discourse on beauty in the midst of the official season of beauty pageants is perhaps not the wisest choice of topic for a columnist, but whoever said columnists were wise?

The much bandied-about phrase "beauty is in the eye of the beholder" is said to mean that each person has his/her own opinion about who or what is beautiful. However, if this were to be taken literally it would mean that could be no true universal representative of beauty, given that at the last count beholders' eyes would have numbered roughly 13 billion - one pair for each member of the world's population - give or take several millions to account for those with vision difficulties.

It is widely believed, too, that beauty is defined by symmetry and perfection. This would certainly explain the popularity of cosmetic surgery today, among those who can afford it of course, and the continued production, sale and use of skin bleach creams despite the warnings about how harmful they can be.

Yet there is another school of thought that anything that is perfectly symmetrical cannot be truly beautiful, as it is the quirks of shape and form that catch the beholder's eye. Therefore, perfectly proportioned faces and/or shapes would be so bland, so boring the 'eye' would easily slide over them without noticing them.

Perhaps this would explain the lengths (no pun intended) to which the Padaung tribal women of Thailand also called the 'Giraffe women" and those of the Ndebele tribe of South Africa go. These women use brass rings to deliberately elongate their necks, starting it on some girls as young as five years old. The Padaung women reportedly never remove their brass neck coils because after years of wear the skin underneath is bruised and discoloured. This practice still continues today.

Then there is the practice that went on for hundreds of years among Chinese women, of tightly binding their feet so that they would not grow because small feet were thought to be beautiful - to their men. Chinese foot binding has since been outlawed.

The Chinese women who had their feet bound, also from childhood, suffered broken bones and painful and smelly feet which were grossly misshapen after the years of binding them and which forced them to walk in small mincing steps.

(Of note, sisters, is the fact that beautiful men are usually born that way and the ones who do not fit into that mould somehow still manage to be admired. More importantly, in men and in women too it is the beauty within that ought to be sought after.)

A study done last September on beauty in the US, though not widely disseminated, found that the things said to be most attractive or beautiful were those which required the least amount of effort. Sadly though, the researchers did not ask their subjects to study human faces, they tested them using patterns of dots, finding they picked the patterns, which closely resembled a prototype, which their minds had been conditioned to recognize.

This has been borne out by recent events in this region. Using simple word association, if someone says Jamaica does your mind not come up with reggae, Bob Marley and Rastafarianism? If not immediately, it will eventually happen and not always in that order.

Last week, Jamaican and other Caribbean media fairly buzzed with the news that for the first time, a Rastafarian, Zahra Redwood, had been chosen to represent that island state at the Miss Universe pageant. Ms Redwood may or may not have been the first of her ilk to have entered a Miss Jamaica pageant, the media did not say, but she will certainly be unique among her competitors in Mexico come May 28.

Regardless of whatever else Miss Jamaica has going for her, without a doubt the focus will be on her hair. Long dreadlocks certainly do not fit the prototype of "universal" beauty, which for years had seemed to and still does sometimes, lean towards the blandness of symmetrical perfection.

There have been a few noticeable exceptions over the years - when "quirks of shape and form" won out. Mpule Kwelagobe of Botswana and Wendy Fitzwilliam of Trinidad and Tobago immediately spring to mind. But even among these women Zahra Redwood would be the quirkiest. If she makes it beyond the introductory stage of the competition, it would certainly be by far the most interesting pageant the world would have seen in a long time.

Ms Redwood said in an interview with the Jamaica Gleaner: "â€¦ I represent Jamaica in its entirety; beauty, intelligence, charm, culture and dreadlocksâ€¦ being a fan of these pageants will allow me to put a spin on how it is that Jamaica has been perceived by persons internationally and locally. They know that they are seeing something different. They are seeing the face of a Rastafarian, whose culture is so much Jamaican."

Perhaps Guyana, which is still creeping in this regard, will stand a chance on the universal stage when and if it ever chooses a representative who truly embodies beauty, intelligence, charm and culture.

2007-12-05T04:39:00.000-08:00

Damian Marley

Damian Marley is the son of reggae icon Bob Marley and Jamaica’s 1977 Miss World, Cindy Breakspeare. He is the offspring of a union between two distinctive and disparate worlds.

Born in Kingston, Jamaica on July 21, 1978, Damian Robert Nesta Marley (a.k.a. “Junior Gong”), Bob’s youngest son, began performing as a child as the vocalist for a group called The Shepherds. Comprised of other well-known reggae artists’ children, including Shiah Coore (son of Third World guitarist Cat Coore) and Yashema Beth McGregor, the daughter of Freddie McGregor and Judy Mowatt, The Shepherds performed at several shows in Jamaica including the Reggae Sunsplash music festival in 1992.

After The Shepherds’ demise, Damian turned his vocal talents to deejaying (the Jamaican equivalent of rapping). In 1993 Damian’s debut single Deejay Degree was released on Tuff Gong Records (the label founded by Bob Marley) and the following year he released Sexy Girls On My Mind for the Main Street label.

