Reggae music is what took Rastafari to the world and Rastafari took Reggae music to the world. Bob Marley and the Wailers were the vehicle to take Reggae music and Rastafari to the world. Today Rastafarian's most popular symbol is Bob Marley, who died of cancer in 1981 at age 36. His influence on the music is still strong and many members of his family are now reggae artists themselves. He is known as the King of Reggae. Formed in the late 1960's the group was known as the Wailing Rude Bwoys. The original members were Bob Marley, Junior Brathwaite, Peter Tosh and Bunny Livingston. The band gained popularity in the early 1970's and then broke up. Bob Marley changed the name to Bob Marley and the Wailers. The Bob Marley "syndrome" caught afire in Jamaica. The popularity of Bob Marley brought many imitators and changed the face of music in Jamaica. Musicians looking for Bob Marley type popularity, grew dreadlocks and started professing Rastafari. The lyrics of many songs were changed and sprinkled with references to Rastafari . It was how Reggae was seen by the world and so the musicians obliged. These musicans automatically grew dreadlocks, called on the name JAH Haile Selassie" and "Rasta". They professed Rastafari as a way to gain popularity and the perceived benefits. Many wanted to "piggyback" on the foundation laid by Bob Marley and use it as religious justification for smoking the ganja(marijuana) Bob Marley and many that try to follow in his footsteps, are the voice of the poor and downtrodden. The lyrics of the music speaks to the masses. The message in the music in most case are about oppression, poverty, slavery, apartheid and human rights. The music identifies with the struggles of day to day life of poor people.
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
Reggae Music And Rastafari
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
Bob Marley
Bob Marley was a hero figure, in the classic mythological sense. His departure 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. Not just among Jamaicans, but also the Hopi Indians of New Mexico and the Maoris of New Zealand, in Indonesia and India, and especially in those parts of West Africa from wihch slaves were plucked and taken to the New World, Bob is seen as a redeemer figure returning to lead this.
In the clear Jamaican sunlight you can pick out the component parts of which the myth of Bob Marley is comprised: the sadness, the love, the understanding, the Godgiven talent. Those are facts. And although it is sometimes said that there are no facts in Jamaica, there is one more thing of which we can be certain: 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 Judy Mowatt of the I-Threes. "When you need to refer to a certain situation or crisis, there will always be a Bob Marley song that will relate to it. Bob was a musical prophet."
The tiny Third World country of Jamaica has produced an artist who has transcended all categories, classes, and creeds through a combination of innate modesty and profound wisdom. Bob Marley, the Natural Mystic, may yet prove to be the most significant musical artist of the twentieth century.
Bob Marley gave the world brilliant and evocative music; his work stretched across nearly two decades and yet still remains timeless and universal. Bob Marley & the Wailers worked their way into the very fabric of our lives.
"He's taken his place alongside James Brown and Sly Stone as a pervasive influence on r&b", says the American critic Timothy White, author of the acclaimed Bob Marley biography CATCH A FIRE: THE LIFE OF BOB MARLEY. "His music was pure rock, in the sense that it was a public expression of a private truth."
It is important to consider the roots of this legend: the first superstar from the Third World, Bob Marley was one of the most charismatic and challenging performers of our time and his music could have been created from only one source: the street culture of Jamaica.
The days of slavery are a recent folk memory on the island. They have permeated the very essence of Jamaica's culture, from the plantation of the mid-nineteenth century to the popular music of our own times. Although slavery was abolished in 1834, the Africans and their descendants developed their own culture with half-remembered African traditions mingled with the customs of the British.
This hybrid culture, of course, had parallels with the emerging black society in America. Jamaica, however, remained a rural community which, without the industrialisation of its northern neighbour, was more closely rooted to its African legacy.
By the start of the twentieth century that African heritage was given political expression by Marcus Garvey, a shrewd Jamaican preacher and entrepreneur who founded the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA). The organisation advocated the creation of a new black state in Africa, free from white domination. As the first step in this dream, Garvey founded the Black Star Line, a steamship company which, in popular imagination at least, was to take the black population from America and the Caribbean back to their homeland of Africa.
A few years later, in 1930, Ras Tafari Makonnen was crowned Emperor of Ethiopia and took a new name, Haile Selassie, The Emperor claimed to be the 225th ruler in a line that stretched back to Menelik, the son of Solomon and Sheba.
The Marcus Garvey followers in Jamaica, consulting their New Testaments for a sign, believed Haile Selassie was the black king whom Garvey had prophesied would deliver the Negro race. It was the start of a new religion called Rastafari.
Fifteen years later, in Rhoden Hall to the north of Jamaica, Bob Marley was born. His mother was an eighteen-year-old black girl called Cedella Booker while his father was Captain Norval Marley, a 50-year-old white quartermaster attached to the British West Indian Regiment.
The couple married in 1944 and Robert Nesta Marley was born on February 6, 1945. Norval Marley's family, however, applied constant pressure and, although he provided financial support, the Captain seldom saw his son who grew up in the rural surroundings of St. Ann to the north of the island.
For country people in Jamaica, the capital Kingston was the city of their dreams, the land of opportunity. The reality was that Kingston had little work to offer, yet through the Fifties and Sixties, people flooded to the city. The newcomers, despite their rapid disillusion with the capital, seldom returned to the rural parishes. Instead, they squatted in the shanty towns that grew up in western Kingston, the most notorious of which was Trench town (so named because it was built over a ditch that drained the sewage of old Kingston.)
Bob Marley, barely into his teens, moved to Kingston in the late Fifties. Like many before them, Marley and his mother eventually settled in Trenchtown. His friends were other street youths, also impatient with their place in Jamaican society. One friend in particular was Neville O'Riley Livingston, known as Bunny, with whom Bob took his first hesitant musical steps.