Damian’s next release, 1995’s School Controversy, was featured on the Epic/Sony Wonder compilation, Positively Reggae with all sales proceeds going to Jamaica’s Leaf of Life Foundation, an organization which assists children who are HIV positive. Although he was still a teenager, Damian was selected as the Positively Reggae spokesperson, a role that introduced him to the international press and record buying public. That same yea, Damian performed at select dates on the Shabba Ranks World Unity tour and with his brother Julian performed at Jamaica’s Reggae Sunfest and Sunsplash festivals.

Damian was a high school student when he began recording Mr. Marley at the Marley Music 48 track-recording studio. Produced by Stephen Marley (head of the Marley Boyz production team), Mr. Marley delivered a fusion of contemporary reggae grooves and infectious dancehall rhythms alongside tough edged hip-hop beats, an ideal complement for Damian’s versatile deejay-rap style. The album included several updates of Bob Marley classics as well as the single “Me Name Junior Gong” which went to the number one in Hawaii and held that position for several weeks. “When we went to Hawaii in 1997,” Damian recalls, “we had three songs on the charts there: ‘Me Name Junior Gong,’ ‘One Cup of Coffee’ and ‘Now You Know,’ a tune from Julian’s debut album.” Damian and Julian’s burgeoning popularity earned them featured appearances on the 1997 traveling alternative rock festival Lollapalooza which provided invaluable exposure among a new sector of music fans.

Five years after the release of Mr. Marley, Damian had matured as a performer, songwriter, recording artist and Rastafarian, his unwavering convictions reflected throughout his new album, Halfway Tree. Stephen Marley produced Halfway Tree for Marley Boyz productions. Stephen’s innovative approach to Halfway Tree incorporates spoken word introductions and dramatic vignettes as song interludes, creating a conceptual cohesiveness lacking from most Jamaican albums. Stephen also adapts traditional reggae elements (forceful drum and bass lines, committed social commentary) to 21st century hip hop’s synthesized beats and sometimes defiant stances while utilizing the talents of Jamaican singers, deejays and musicians alongside American rappers, each underscoring Damian’s impassioned delivery.

Damian called the album Halfway Tree because “my father is from the country and the ghetto and my mother is from uptown so I come like a half way tree, like a bridge because I can relate to both sides.

2007-12-05T04:38:00.000-08:00

Bob Marley & The Wailers

20th Century Masters: The Millennium Collection: The Best of Bob Marley & The Wailers

Of late Universal Music has been trolling through its massive catalog, creating the 20th Century Masters series for greats Jimmy Cliff, Angelique Kidjo and Peter Tosh, as well as many others. The Best of Bob Marley & The Wailers is an intriguing listen into the pre-Island Records reggae group. (Universal, 2007)

Culling treasures from early 1967-1972 Kingston recordings, it's evident from these studio sessions that Bob Marley & The Wailers were the real goods and bent for big time. The CD features Bunny Livingston and Peter Tosh before they quit the band and includes material from the band's Wail'n Soul'm and Tuff Gong labels.

Opening with a simple studio version of "Stir It Up," it's clear that from the very start that Bob Marley was the soul source for reggae. Following close on "Stir It Up's" heels is "Soul Rebel" and "Small Axe."

Early 1970s recordings of "Trenchtown Rock," "Lively Up Yourself," and "Concrete Jungle" might not be what some would consider as Marley greats or reach the heights of eventual fame of the Island recordings, but here each possess a spare, club scene feel that goes to the heart of the group's music. I think the word I'm looking for here is unpretentious.

With the likes of Glen Adams, Felix "Deadly Headly" Bennett and Tommy McCook on guitar, Gladstone Anderson and Aston Barrett on keyboards, Carlton "Carlie" Barrett on bass, Bunny Wailer on drums, Alva Lewis on percussion, Peter Tosh on tenor saxophone and Uziah "Sticky" Thompson on keyboards and guitar the CD swings while Bob's vocals are as sweet as a Jamaican breeze.

I'm inclined to point out that The Best of Bob Marley & The Wailers is really a collector's CD. With only ten tracks and none of the classic tracks that really put the band on the international map, I'm not all that sure it should be dubbed "the best of…" Calling it the best we had licenses to or the best we could dig up would hardly be the selling point Universal marketers would want to advertise. Having said that, I'd like to say that this is an excellent CD for Marley collectors and devotees who want to capture the early evolution of the group.

Universal also gets kudos for its renewable, recyclable and biodegradable packaging of the CD.

2007-12-05T04:37:00.000-08:00

Marking the end of the slave trade
published: Thursday | March 29, 2007

Martin Henry

On Sunday there was an emotional commemoration of the abolition of the slave trade, slave ship re-enactment and all. One of the world's foremost scholars of slavery and freedom, our own Orlando Patterson, a Harvard professor, has aptly described slavery as social death. We, children of slaves, will have a depth of feeling over our deliverance - our resurrection - which none other can share.