The two youths were fascinated by the extraordinary music they could pick up from American radio stations. In particular there was one New Orleans station broadcasting the latest tunes by such artists as Ray Charles, Fats Domino, Curtis Mayfield and Brook Benton. Bob and Bunny also paid close attention to the black vocal groups, such as the Drifters, who were extremely popular in Jamaica.
When Bob quit school he seemed to have but one ambition: music. Although he took a job in a welding shop, Bob spent all his free time with Bunny, perfecting their vocal abilities. They were helped by one of Trench Town's famous residents, the singer Joe Higgs who held informal lessons for aspiring vocalists in the tenement yards. It was at one of those sessions that Bob and Bunny met Peter McIntosh, another youth with big musical ambitions.
In 1962 Bob Marley auditioned for a local music entrepreneur called Leslie Kong. Impressed by the quality of Bob's vocals, Kong took the young singer into the studio to cut some tracks, the first of which, called "Judge Not", was released on Beverley's label. It was Marley's first record.
The other tunes -- including "Terror" and "One Cup of Coffee" -- received no airplay and attracted little attention. At the very least, however, they confirmed Marley's ambition to be a singer. By the following year Bob had decided the way forward was with a group. He linked up with Bunny and Peter to form The Wailing Wailers.
The new group had a mentor, a Rastafarian hand drummer called Alvin Patterson, who introduced the youths to Clement Dodd,, a record producer in Kingston. In the summer of 1963 Dodd auditioned The Wailing Wailers and, pleased with the results, agreed to record the group.
It was the time of ska music, the hot new dance floor music with a pronounced back-beat. Its origins incorporated influences from Jamaica's African traditions but, more immediately, from the heady beats of New Orleans' rhythm & blues disseminated from American radio stations and the burgeoning sound systems on the streets of Kingston. Clement - Sir Coxsone - Dodd was one of the city's finest sound system men.
The Wailing Wailers released their first single, "Simmer Down", on the Coxsone label during the last weeks of 1963. By the following January it was number one in the Jamaican charts, a position it held for the next two months. The group -- Bob, Bunny and Peter together with Junior Braithwaite and two back-up singers, Beverly Kelso and Cherry Smith -- were big news.
"Simmer Down" caused a sensation in Jamaica and The Wailing Wailers began recording regularly for Coxsone Dodd's Studio One Company. The groups' music also found new themes, identifying with the Rude Boy street rebels in the Kingston slums. Jamaican music had found a tough, urban stance.
Over the next few years The Wailing Wailers put out some thirty sides that properly established the group.
Despite their popularity, the economics of keeping the group together proved too much and the three other members -- Junior Braithwaite, Beverly Kelso and Cherry Smith -- quit. Bob's mother, Cedella, had remarried and moved to Delaware in the United States where she had saved sufficient money to send her son an air ticket. The intention was for Bob to start a new life. But before he moved to America, Bob met a young girl called Rita Anderson and, on February 10, 1966, they were married.
Marley's stay in America was short-lived. He worked just enough to finance his real ambition: music. In October 1966 Bob Marley, after eight months in America, returned to Jamaica. It was a formative period in his life. The Emperor Haile Selassie had made a state visit to Jamaica in April that year. By the time Bob re-settled in Kingston the Rastafarian movement had gained new credence.
Marley was increasingly drawn towards Rastafari. In 1967 Bob's music reflected his new beliefs. Gone were the Rude Boy anthems; in their place was a growing commitment to spiritual and social issues, the cornerstone of his real legacy.
Marley joined up with Bunny and Peter to re-form the group, now known as The Wailers. Rita, too, had started a singing career, having a big hit with "Pied Piper", a cover of an English pop song. Jamaican music, however, was changing. The bouncy ska beat had been replaced by a slower, more sensual rhythm called rock steady.
The Wailers new commitment to Rastafarianism brought them into conflict with Coxsone Dodd and, determined to control their own destiny, the group formed their own record label, Wail 'N' Soul. Despite a few early successes, however, the Wailers' business naivete proved too much and the label folded in late 1967.
The group survived, however, initially as songwriters for a company associated with the American singer Johnny Nash who, the following decade, was to have an international smash with Marley's "Stir It Up". The Wailers also met up with Lee Perry, whose production genius had transformed recording studio techniques into an art form.
The Perry/Wailers combination resulted in some of the finest music the band ever made. Such tracks as "Soul Rebel", "Duppy Conqueror", "400 Years" and "Small Axe" were not only classics, but they defined the future direction of reggae.
In 1970 Aston 'Family Man' Barrett and his brother Carlton (bass and drums respectively) joined the Wailers. They had been the rhythm nucleus of Perry's studio band, working with the Wailers on those ground-breaking sessions. They were also unchallenged as Jamaica's hardest rhythm section, a status that was to remain undiminished during the following decade. The band's reputation was, at the start of the Seventies, an extraordinary one throughout the Caribbean. But internationally the Wailers were still unknown.
In the summer of 1971 Bob accepted an invitation from Johnny Nash to accompany him to Sweden where the American singer had taken a filmscore commission. While in Europe Bob secured a recording contract with CBS which was also, of course, Nash's company. By the spring of 1972 the entire Wailers were in London, ostensibly promoting their CBS single "Reggae on Broadway". Instead they found themselves stranded in Britain.
As a last throw of the dice Bob Marley walked into the Basing Street Studios of Island Records and asked to see its founder Chris Blackwell. The company, of course, had been one of the prime movers behind the rise of Jamaican music in Britain; indeed Blackwell had launched Island in Jamaica during the late fifties.
By 1962, however, Blackwell had realised that, by re-locating Island to London, he could represent all his Jamaican rivals in Britain. The company was re-born in May, 1962, selling initially to Britain's Jamaican population centered mostly in London and Birmingham.
The hot ska rhythm, however, quickly became established as a burgeoning dance floor beat with the then growing Mod culture and, in 1964, Blackwell produced a worldwide smash with 'My Boy Lollipop', a pop/ska tune by the young Jamaican singer Millie.
Through the Sixties Island had grown to become a major source of Jamaican music, from ska and rock steady to reggae. The company had also embraced white rock music, with such bands and artists as Traffic, Jethro Tull, King Crimson, Cat Stevens, Free and Fairport Convention so, when Bob Marley made his first moves with Island in 1971, he was connecting with the hottest independent in the world at that time.
Blackwell knew of Marley's Jamaican reputation. The group was offered a deal unique in Jamaican terms. The Wailers were advanced £4000 to make an album and, for the first time, a reggae band had access to the best recording facilities and were treated in much the same way as, say, their rock group contemporaries. Before this deal, it was considered that reggae sold only on singles and cheap compilation albums. The Wailers' first album Catch A Fire broke all the rules: it was beautifully packaged and heavily promoted. It was the start of a long climb to international fame and recognition.
Years later the acclaimed reggae dub poet Linton Kwesi Johnson, commenting on Catch A Fire, wrote: "A whole new style of Jamaican music has come into being. It has a different character, a different sound. . . what I can only describe as International Reggae. It incorporates elements from popular music internationally: rock and soul, blues and funk. These elements facilitated a breakthrough on the international market."
Although Catch A Fire was not an immediate hit, it made a considerable impact on the media. Marley's hard dance rhythms, allied to his militant lyrical stance, came in complete contrast to the excesses of mainstream rock. Island also decided The Wailers should tour both Britain and America; again a complete novelty for a reggae band.
Marley and the band came to London in April 1973, embarking on a club tour which hardened The Wailers as a live group. After three months, however, the band returned to Jamaica and Bunny, disenchanted by life on the road, refused to play the American tour. His place was taken by Joe Higgs, The Wailers' original singing teacher.
The American tour drew packed houses and even included a weekend engagement playing support to the young Bruce Springsteen. Such was the demand that an autumn tour was also arranged with seventeen dates as support to Sly & The Family Stone, then the number one band in black American music.
Four shows into the tour, however, The Wailers were taken off the bill. It seems they had been too good; support bands should not detract from the main attraction. The Wailers nevertheless made their way to San Francisco where they broadcast a live concert for the pioneering rock radio station, KSAN.
The bulk of that session was finally made available in February 1991, when Island released the commemorative album, Talkin' Blues.
In 1973 The Wailers also released their second Island album, Burnin, an LP that included new versions of some of the band's older songs: 'Duppy Conqueror', for instance, "Small Axe" and "Put It On" -- together with such tracks as 'Get Up Stand Up' and "I Shot The Sheriff". The latter, of course, was a massive worldwide hit for Eric Clapton the following year, even reaching number one in the U.S. singles' chart.
In 1974 Marley spent much time of his time in the studio working on the sessions that eventually provided Natty Dread, an album that included such fiercely committed songs as 'Talkin' Blues', "No Woman No Cry", "So Jah Seh," "Revolution", "Them Belly Full (But We Hungry)" and "Rebel Music (3 o'clock Roadblock)". By the start of the next year, however, Bunny and Peter had quit the group; they were later to embark on solo careers (as Bunny Wailer and Peter Tosh) while the band was re-named Bob Marley & The Wailers.
Natty Dread was released in February 1975 and, by the summer, the band was on the road again. Bunny and Peter's missing harmonies were replaced by the I-Threes, the female trio comprising Bob's wife Rita together with Marcia Griffiths and Judy Mowatt. Among the concerts were two shows at the Lyceum Ballroom in London which, even now, are remembered as highlights of the decade.
The shows were recorded and the subsequent live album, together with the single"No Woman No Cry", both made the charts. Bob Marley & The Wailers were taking reggae into the mainstream. By November, when The Wailers returned to Jamaica to play a benefit concert with Stevie Wonder, they were obviously the country's greatest superstars.
Rastaman Vibration, the follow-up album in 1976, cracked the American charts. It was, for many, the clearest exposition yet of Marley's music and beliefs, including such tracks as "Crazy Baldhead", "Johnny Was", "Who the Cap Fit" and, perhaps most significantly of all, "War", the lyrics of which were taken from a speech by Emperor Haile Selassie.
Its international success cemented Marley's growing political importance in Jamaica, where his firm Rastafarian stance had found a strong resonance with the ghetto youth. By way of thanking the people of Jamaica, Marley decided on a free concert, to be held at Kingston's National Heroes Park on December 5, 1976. The idea was to emphasise the need for peace in the slums of the city, where warring factions had brought turmoil and murder.
Just after the concert was announced, the government called an election for December 20. The campaign was a signal for renewed ghetto war and, on the eve of the concert, gunmen broke into Marley's house and shot him.
In the confusion the would-be assassins only wounded Marley, who was hastily taken to a safe haven in the hills surrounding Kingston. For a day he deliberated playing the concert and then, on December 5, he came on stage and played a brief set in defiance of the gunmen.
It was to be Marley's last appearance in Jamaica for nearly eighteen months. Immediately after the show he left the country and, during early 1977, lived in London where he recorded his next album, Exodus.
Released in the summer of that year, Exodus properly established the band's international status. The album remained on the UK charts for 56 straight weeks, and its three singles - "Exodus", "Waiting in Vain" and "Jammin" - were all massive sellers. The band also played a week of concerts at London's Rainbow Theatre; their last dates in the city during the seventies.
In 1978 the band capitalised on their chart success with Kaya, an album which hit number four in the UK the week after release. That album saw Marley in a different mood; a collection of love songs and, of course, homages to the power of ganja. The album also provided two chart singles, "Satisfy My Soul" and the beautiful "Is This Love".
There were three more events in 1978, all of which were of extraordinary significance to Marley. In April he returned to Jamaica to play the One Love Peace Concert in front of the Prime Minister Michael Manley and the Leader of the Opposition Edward Seaga.