The Jamaica Military Band performed two explosively meaningful songs at the Kingston Harbour commemoration ceremony: The Psalm, 'By the Rivers of Babylon' and Marley's 'Redemption Song'. Their deeper meaning would have been missed by most. The Hebrews understood their Babylonian captivity to be an act of divine judgement for their sins, as their prophets thundered. And redemption is fundamentally a Judaeo-Christian concept which does not primarily mean deliverance from physical bondage or oppression but from sin.

African Hebrew

The 'African Hebrew' Ben Ammi [who was born Ben Carson in Chicago] in God the Black Man and Truth, fiercely argues with some pretty impressive data that black Africans are the true descendants of the Old Testament Hebrews scattered from their part of Africa, which Palestine is according to him, by a series of captivities. A Hebrew presence across the African continent is indisputable as several other scholars have shown.

Ben Ammi claims: "We turned our backs on God and he turned his back on us. We were left vulnerable and exposed to a host of evil, among them a divinely authorised and sanctioned chastisement at the hand of a terrible enemy. Slavery, discrimination and worldwide hatred are severe punishments that came about as a result of our disobedience to God."

Psalm 137, beloved of Rastas, ends with the verses: "O Daughter of Babylon [you devastator, you!] who [ought to be and] shall be destroyed, happy and blessed shall be he who requites you as you have served us. Happy and blessed shall he be who takes and dashes your little ones against the rock!" [Amplified Bible]

Not a pretty Psalm for either captives or Babylon.

There has to be a rational explanation for the affinity of blacks of the diaspora with things Judaic and things Christian. Native Rastafarianism, for example, is deeply rooted in the Old Testament. And why this New World black affinity to Christianity, the religion of the oppressor and part of the oppression so much of the time?

The Methodist Philip Sherlock and his writing partner Hazel Bennett sometimes went overboard in their legitimate Afro-centreing of Jamaican history in The Story of the Jamaican People; but Sherlock and Bennett crafted a brilliant patch [chapter 16, pp 177-182] on the role of the evangelical movement in the death of slavery. The converted William Wilberforce was the dogged leader of 'The Saints' in Parliament for first the abolition of the slave trade and then of slavery itself. "Wilberforce committed his talents, time and strength to persuading Parliament to abolish the slave trade", wrote Sherlock and Bennett. "And for the first time in their history the African Jamaicans discovered that they had allies and friends in the world of white power."

Power of revival

These historians trace the conscience-transforming power of the evangelical, or Methodist, revival which sprang from the preaching of the converted Wesley brothers and others like George Whitefield, the impact of the Bible and missionary societies which were founded, and the social and political changes which were pursued as a consequence. Anti-slavery societies were formed linking humanists of the enlightenment and Christians of the revival sometimes in the same persons, free blacks and whites, and men and women. Wilberforce was influenced by the converted slave trader turned Anglican minister John Newton and linked up with Thomas Clarkson, the great anti-slavery campaigner. Newton wrote what became perhaps the best known and best loved hymn in Christian hymnody, 'Amazing Grace, that saved a wretch like me', a redemption hymn with the deepest resonance for former slave trader and former slaves.

2007-12-05T04:36:00.000-08:00

Stephen Marley "Mind Control"

Release Date: March 20
When reggae star Bob Marley died, the genre more or less died with him as far as America was concerned. Though Marley had many children- most of whom continue making music- none have come close to holding a candle to their celebrated father.

Such is the case with son Stephen Marley's solo debut "Mind Control." While Stephen looks and sounds like a carbon copy of his father, most of the tunes on the uneven "Mind Control" sound like bad B-sides or blatant homages to the elder Marley's work.

Marley, who began his musical career as a member of the Marley Family, has produced and recorded with his siblings and a host of rappers and R&B singers. While Stephen combines much of the political veracity and musicality of his father, none of "Mind Control" matches the intensity or melody of Bob or even Ziggy Marley.

The album's title track mixes wah-wah guitar with trumpet accents and a political message to set the tone of much of the record. Marley drags out classic reggae grooves on "Lonely Avenue," "Chase Dem" and the flute-inflected "Fed Up," but it's on non-traditional hybrids of reggae, hip hop and pop that Marley is most effective.

The funky "Let Her Dance," the beat-heavy You're Gonna Leave" and the rapping, scat-vocals of "The Traffic Jam" are all musically arresting, lyrically intriguing exaples of the genre's evolution. Likewise, "Iron Bars" does a decent job of approximating Bob Marley's feel and attitude while "Hey Baby"- the album's best track- features guest vocals from Mos Def. Marley also collaborates with Ben Harper on "Inna Di Red," but the duet never reaches the intensity of Stephen's work with Mos Def.

Musical legacies often bear bitter fruit, but Stephen Marley is the rare exception in that his music, while not great, is relatively palatable. Marley's strengths still reside in his skill as a producer, but "Mind Control" further cements his ability as a singer and songwriter. With the right collaborators by his side, Marley might be able to expand on the traditional reggae sound his father pioneered decades ago.