He was then invited to the United Nations in New York to receive the organisation's Medal of Peace. At the end of the year Bob also visited Africa for the first time, going initially to Kenya and then on to Ethiopia, spiritual home of Rastafari.
The band had earlier toured Europe and America, a series of shows that provided a second live album, Babylon By Bus. The Wailers also broke new ground by playing in Australia, Japan and New Zealand: truly international style reggae.
Survival, Bob Marley's ninth album for Island Records, was released in the summer of 1979. It included "Zimbabwe", a stirring anthem for the soon-to-be liberated Rhodesia, together with "So Much Trouble In The World", "Ambush In The Night" and "Africa Unite"; as the sleeve design, comprising the flags of the independent nations, indicated, Survival was an album of pan-African solidarity.
At the start of the following year -- a new decade -- Bob Marley & The Wailers flew to Gabon where they were to make their African debut. It was not an auspicious occasion, however, when the band discovered they were playing in front of the country's young elite. The group, nevertheless, was to make a quick return to Africa, this time at the official invitation to the government of liberated Zimbabwe to play at the country's Independence Ceremony in April, 1980. It was the greatest honour ever afforded the band, and one which underlined the Wailer's importance in the Third World.
The band's next album, Uprising, was released in May 1980. It was an instant hit, with the single, "Could You Be Loved" a massive worldwide seller. Uprising also featured "Coming In From the Cold", "Work" and the extraordinary closing track, "Redemption Song".
The Wailers embarked on a major European tour, breaking festival records throughout the continent. The schedule included a 100,000-capacity crowd in Milan, the biggest show in the band's history. Bob Marley & The Wailers, quite simply, were the most important band on the road that year and the new Uprising album hit every chart in Europe. It was a period of maximum optimism and plans were being made for an American tour, in company with Stevie Wonder, that winter.
At the end of the European tour Marley and the band went to America. Bob played two shows at Madison Square Garden but, immediately afterwards, was taken seriously ill.
Three years earlier, in London, Bob hurt a toe while playing football. The wound had become cancerous and was belatedly treated in Miami, yet it continued to fester. By 1980 the cancer, in its most virulent form, had begun to spread through Marley's body.
He fought the disease for eight months, taking treatment at the clinic of Dr. Joseph Issels in Bavaria. Issels' treatment was controversial and non-toxic and, for a time anyway, Bob's condition seemed to stabilise. Eventually, however, the battle proved too much. At the start of May Bob Marley left Germany for his Jamaican home, a journey he did not complete. He died in a Miami hospital on Monday May 11, 1981.
The previous month, Marley had been awarded Jamaica's Order Of Merit, the nation's third highest honour, in recognition of his outstanding contribution to the country's culture.
On Thursday May 21, 1981, the Hon. Robert Nesta Marley O.M. was given an official funeral by the people of Jamaica. Following the service - attended by both the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition - Marley's body was taken to his birthplace at Nine Mile, on the north of the island, where it now rests in a mausoleum. Bob Marley was 36-years-old. His legend, however, has conquered the years.
Monday, March 17, 2008
Damian Marley
When "Welcome To Jamrock" erupted onto airwaves and blew apart iPods halfway through 2005, it came as a shock to some--but not to Damian "Jr. Gong" Marley. The song is about the furthest thing from commercial music offerings today. It's an outraged and unapologetic description of the poverty and political violence ravaging his homeland of Jamaica. But "Welcome To Jamrock" hit hard because it's the sound of truth. Not to mention, the result of years of work to bring that truth to light. "I spent a lot of time thinking and this is the fruit of that labor," explains the youngest child of the musical Marley family."The song might be a 'success' so why be blind to that? But success can't surprise given the time put into it."
Jr. Gong has been honing his skills for some time. He made noise early on with the 1996 tune, "Mr. Marley," and his major label debut Halfway Tree, which showcased a unique gift for blending hard-hitting reality rhymes and an uncommonly eclectic musicality. With a classic reggae sensibility at its core and run through with streams of hip-hop, r&b and dancehall, the album resonated with urban tastemakers and won a Grammy for Best Reggae Album in 2001.
"A Grammy in reggae is good," he observes. "But it will be great to see reggae win Album Of The Year…it's not about one man shut off from the rest of the crabs in the barrel." So while slow-burners like "It was Written" and "Educated Fools" became club classics, Jr. Gong was laying the groundwork for the tracks that would become Welcome To Jamrock, an album that was ultimately several years in the making. Hear the album and you instantly understand it to be the work of a perfectionist. Jr. Gong is not focused on overnight success. "Some songs just come. 'Jamrock' was like that," he explains. "But other songs take a lot longer. This is street music, and the streets have to feel it."
He can be sure the streets will. Following the path blazed by its title track, Welcome To Jamrock opens with the devastating attack of "Confrontation." This is Jr Gong at his best, rhyming with the conviction of a street preacher and the intellect of a university economist. That essence is spread throughout the album, even when he switches pace and explores different riddims. "It's like going to war. Sometimes you have to wear camouflage to really get in there," says Jr. Gong of the diverse appeal of the album. "Dancehall, r&b, hip-hop…it's more about feelings. We're not just trying to do a segment of the mix. We're trying to do the whole mix."
This album is that mix. Never content to deliver a straightforward "reggae" album, Jr Gong touches on various sides or urban life as we live it today, from the smoky spiritual love ballad "There For You" to the nostalgic throwback jam "The Master Has Come Back." Hip-hop fans will bump to "Pimpa's Paradise," featuring Stephen Marley and Black Thought of the Roots as Nas rips his verse on "Road to Zion." Meanwhile, classic reggae heads will spark to the rugged sound of "Khaki Suit" which features the combo of Bounty Killer and Eek-A-Mouse. Together, the songs on Welcome To Jamrock convey a consciousness that's framed by the song "For The Babies," which Jr. Gong says was inspired by the idea that "we raise our children with the same lies we were told."