2007-12-05T04:35:00.000-08:00

Shasha Marley to touch base in Ghana

Ghanaian Reggae Star Shasha Marley also known as MONK ON THE LOOSE

Ghanaian Dance Hall and Reggae Music Star Shasha Marley is in the limelight again with his latest hit release “Lost & Found”. The album which was launched some weeks ago is enjoying lots of air play in the US and other European Countries.

Shasha Marley who has been in hibernation for quite some time now believes it was all good. His main reason staying underground for this long was to spend enough time in the studio to perfect his music.

The Ghanaian reggae star, blessed with such a silky voice that one can hardly believe exists in this era of many musicians, will surely be surprising the Ghanaian music industry and his fans with is latest album as he touches down next month.

The album which has 13 tracks on a CD features Reggae Legend Bob Marley’s Wailers band.

The album can simply be described as a complete album with integrated flavours to blow minds as one can barely pinpoint a particular track as favourite.

Shasha Marley has recorded alongside several top artists and has won several awards to his credit.

Shasha Marley started his music career at St Johns in Takoradi (Ghana) in 1978.

Shasha Marley also has led 15 top Ghanaian artists in an all star musical collaboration which was produced via the sponsorship of the Johns Hopkins University as a benefit against HIV/AIDS in Africa.

2007-12-05T04:33:00.000-08:00

Welcome to Jerusalem, Africa

By Erich Wiedemann

Spiegel

Ethiopia's Orthodox Christians are among the oldest Christian communities in the world. Their hymns and prayers have been preserved and passed down over the ages. But with its numerous religious holidays, the Christian tradition also worsens the country's grinding poverty.

From the air, Lalibela looks like any other village. An ocean of corrugated iron huts, shrouded by thin columns of smoke that condense into a bluish haze below the rocky plateau. It's a familiar sight all across Ethiopia.

But Lalibela isn't just another village. It's the capital of Ethiopia's Christians, their "holy place," their "wonder of the world." And nowhere else is this clearer than at Bet Gyiorgis, the Church of St. George. The monumental structure - chiseled out of the rocks on the town's western fringes - is some 800 years old. Built in the form of a cross, it is ringed by a dry moat that helps set it apart from the 10 other rock churches, all of which are interconnected by subterranean tunnels.

The interior is dimly lit with beef-tallow lamps. A little daylight filters through the narrow windows. The smell of incense hangs in the air. Elderly, bearded men in white robes are seated along the walls, reading handwritten bibles.

An Ethiopian priest showing a valuable Bible illustration. The Ethiopian Christian community is demanding that Italy return some of the community's artifacts now housed in Rome.

Photo:
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A pious murmuring resounds throughout the church, softly punctuated by harp music teased by a boy from his bagana - a wooden string instrument embellished with gleaming brass plates.

Some 40 percent of the 68 million Ethiopians are Orthodox Christians. Their faith and traditions hark back some 1,600 years. According to the legend, their church was established as the unintended consequence of a kidnapping. Two Christians named Frumentios and Aidesios - both residents of Tyre - were accosted on the Red Sea and abducted to Aksum, Ethiopia's capital at the time. Being educated people, they were soon installed as private tutors to the royal family. They not only taught the king's children mathematics and Greek, but imparted the fundamentals of their Christian faith as well.

Contemporary of Genghis Khan

And they were evidently persuasive. In the middle of the 4th century, King Ezana decided to become baptized. Just a few years later Christianity was proclaimed the state religion. Despite this, the Ethiopian Orthodox Church was headed for centuries by a metropolitan who was appointed by the Coptic patriarch of Alexandria. It wasn't until the middle of the past century that the Ethiopian church became autonomous and appointed its own patriarch in Addis Ababa. Alongside the 17 eparchies in Ethiopia, bishoprics in Nubia and in Jerusalem now fall under his aegis.

The churches in Lalibela were built by a king of the same name - a contemporary of Genghis Khan and Barbarossa. He wanted to create a new Jerusalem, which Saladin reclaimed from the crusaders in 1187; denied access to the Holy Land, pilgrims from Ethiopia and the small Christian states along the Nile would be able to worship there. The stream bubbling past the city was christened the Jordan, and the hill overlooking it Mount Tabor.

For centuries, Islamic conquests in neighboring regions isolated Ethiopia from the Christian world. Nevertheless, its Christian heritage - the prayers, the hymns and the liturgical language Ge'ez - was successfully preserved for centuries.

The full glory of the Orthodox Eucharist is tangible in the churches of Lalibela, above all during the Timkat Festival which commemorates Christ's baptism in the Jordan. On the eve of the event, underground processions wend their way to and through the churches, accompanied by the sound of bells and horns. Priests and deacons cloaked in beaded, darkhued velvet lead the way. On their heads they bear tabots, wooden tablets symbolizing the Ark of the Covenant.

These are then placed in a large tent, outside which the faithful congregate, waiting the entire night to embrace the holy powers they believe invested in the tabots.

The ritual is no less solemn or impressive than the anointing of a cardinal in the Vatican. The priest raps out a cadence on the ground with his mighty staff and sings out: "Kyrie eleison." The faithful cast themselves to the ground 30, 40 or even 50 times.

However, these time-honored traditions and their enforced observance by the church are partly to blame for Ethiopia's plunge into bitter poverty over the past 50 years. How can a country possibly be self-sustaining if its people are prevented from tilling their fields every other day?

Adopted numerous Jewish customs

The Orthodox calendar lists more than 150 holidays and 180 days of fasting, on which Christians are banned from working and limited to one meal. Holidays for Muslims - some 45 percent of Ethiopians - eat even further into the working week. And the Sabbath is still celebrated in rural areas - a relic of the Salomonic dynasty which ruled Ethiopia from the 13th century and adopted numerous Jewish customs.

The clergy in Addis Ababa, the country's capital since the end of the 19th century, may be slowly losing its authority, but the priests in the highlands enforce the holidays with an iron fist. Punishment inexorably follows any failure to comply. Not to mention the prospect of ending up in hell.

Moreover, the church still defines the calendar. The Ethiopian year has 12 months lasting 30 days, each plus five or six additional days. The patriarchy refuses to countenance change. The government has sought to adopt the modern Western calendar on several occasions, only to be stymied by the clergy. In practice, the separation of church and state has yet to be implemented.

Christianity is also responsible for another phenomenon in Ethiopia: racial arrogance. Viewing their faith as superior to Africa's natural religions, Orthodox Christians regard themselves as a chosen people. In their minds, the portrayal - in the illustrations of the sacred books - of lighter-skinned people as the rulers of the Promised Land and the blacks as their servants is evidence of God's will.

Mediterranean-style civilization

Although the Organization for African Unity maintained its headquarters in Addis Ababa for decades and the African Union is now based there, Ethiopians do not see themselves as Africans. According to the Munich-based ethnologist Walter Raunig, Ethiopia is one of the "last remaining southern outposts of Mediterranean-style civilization."

The Rastafarians from Shashemene, a small city 150 miles south of the capital, have escaped this discrimination; despite their color, they enjoy the full respect of the Christians. The Rastafarians established their colony in the 1960s, and some members later joined Ethiopia's Orthodox Christian community. Their name is derived from the birth name of the Ethiopian emperor, Haile Selassie: Ras Tafari Makonnen. They revered him as the reincarnation of Jesus Christ.

At the beginning of 2005, Rita Marley, the widow of legendary Reggae star Bob Marley, announced she was having her deceased husband's body transferred from Jamaica to Shashemene on the 60th anniversary of his birth. But she was forced to abandon her plans: Jamaica refused to release the mortal remains of its national hero.

Nevertheless, the singer's spirit had dwelt among them on his 60th birthday, according to Ethiopia's Rastafarians. On February 6, 2005, Marley's "Buffalo Soldier" could be heard in the streets of Shashemene: "Stolen from Africa, brought to America, fighting on arrival, fighting for survival - Woy yoy yoy!"

2007-12-05T04:32:00.000-08:00

Stephen Marley: The Legacy Lives

Reggae legend storms the States with Mind Control.
Johnny Firecloud, CraveOnline
March 27, 2007

Stephen Marley has been making and producing music with his siblings for years, most notably on brother Damien Marley's Grammy-winning 2005 album Welcome to Jamrock. This month marks the hotly anticipated release of Stephen's first solo album, Mind Control, and he's set to begin an extensive North American tour this week.

In a phone interview with CraveOnline, Marley discusses Mind Control, carrying on the Marley name, and why Anna Nicole might still be alive if she smoked a little ganja.

Advance reviews of Mind Control have been very positive, so this has to be an exciting time for you.

Yeah, it’s a good feeling, man.

You’ve helped produce so many albums for other people – why did you decide now was the time to make your own album?

Well, there’s noone else left in my family, everyone is looking at me now. ‘Okay, your time to bat,” you know? Some of these songs I’ve had for a while, some are new.

Why the title Mind Control?

There’s a song on the record called ‘Mind Control’, and that was the most important message I had on this body of work. I wanted to put that up front.

How would you describe the album?

It’s a balanced record, I think, of old vibes and new vibes on it. It’s a fruit basket. I gave you a fruit basket. If you want a passion fruit, it’s in there, man.

You worked with Mos Def on 'Hey Baby'. That was released a couple years ago… will the same version appear on the album?

No, no, the version that was released a couple years ago.. this one is totally different. I went back and re-did the drum beat. The first one was kind of more synthetic. This one has a wah-wah guitar and more of a more alive, earthly tone.

How did you get involved with him?

Damien did the Alicia Keys show, and he was a part of that show. And then he came to Miami to do our show which was the Bob Marley fest concert that we keep here in Miami every year. We kind of became friends. We was always fans of his music, you know? From his old school stuff from back when him and Talib play. So we’re always fans, and becoming friends just made it easier.