From the first listen it is undeniable that Jr. Gong detonates his lyrical gifts with force and precision, but it would be a mistake to think the man's abilities begin and end in the recording booth. Damian co-produced all but three of the tracks with his brother, Stephen, who co-Executive Produced the album with him. While the youngest Marley suggests his fiery vocal delivery is partly inspired by seeing fierce dancehall icons like Shabba Ranks, Ninjaman and Super Cat at Jamaica's Reggae Sunsplash festival as a youth, his work at the boards show him to be a knowing student of the early '80s digital roots sound of Sly and Robbie, a touch of Stephen's other productions and the magic in his own father's recordings.
The response to the "Welcome To Jamrock" single heightened expectations for the record, and its 14 songs--songs of both love and war--have a depth that surpasses what many might have expected, given the fear of creativity and strong beliefs that permeates the current pop climate and our daily lives in general. "These are difficult years…and this has been a year of signs and wonders and mystics. We're in a mind opening time now-a lot of people don't have material suffering, but spiritual suffering," he offers. "Welcome To Jamrock is about hope, and there's still more to share. I'm still very close to the beginning."
Karen Marley
Karen Marley, second daughter of Bob Marley, was born in England in 1973 but grew up in Jamaica. Karen has always had a passion for fashion and interior design influenced by her great grandmother, father and growing up in Jamaica. While growing up, Karen would always envision ways to design and decorate the house by moving the furniture around and bug her great grandparents to add on features to the house or redo the bathroom. She was only 6 at the time so she really wasn't taken seriously and instead, was sent outside to play.
After graduating high school in Jamaica, Karen went to Canada to study interior design. The birth of her son, Jody-Nesta, brought her back to Jamaica where she then opened up her own interior design business and store.
In 1996 Karen moved back to London and decided to make an addition to her career where she attended the Vidal Sassoon Academy and became a hair stylist. While in London, Karen bought her first investment property and soon got into the property development market.
The opportunity to express both her passions is what brought Karen to Los Angeles, where she now works as an assistant designer for Catch a Fire Clothing and Tuff Gong Clothing, as well as a property developer.
Rohan Marley
Rohan Marley, a son of Bob Marley, was born in Jamaica in 1972 and moved to the United States, where he was a linebacker for the highly ranked University of Miami college football team.After playing professionally for the Ottawa Rough Riders in the Canadian Football League, Rohan decided to concentrate on family and business endeavors.
Rohan also has carried on Bob's legacy by running the Tuff Gong Clothing company. Bob founded Tuff Gong International in 1965 and gave it its colorful name because he claimed that one had to be "Tuff" to survive in music in Jamaica and he already had the nickname of "the Gong." Now Rohan has taken the brand and the inimitable Marley style and applied it to Tuff Gong Clothing.
"The clothes are for everyone," Rohan says. "For the people--just like my father's music."
Stephen Marley
If you think you don't know the music of Stephen Marley, you do-you just don't realize it. A member of the celebrated Marley sibling group The Melody Makers since the age of seven, the Grammy winning producer, singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist has also been the driving creative force behind the music of his brothers. Stephen's production, performance and writing credits recently earned him two Grammys, giving him a total of five, more than any other reggae artist in history.
Born in 1972, the second son of Bob Marley, Stephen was dancing and singing onstage during his father and The Wailers' live shows (alongside older siblings Ziggy and Cedella) by the time he was old enough to walk. As a young boy, he stayed at home while Ziggy and Cedella entered school. There, he would shadow his father, mimic his speech and quickly fall in love with such future reggae anthems as "Lively Up Yourself." At seven, he also began learning guitar on a nylon-stringed acoustic.
In 1979, Stephen made his official debut when The Melody Makers cut their first single, "Children Playing in the Streets," and followed it up in 1985 with their debut LP, Play the Game Right. Over the next decade, the group would follow in their father's footsteps, racking up Grammy awards and bringing conscious songs and one-love rhythms to every corner of the globe.
With his highly anticipated debut solo album, not only does the sound and soul of Stephen Marley come into vivid focus, but the 34 year-old artist is now stepping to center stage for the first time in his 27-year career. Appropriately, Mind Control is all Stephen and a cornucopia of the sounds and styles that he loves: a blend of reggae, rock, R&B, nyabinghi rhythms, flamenco and hip-hop. It's an album with the grit and flavor to rock old-school Kingston sound systems and slippery, waxed Miami Range Rovers alike.
Featuring cameos from roots-rock star Ben Harper, hip-hop hero Mos Def and younger brother Damian "Jr. Gong" Marley, it's a collection of songs that range from conscious critiques of society ("Mind Control") and politics ("Chase Dem"), to the sweet and open-hearted ("Hey Baby"), to the simple and fun (the sexy, club-rocking, Latin-tinged grinder "Let Her Dance," which features Maya Azucena & Illestr8).
"My joy and my pain, this is me," Marley says, humbly. "It's a page from my book. Every page tells a story, but at the same time is a continuation of the page before it or the page to come. This is just one page."
The album's breezy, horn-spiced title track casts a light on a modern day form of slavery, its words conscious, its groove monstrous: "That song is about subliminal slavery, hi-tech slavery, subliminal suppression," says Stephen. "It holds you down, it holds a man down from being wholesome." It's a call to arms for us to take back our lives, free our minds, regain our spiritual souls and think for ourselves: "Don't let them mold your mind/They wanna control mankind/Seems like their only intention is to exploit the Earth."