'Iron Bars' seems to be about a man imprisoned for smoking weed –

(laughs)Yeah, me. It’s about me, and let me tell you, me and my brother Julian, we were together when that incident happened. We were speaking about ourselves, yes.

What happened?

Damien’s second album was just out. That’s the one that he won the first Grammy for. We usually go out and support each other’s first shows, we go and kick it off together. So we went out to New Orleans, and coming back from New Orleans we were driving through Tallahassee to get to Miami and some police pulled us over, find a little bit of marijuana, you know. Not too much (laughs)… and the whole incident.. they carried we off to jail and they lock we up and all of that stuff. So that’s what influenced the song, you know what I mean?

How do you feel about this country’s marijuana laws?

I think it sucks, really. You know, as far as, while me say that, I’m not an advocate of just smoking, I’m promoting the many things you can do with it on personal use. But at the same time, once they are promoting alcohol and stuff like that, then I’d have to promote this plant. It’s more natural I feel, and have many different uses than just smoking. That is one of the many reasons why I do marijuana songs every now and again. We have to educate the people.

Seems so evil in this country..

And pharmaceuticals! This lady that passed away, Anna whatever…Anna Nicole, she overdose on some pharmaceutical thing. You have to educate the people. If she were smoking some herb, I know she’d be here today.

You’ve been a very successful producer and collaborator, winning five Grammys, but to the mainstream you really seemed to step out of your father’s shadow with ‘Welcome to Jamrock’. The song was everywhere and stood on it’s own.

True, true.

You’ve been credited for bringing the legacy of the Marley name to the present. What does that feel like?

It makes you feel accomplished, like you are doing your part as they say, you know what I mean? For making sure that his legacy lives on. It’s by right. I’m not doing anything hard, really. It takes no great effort being us, you know what I mean? And when we say us, it is because I am only part of something. Even though I am the head, I couldn’t do it without the body. So you know, us being us still.

Heavy responsibility?

Good responsibility. If I was a carpenter and I was trying to maintain my father’s musical legacy, then I guess it would be a burden because it wouldn’t be natural to me to be dealing in music when my natural ability is in woodwork or whatever. But because my natural talent is also music, it kind of makes it much easier. The atmosphere is not like I get up today and say ok I have to carry on the legacy, let me go into the studio. I’m just being the son of Bob, and just being myself, you know? And that is the result.

You’re starting a North American tour this weekend.

The first show is tomorrow in Atlanta. Some shows got added.
I want to reach the people. This music is the people’s music. It’s music for your brain, for your heart, for your soul. That is what we always go to achieve. Soul united. Music does so many things bro, you know what I mean? In 1980 I was in Zimbabwe with my father for the liberation of the people of Zimbabwe. For independence from the British. When I went there, the freedom fighters, them called guerillas, they came to see my father with their big guns. And my father said to me ‘You know what a guerilla is?’ and I thought, yeah, a monkey, an animal. And him say ‘No, these are the guerillas that you hear about. These are the animals.’ So music is very powerful because they came and told him that when they were fighting, “Redemption Song” was the song that carried them through. It was just powerful. The music is powerful, is what I’m trying to say.

Bob Marley name still carries a lot of weight. Confused message.

They know his name, but a lot of youth don’t really know his works. They know Game and they know the people that influence them today. You can’t ever have a next Bob. So you know, we still have to give them a chance to remember Bob.

Will you play any of your father’s songs on the tour?

Definitely. Bob Marley songs are my songs. These are the songs that have been passed on to me. Let me say, I wear my family crest, and I represent my family to the fullest.

How would you describe the relationship between hip hop and reggae right now?

We are cousins. We are parallel music. It’s just our pronunciations and stuff are different. Hip-hop music tell about the life of the culture of these people that live a certain life. Where in Jamaica, reggae music, we have the same time of life. What you call projects, we call tenement yards. Back when my father said ‘In a government yard in Trenchtown’, it’s the government housing there.

What do you do when you’re not making music?

When we’re not making music we’re playing soccer a lot. I live at the studio, you know? My room is here. I’m always dealing in music, really.

You’ll be out of the studio on tour, do you plan on…

On the contrary, on the contrary (laughs), we have a studio on the bus. With vocal booth and everything. I do a lot of work on the road. Creative-wise, you might get a lot of influences, but you might not get a lot of head space. But there’s a lot of juices flowing, because of the concert, you come back into the bus, and the vibe, you capture that, you know what I mean? You capture a lot of spontaneous things that become great things later on.

Music that would surprise?

Nina Simone… I listen to country and western, I don’t know if that’s a surprise. Kenny Rogers. We listen to them people. In Jamaica, all we had was the radio. We only had one tv station, and it would sign off early back in the seventies. That’s why in Jamaica we have so many influences. If you notice even with the Wailers, the early Wailers, it was a lot of the Temptations and that type of singing style as a group. We’re always influenced by American music.