Tapping into the disillusionment triggered by elected leaders in both the U.S. and Jamaican governments, the vintage, easy-skanking roots reggae of "Chase Dem" rips into the insincere, crooked politicians by shouting "run them away." If the balance of Mind Control sounds wholly created in the 21st Century, "Chase Dem" blasts out of the subwoofers like a long lost jewel from Bob himself. With that song, Stephen says, "It's like me post a bill saying, 'Just say no to politics.'"
The softer and sweeter side of Stephen is also on full display in the album. A smooth, smart slab of hip-hop featuring a dose of Brooklyn flow courtesy of Mos Def on the album's first single, "Hey Baby," is based on a song Stephen would sing to his children to keep them from being sad while he was on tour with The Melody Makers: "Hey baby/ don't you worry/ even though the road is rocky/ I'll be coming home to you again." The hypnotic "Lonely Avenue," is a sweet, harmony vocal- and organ-soaked take on the Ray Charles classic-done Marley style. "I'm a big fan of Ray," says Marley. "I couldn't tell you the first time I heard him, but I could tell ya what I remember is hearing him and feeling him in pain." Blending modern sounds with classic roots vibes, Mind Control finds Stephen carrying the Marley legacy even further into the future with such samples as the smart piece of the Martina Topley Bird song "Sandpaper Kisses" heard throughout "You're Gonna Leave."
The album includes a trilogy of sorts ("Officer Jimmy Interlude," "The Traffic Jam," featuring Damian, and "Iron Bars," featuring brother Julian Marley, Mr. Cheeks & Spragga Benz) inspired by the few hours that Stephen and Julian spent in a Tallahassee jail in 2002 for marijuana possession: On "Iron Bars," on which he sings "Let me out!/Let me out!/I'm an angry lion," Stephen asks himself, "What am I doing here, among the wolves? For some herb? It's like I'm a murderer. Ya know what I mean? Ya make me feel like I'm a murderer, for some herb, where, ya know, it's my culture."
The genre-meshing "Fed Up" is a flute-led lament of romantic missteps. "She said, 'How could you treat me this way?/ What we had was more than words could say,"while the album closing "Inna Di Red," featuring Ben Harper, is a thoughtful, shaker-dusted meditation on inner peace.
In addition to recording his debut album, Stephen has been hunkered down in the studio serving as the secret weapon behind both of Damian's past two Grammy winners as well as behind the Ghetto Youths International and Tuff Gong imprints. In addition to executive producing 1999's lauded, star-studded tribute to his father, Chant Down Babylon, his production skills can be heard on albums by Buju Banton, brothers Julian and Ziggy, Spearhead, Eve, Erykah Badu, Capleton and Mr. Cheeks. He's performed as a vocalist, percussionist or guitarist on albums by all the above, as well as albums by Eric Clapton and others. Marley continues to work on new music for all of his brothers.
If they felt it important to carry on their father's legacy, it's not something that Stephen and his brothers think much about anymore. "That work has been done," Stephen says. "We are the legacy now."
Stephen also embarked on two U.S. concert tours this year, including the acclaimed "Bob Marley Roots, Rock Reggae Festival," where brothers Stephen and Ziggy Marley joined together for the first time ever with reggae pioneer Bunny Wailer.
Stephen has built and laid the foundations for a full-blown Marley family renaissance and with Mind Control, Stephen has achieved that: It's an album full of confidence and diversity in styles and emotion. "I don't want to be just another artist. I want to make a statement, and to continue this legacy, this musical legacy, with my family. Just like my brothers... I aspire to be a reckoning force, when you hear my name, you know quality comes with that: good music, good message, good vibe."
Stephanie Marley
Stephanie was born in Kingston Jamaica August 17th, sharing her birthday with Jamaica's first National Hero and a leader against oppression, Marcus Mossiah Garvey. She was educated in Jamaica for her primary and secondary years. Her studies carried her to London, England where she successfully completed her A'Levels in Social Studies and Psychology. Stephanie furthered her studies in Psychology, at The University of Western Ontario, Canada at the age of 21. She attained her Bachelor's of Arts Degree as an Honour Roll Student. During her three years in Canada, she volunteered at a local school for challenged children. There she developed her knowledge in early childhood education and a compassion for children with special needs.
After completeing her studies, Stephanie returned home to Jamaica and immersed herself in the family business of music and entertainment. For the next three years she dedicated her time as the Managing Director of the Bob Marley Foundation, Bob Marley Museum, Tuff Gong International, Tuff Gong Recording, URGE and the Rita Marley Foundation.
She currently resides in Nassau, Bahamas where she is overseeing the construction and development of the Family's first resort project, Marley Resort & Spa, www.marleyresort.com. She is also instrumental in forming the concert promotional entity, Tuff Gong Productions. In March 2004 Stephanie and her team staged the first annual Reggae All-Star Concert in Nassau.
As a mother of four energetic boys, Stephanie continues to prove that a solid spiritual upbringing enhanced with traditional morals and values is the foundation for being exemplary role model. A Leo like her mom, Stephanie is undoubtedly a humanitarian.
Julian Marley
For Julian Marley, music is life, life is music and both are blessings from above. "From a small age music has been there in my life. It's just natural. And it is with the inspiration of the Most High that I create my songs," the artist, a son of Bob Marley, explains. Born on June 4th, 1975 in London, England, Julian's development as a singer/songwriter began when, at age five, he cut his first demo tape, recording a version of his father's classic composition, "Slave Driver," at the Marley family's Tuff Gong studio in Kingston. Since that auspicious beginning, Julian has devoted himself to a life in music, mastering a variety of instruments and writing songs that reflect his dedication to spiritual upliftment and social change.