What message would you most like to get across?

Well, I mean, we try to raise awareness, you know. There is no one particular message. In this album, we’re focused on your mind. And you know how them say the mind is a terrible thing to waste. Your mind is the channel of it all. It feeds your soul, your heart, everything. It comes from your thoughts. The kind of person you are comes from the way you think. And it bleeds into the way you feel. And such forth.
If the mind is not free, then we won’t be free. But there’s no one message here bro. We are one human family. We are the family of the human race, which you are my brother. Not by blood maybe, but we are one as a human race. And we are here to live together and live the best that we can live. Together.

That’s my time, but thanks so much for the interview. Best of luck on tour.

Yeah man, thank you. So will we be seeing you when we come to California?

When you come around, I’ll definitely be there.

Yeah man, let’s burn one. Take care.

2007-12-05T04:31:00.000-08:00

George Harrison who?

Stephen Marley comes from reggae royalty just don t ask him about The Beatles

By Matt Pais

Most kids don't get to be special guests at a nation's liberation. Of course, Stephen Marley didn't exactly lead a normal childhood.

The third child of reggae legend Bob Marley, Stephen was there when Zimbabwe celebrated its independence from Great Britain in 1980. He took the stage with his dad and the Wailers shortly after he learned to walk. Later, he played with brother Ziggy and other siblings as part of the Melody Makers. More recently, he produced multiple Grammy-winning albums for his brother Damian.

Yet Stephen, who's been around music all his life, didn't put out an album of his own until last week, when he released the good-vibes-a-plenty "Mind Control." From New York, the Jamaica-raised singer talked about life as a Marley, one of his father's favorite foods and controlling people's minds.

You've been called the George Harrison of the Marley clan.

The George Harrison? Who? George Harrison?

Have you heard that before?

What does that mean?

Do you know who George Harrison is?

No, tell me.

He was a member of The Beatles.

OK. No, I don't know a George.

OK. Well, you seem like a pretty calm guy. Do you ever get worked up?

Yeah, man! Sometimes we get rowdy.

What happens?

The earth shakes! When we get rowdy, we roar, like them lions. "Raaaarrr!"

Does being a Marley put pressure on you?

Good pressure! If we should succumb to saying, "Yes, there is pressure," then I would have to say it is good pressure. It's a good standard to try to keep up to. Our father is our teacher. He is our mentor.

What's something people would be surprised to learn about your father?

I don't know really. My dad loved ice cream. I don't know if that matters.

What's your earliest memory of music with your family?

We started out in 1979 when I was 7, so I guess a year before that, when I was 6, we used to play out on the veranda at our home. And we would go around the neighborhood and invite the people to pay, like, 50 cent or 25 cent to come and hear us play on our veranda. That is the earliest memories I have. My father was not there, but my mother was there some of the time. And that was how my father heard about us singing. My mother said, "Yo, they're singing. They're giving little concerts at the house." Him say, "Yeah?" And that's how it started.

So ticket prices have gone up a bit.

Inflation, bro!

Why did it take so long to release your first solo album, "Mind Control"?

Well, I really didn't wait. I wasn't waiting. I was working, really. And the work sat before me. I just got a chance to deal with myself in that sense.

If you could control people's minds, would you?

Um, yes! Because I would put positive things in their thoughts and in their minds.

Such as?

Just love, first of all. Love for mankind, you know. That would be the biggest thing. If we cannot find love, we can't find nothing.

Matt Pais is the metromix music and movies producer.

2007-12-05T04:00:00.002-08:00

New York Forum to Discuss Marley's Music Legacy

NEW YORK (JIS)
Monday, March 26, 2007

The lyrical genius of the late Robert Nesta 'Bob' Marley will be discussed at a forum being staged by the Centre for Black Literature at Medgar Evers College in Brooklyn, New York and the National Black Writers Conference.

This forum takes place on Saturday, March 31, beginning at 2:00 p.m. It is titled, 'Redemption Song', and will examine the impact of Mr. Marley's lyrics on world culture.

Distinguished scholar, Kwame Dawes, who authored the volume, 'Bob Marley - Lyrical Genius', will deliver the keynote address. He will then join a panel of Marley scholars to explore Mr. Marley's influence on other musicians and poets as well as breaking down the cultural, political and spiritual elements of the revered singer's lyrics.

Mr. Dawes, a poet in residence at the University of South Carolina, will be joined on the panel by Christopher John Farley, author of the new book, 'Bob Marley, Before the Legend'; Vivien Goldman, author of 'The Book of Exodus: The Making and Meaning of Bob Marley and The Wailers'; and Dera Tompkins, producer and collector of the Bob Marley and other reggae memorabilia.

2007-12-05T04:00:00.001-08:00

Roots reggae at root level

The Melodians unearth Rocksteady's organic origins at Monk's

By: Dan Fletcher

Posted: 3/26/07

No matter how hard the schmaltz of Sean Paul's club-bangers or the myriad black-lit Bob Marley posters adorning our nation's dorm-room walls try to pull, Reggae's roots burrow much deeper than America's flash-pan pop culture.