The 90s were a watershed period for the young artist. During these years, Julian formed his own band (the Uprising band), released a critically acclaimed album (1996's Lion in the Morning, on which he wrote or co-wrote all the songs) and toured the world, both as a solo performer backed by Uprising and as a member of Ghetto Youths International, a musical collective whose core members are Julian and his brothers, Stephen and Damian. Together, Julian and Damian were the opening act for Ziggy Marley and the Melody Makers' 1995 US tour and featured artists in 1997 on the rock-oriented Lollapalooza festival tour. Julian also assisted his brother Stephen with production on 1999's platinum selling Chant Down Babylon and, along with Spragga Benz and Marley siblings Stephen, Cedella, Damian and Ky-Mani, contributed an inspired version of "Master Blaster" to the 2003 Stevie Wonder tribute album, Conception.
Julian's newest offering, A Time and Place is an organic fusion of rootical reggae and breezy jazz sounds that represent the next milestone in his artistic path. "Coming from Lion in the Morning," Julian explains, "I have more knowledge and I'm growing. And this is a very personal album. A lot of it came from reasoning with brethren. We would converse about a situation and just start writing from there." The thirteen tracks are, as the artist himself says, "very much of the time. If you check it out right now, most of the music out there is about bling blings and crazy things. My songs are to be taken as wake up calls."Each song is built on a solid foundation of traditional reggae but contain a wide range of influences, showcasing Julian's natural love of music. "Harder Dayz" is a buoyant hip hop-oriented track that samples the famous trumpet riff from his father's song, "Natty Dread." " Build Together" (with its battle cry refrain of "it grieves their hearts/ to see I and I together"), "Systems" and "Couldn't Be the Place" are classic, hard-driving reggae anthems in the style of such legends as Burning Spear, Jacob Miller and Bob himself. The reggae-funky "One Way Train," demonstrates Julian's freestyle scatting prowess, the samba-tinged "Sunshine" is a Latin-Caribbean love song and "Sitting in the Dark" recalls the golden age of Jamaican ska. On the other end of the spectrum and effortlessly channeling a progressive 70s groove, is "Summer Daisies." Powered by flute, horn section and wah-wah guitar, the tune urges spiritual awareness on a universal level.
As is the case with all Marley projects, A Time and Place is truly a family affair. "The album features production by myself, Stephen and Damian, with Stephen coming with the overhand for everything," Julian says. Brothers Ziggy and Rohan play percussion on "Where She Lay" and Bunny Wailer contributes percussion to "Father's Place." Julian also acknowledges the Uprising band's contribution. "The band has evolved over the past few years with members changing, but its core has remained with the same rootical bassman, Owen 'Dready' Reid, which is great." Dready and the rest of the group will be on the road with Julian as he tours in support of the new album.
For Julian Marley, music transcends labels. "It all comes down to listening and loving music," the artist reasons. "If you love music, any kind of music, it just comes through you. We love blues and jazz and all kinds of music. It just filters through you."
Cedella Marley
Cedella Marley's life has always been rooted in music and culture. Growing up in the hills of Jamaica and touring the world as a Melody Maker, Cedella has had the best of both worlds - "a little bit country and a little bit rock-n-roll." As the first
child of the Reggae legend Bob Marley, Cedella has witnessed history in the making. She continually combines her vast influences of people, places, cultures and music, sharing it all with the world through her creative endeavors.
Currently living in Miami, Cedella balances her life as C.E.O. of Tuff Gong International, one of four Melody Makers, and a full time mom of three.With two Grammy awards and eight acclaimed albums under their belt, the Melody Makers continue to tour internationally and perform on numerous TV shows. As head of the record label originally formed by her father, Cedella has developed razor
sharp business skills. She is a natural performer and has received critical acclaim for her on-screen work with Gina Gershon in Joey Breaker. In every aspect of her life, be it performing, managing a company or at home, Cedella actively safeguards and honors her father's great legacy and style. It is a challenge she meets with determination, self confidence and energy.
Cedella has harnessed her creative energy and put it towards developing a collection of customized women's clothing, appropriately named Catch A Fire, the title of her father's first album. With this project, Cedella once again intends to
keep her father's memory and message alive while sharing it with the world through her own distinct fashion sensibility.
Ky-Mani Marley
Ky-mani is a fitting name for a charismatic artist whose East African name means Adventurous Traveler. The only child of table tennis champion Anita Belnavis and reggae icon Bob Marley, Ky-mani Marley was born in Falmouth, Jamaica. At the age of nine he relocated to the inner-city of Miami.
In the beginning, Ky-Mani was unaware of his musical abilities, sports being his first love, but with his mother's direction, he took piano and guitar lessons and played trumpet in his high school band. In addition to tapping into his musical talents Ky-Mani was a serious jock, competing in soccer and football. As a teenager Ky-Mani started rapping and deejaying; his first single was "Unnecessary Badness." He became inspired as a singer after being asked to sing a hook to a song during a recording session at a studio in Miami. The decision to actually get into the entertainment world loomed over him because of his father's legacy. Ky-Mani soon began experimenting with laying tracks, at times with his brothers, Stephen, Julian and Damian.
Ky-Mani signed to Shang Records where he recorded several singles: "Judge Not" with Patra, followed by "Dear Dad," "Who The Cap Fit (remix)" and "Sensimelia," all of which added to his growing reputation as a master in the new generation of reggae musicians. In 1997, Ky-Mani joined forces with Praswell (Fugees) on a hit cover of Eddy Grant's "Electric Avenue." The extent of his star power became abundantly clear when Ky-Mani took the stage at Midem (international music showcase), when it was was held in Miami for the first time. Catering to an international audience in the filled to capacity Cameo Theatre, Ky-Mani delivered an explosive set which aired live by CANA (Caribbean News Agency) to 36 countries.
Ky-Mani immediately became the subject of an intense label bidding war. He signed with Gee Street/V2 Records in 1997 where he completed a collaboration with label mate P.M. Dawn on the single "Gotta Be Movin' On Up" (Senseless Soundtrack, which went Gold in Africa). Both collaborations helped to establish Ky-Mani outside his tight knit reggae community.