Burrowing deep into the rich soils of rhythm and melody-finely tuned amid loved ones, not the rap-game's beloved producers and pro-tools rigs-these traditions promise to dirty the dance floors of Monk's subterranean terra firma as Jamaican fore-bearers, The Melodians take stage this evening.

Reggae's roots grip so fiercely to the musicians who feed off them that it is rare to witness an artist throw in the towel to hock used cars or play the fool on reality television. Through the best of times-and more importantly, the worst of times-the irie-influences of the tradition grow on and genre-definers The Melodians seem to re-bloom with each season.

Established in 1965, as the cadences of the initial Ska craze descended into the buoyant grooves of Rocksteady, The Melodians-Tony Brevet, Brent Dow and Trevor McNaughton-began the process of plating four decades of homegrown reggae jams.

The trio's seeds were cared for meticulously beneath the watchful eye of the genre's most-acclaimed producers-Clement "Coxsone" Dodd, Sonia Pottinger, Arthur "Duke" Reid and Leslie Kong, et al.-but the band never strayed from crafting its own laid-back island jams on its own laid-back, island terms.

January of 2006 saw the death of founding member Brent Dow of a heart attack at age 59, followed by the rebirth of The Melodians in honor of their fallen friend.

Physically descend to root level at Monk's around 9 p.m. to experience the real roots of Jamaican music-spiritually.

2007-12-05T03:58:00.000-08:00

Hasidic Jew converts many to reggae music

Everything will be 'irie' at CTICC

March 26, 2007

By Jane Mayne

Considering we've become accustomed to seeing the likes of dreadlocked heroes such as Bob Marley and Bunny Wailer at the forefront of reggae music, Hasidic Jew Matisyahu's appearance on the "skanking" scene has come as something of a surprise.

Many stalwart reggae fans have been, understandably, slightly resistant to this relative newcomer who doesn't quite fit the Jamaican mould.

But, after listening to this iconoclast's "irie" songs, there have been many converts in the house.

Named by Jewish newspaper, The Forward, as one of the five most influential Jews in America, Matisyahu is currently the US's most popular reggae singer. His lilting rhythms and quasi-Jamaican vocals are both appealing and accessible, hence the good reception among lovers of this genre.

Since 2004, Matisyahu has released three studio albums, as well as one live album . Then there are two remix CDs and a DVD which also features a live concert and some interviews.

Last year's breakthrough on-stage album, Live at Stubb's, sold half a million copies and his second studio outing, Youth, went in at No 4 on the Billboard charts. In short, Matisyahu is something of a phenomenon in modern music, and his showing of hip-hop, rock, and Jewish themes could prove interesting. Despite his obvious identification as a religious Jew, Matisyahu's message is not only about Judaism, or any religion in particular.

His mission is to promote a message of peace.

2007-12-05T03:57:00.000-08:00

NO MORE!
Published on: 3/26/07.

by TREVOR YEARWOOD

AGAINST THE BACKDROP of pulsating drumming and Bob Marley's classic Redemption Song, hundreds of Barbadians yesterday marked the 200th anniversary of the abolition of the transatlantic slave trade.

"Never again must slavery in any form pollute the free air of this island," Acting Prime Minister Dame Billie Miller declared as Barbadians joined celebrations across the globe.

Dame Billie was addressing a two-hour "national gathering" that brought religious and political leaders and several hundred other Barbadians to the Bay Street Esplanade.

"Today we join with Britain and the rest of the world in commemorating this bicentenary, cognisant of the fact that Barbados led the Atlantic world in resisting slavery," she told the seaside gathering across the road from Government Headquarters.

"We deeply regret Barbados' role in the slave trade, but we are proud that of all the British Caribbean colonies in 1807, this island's government did not register official opposition to the Act of Abolition.

"Barbados can therefore be said to have expiated its complicity with Britain in the development of the ignoble commercial enterprise known as slavery."

Bruising contact

Dame Billie added that of 12 million enslaved Africans, about 390 000 had reached Barbados.

She spoke of the "bruising contact between white masters and black enslaved persons", but described Barbadian slaves as being "among the most industrious", who left "abundant evidence" of their labour in the form of large edifices – the great-houses and "the impressive parish churches".

Barbadians thanked them for making Bridgetown one of the busiest ports in the New World and for maintaining a rich African heritage "of which we are so proud", she said.

Other highlights of the ceremony witnessed by a number of Cabinet ministers, included laying of a wreath at sea and the unveiling of a plaque that read in part "as a tribute to the strength and resilience of those African enslaved persons who were transported across the Atlantic Ocean and . . . were sold as slaves to Barbadian slave masters".

The plaque, to be shifted to the Bridgetown wharf area where there used to be a slave market, was also "a tribute in honour and recognition of the efforts of those who fought in the cause of the abolition of the slave trade".