Ky-Mani's willingness to embrace all genres of music is also evident in the 1999 release, The Journey. From the Spanish guitar which introduces "RudeBoy," to the lover rock flow of "Fell In Love," the deeply spiritual "Lord Is My Shepherd" or the rock steady tribute "Dear Dad," Ky-mani brings songs of universal themes laced with a personal insight and passion.
Fulfilling his name adventurous traveler branching out from his music, Ky-mani Marley has also made a name for himself as an actor playing the lead role in the number one underground movie coming out of Jamaica Shottas directed by Cess Silvera, co-starring Spragga Benz and Paul Campbell. Displaying his diversification and talent playing the role of a bad man in Shottas, Ky-mani Marley then went on to play the lead Kassa with co-star Cherine Anderson in One Love, a romantic comedy infused with the music and culture of Jamaica.
Ky-mani Marley is now working on his third album showcasing his growth as an individual and illustrating the duality of his personality: Ky-mani and Maestro. The result is an urban sound deeply rooted in the reggae and hip hop cultures. The album promises to be a refreshing departure from the typical synthetic pop associated with the genre, and will instead be a representation of authentic urban hip-hop and reggae fusion.
Ziggy Marley
"This album is from my heart," says Ziggy Marley of his second solo album, Love is My Religion (Tuff Gong Worldwide). Embracing both the spiritual and emotional side of life, Ziggy has definitively come into his own as an artist. The 12-track album, scheduled for release early July, showcases Ziggy's tightly rolled talents as a songwriter (writing all cuts), musician (playing most of the instruments) and producer (shepherding all dozen tracks, with three co-produced by Grammy winner Ross Hogarth). The only thing more joyful than making it, says Ziggy, is the anticipation of the global tour he expects to kick off this summer.
Written "all over the world," with some songs penned during his youth, Love Is My Religion expands upon the personal, social and political themes explored in Ziggy's debut CD, Dragonfly. Its musical center is clearly reggae, peppered by African percussion and other flavors. Opening with the subversively danceable "Into the Groove," Ziggy delves into an upbeat meditation on finding one's self. On the title track, "Love is My Religion," his message is one that "people need to hear," a unifying devotion to love that "needs to be preached in churches and mosque and synagogues." The notion of overcoming stereotypes and superstition informs the slinky "Black Cat," while the romantic "Make Some Music" finds a partner in the mid-tempo "A Lifetime."
Friendship is one of the album's recurring themes, whether as the core of monogamous love or the connective tissue of global brotherhood. "Friend" and "On the Beach in Hawaii" each offer an ode to love. In "Keep on Dreamin'," Ziggy extends the idea into the spiritual world, reconnecting with his father through dreams. The album's most political song, "Be Free," implores the listener to reject the manipulating power of fear. Slavery and its continuing effects are explored on "Still the Storms," which laments the crises in nations like Sudan, Rwanda and Sierra Leone by analogizing the path of hurricanes with the path of slave ships. The album closes with the simple and the complex: an acoustic guitar version of "Love Is My Religion" and a bass-heavy, trip-hop mix of "Be Free."
A native of Kingston, Jamaica, Ziggy first sat in on recording sessions with his father when he was ten years old. Joining with his three siblings to become The Melody Makers, Ziggy crafted his own soulful sound blending blues, R&B, hip-hop and reggae.
After two decades as the driving creative force behind The Melody Makers - a triple Grammy-winning act which included brother Stephen and sisters Sharon and Cedella, Ziggy released his debut solo album in 2003, Dragonfly (RCA Victor Group), which featured such guest artists as Flea and John Frusciante (Red Hot Chili Peppers), Mike Einziger and DJ Kilmore (Incubus). He has contributed to a variety of soundtracks including 50 First Dates and Shark's Tale, in which he delved into acting for the first time, playing the character of Bernie, the Jamaican jellyfish.
In addition to his skills as a singer, songwriter and producer, Ziggy founded U.R.G.E. (Unlimited Resources Giving Enlightenment), a non-profit organization that benefits a wide range of charitable children's causes in Jamaica, Ethiopia and other developing nations. More recently he has thrown his support behind the Youth AIDS campaign.
Sunday, March 16, 2008
One Love
One Love, One Heart
Let's get together and feel all right
Hear the children crying (One Love)
Hear the children crying (One Heart)
Sayin' give thanks and praise to the Lord and I will feel all right
Sayin' let's get together and feel all right
Let them all pass all their dirty remarks (One Love)
There is one question I'd really like to ask (One Heart)
Is there a place for the hopeless sinner
Who has hurt all mankind just to save his own?
Believe me
One Love, One Heart
Let's get together and feel all right
As it was in the beginning (One Love)
So shall it be in the end (One Heart)
Give thanks and praise to the Lord and I will feel all right
One more thing
Let's get together to fight this Holy Armageddon (One Love)
So when the Man comes there will be no no doom (One Song)
Have pity on those whose chances grove thinner
There ain't no hiding place from the Father of Creation
Sayin' One Love, One Heart
Let's get together and feel all right
I'm pleading to mankind (One Love)
Oh Lord (One Heart)
Give thanks and praise to the Lord and I will feel all right
Let's get together and feel all right
Sunday, March 2, 2008
Chotey……I know you are up there listening to us…I know you are dancing with the clouds and you know that we will never forget u.
Some times I think it’s really unfair why the people I love deserve to be like this… how can mother nature be so unfair… why a guy who is innocent have to die like this... you are a kind person that won peoples hearts, a guy who can understand friendship and a guy who is so hard working.
Hey chotey I know you are up there listening to us….you should be really happy because every one is standing up for you every body is fighting for you and mark my words the ugly culprit's will be will pay for what he did….and go to hell!!!
Kuda Henveiru
Kudahenveiru is not a new name, this name has been sealed to certain area of Male' many years ago. Kudahenveiru is called northern east corner of Male' which is a part of henveiru.