Saturday 10 December 2011
Al Di Meola
A pioneer of blending world music and jazz, going back to early Latin-tinged fusion outings like 1976's Land of the Midnight Sun, 1977's Elegant Gypsy and 1978's Casino, the guitar great continues to reflect the rich influence of flamenco, tango, Middle Eastern, Brazilian and African musics on more recent outings like 1998's The Infinite Desire, 2000's The Grand Passion, 2006's Consequence of Chaos and 2008's La Melodia, Live in Milano.
Coming off of 2008's triumphant 25-year reunion tour by Return To Forever, which produced the live two-CD set Returns and the concert DVD Live at Montreux, Di Meola began rehearsing new music with his New World Sinfonia band in preparation for a coast-to-coast tour of the States in the early part of 2009, followed by whirlwind tours of Europe and the Middle East. Di Meola calls his bandmates in the New World Sinfonia --Fausto Beccalossi on accordian, Peo Afonsi on acoustic guitar, Peter Kaszas on percussion, Gumbi Ortiz on percussion, Victor Miranda on bass -- "the best group of musicians so far in my career."
Di Meola's ongoing fascination with complex rhythmic syncopation combined with provocative lyrical melodies and sophisticated harmony has been at the heart of his music throughout a celebrated career that has earned him critical accolades, three gold albums and more than six million in record sales worldwide. He has been particularly enamored over the past 20 years by the tango music of the late Argentinian composer Astor Piazzolla, whose compositions he has interpreted over time, beginning with 1990's Di Meola Plays Piazzolla, continuing to 1993's Heart of the Immigrants, 2002's Flesh on Flesh and right up to 2007's Diabolic Inventions and Seduction for Solo Guitar. "Piazzolla had a profound effect on my development as a musician and as a person,” says Al. “We became close friends, often communicating by mail. And during the course of this friendship my admiration and desire to learn more about this great man intensified.”
A native of New Jersey who still resides in the Garden State, Di Meola was born in Jersey City on July 22, 1954. Growing up in Bergenfield with the music of Elvis Presley, The Ventures and The Beatles, he naturally gravitated to guitar as a youngster and by his early teens was already an accomplished player. Attaining such impressive skills at such a young age didn't come easy for Al but rather was the result of focused dedication and intensive periods of woodshedding between his junior and senior years in high school. “I used to practice the guitar eight to ten hours a day,” he told Down Beat. “And I was trying to find myself, or find the kind of music that suited where I was going with the guitar.”
His earliest role models in jazz included guitarists Tal Farlow and Kenny Burrell. But when he discovered Larry Coryell, whom Al would later dub “The Godfather of Fusion,” he was taken with the guitarist's unprecedented blending of jazz, blues and rock into one seamless vocabulary on the instrument. “I used to ride the bus from New Jersey to see him at little clubs in Greenwich Village,” he recalls. “Wherever he was playing, I'd be there.”
In 1971, he enrolled at the Berklee College of Music in Boston and by the second semester there began playing in a fusion quartet led by keyboardist Barry Miles. A gig tape of that band was later passed on to Chick Corea by a friend of Al's and in the early part of 1974 the 19-year-old guitarist was tapped to join the fusion superband as a replacement for guitarist Bill Connors. “I was just sitting around my apartment in Boston on a Friday afternoon when Chick called and asked me to come to a rehearsal in New York,” he recalls. “I couldn't believe it. But in 10 minutes I packed some clothes in a bag, got a ride to New York and never saw that apartment in Boston again.”
Following a weekend of rehearsals with Chick, Stanley Clarke and Lenny White, Di Meola made his RTF debut at Carnegie Hall, offically launching his career into the stratosphere. "Playing with Chick in Return To Forever was the first significant step in my development as a player,” says Al. “Chick is another major influence in my life. He has always been a wonderful supporter, major musical inspiration and a friend.” After three landmark recordings with Return To Forever -- 1974's Where Have I Known You Before, 1975's Grammy Award winning No Mystery and 1976's Romantic Warrior -- the group disbanded and Al subsequently started up his career as a solo artist. His 1976 debut as a leader, Land of the Midnight Sun, was a blazing showcase of his signature chops and Latin-tinged compositions that featured a stellar cast including drummers Steve Gadd and Lenny White, bassist Anthony Jackson and Jaco Pastorius, keyboardists Jan Hammer, Barry Miles and Chick Corea and percussionist Mingo Lewis. Over the course of six more albums with Columbia Records -- Elegant Gypsy, Casino, Splendido Hotel, Electric Rendezvous, Tour De Force and Scenario -- Al established himself as an influential force in contemporary music.
1980 marked the triumph of the acoustic guitar Trio with Paco De Lucia and John McLaughlin. Their debut recording on Columbia Records, Friday Night in San Francisco, became a landmark recording that surpassed the two million mark in sales. The three virtuosos toured together from 1980 through 1983, releasing the studio album Passion, Grace & Fire in 1982. In 1995, they reunited for a third recording, Guitar Trio, follow by another triumphant world tour. In early 1996, Di Meola formed a new trio with the violinist Jean-Luc Ponty and RTF bandmate Stanley Clarke called The Rite of Strings. He subsequently recorded with the likes of opera superstar Luciano Pavarotti, pop stars Paul Simon and Dave Matthews, classical guitarist Manuel Barrueco and Japanese jazz pianist Yutaka Kobayashi. Over the course of his career, Di Meola has also worked and recorded with Phil Collins, Carlos Santana, Steve Winwood, Wayne Shorter, Tony Williams, Herbie Hancock, Gonzalo Rubalcaba, Milton Naciemento, Egberto Gismonti, Stevie Wonder, Les Paul, Jimmy Page, Steve Vai, Frank Zappa and many more.
But for now Al's main focus remains his New World Sinfonia. “I'm just totally involved with the new group,” he says. “Everybody's happy and totally into the music. The RTF reunion tour was fun and it was great for the fans, but it was more of a nostalgic thing. I'm more interested now in moving forward with the New World Sinfonia, which has really developed into something beautiful. For me, it's the most rewarding thing I've done in a long, long time, all the way around. You don't have the overbearing volume with this band. Instead you have a rich harmonic kind of music with lots of improvisation, you have a music that is emotional, which really reaches far beyond the almost head-banging male crowd that electric fusion attracts.”
The prolific Di Meola plans to document his latest batch of new compositions with both live and studio recordings in the coming year with the New World Sinfonia. “What I'm doing now is just completely satisfying, like a phenomenal meal and a great glass of vintage wine. The fusion thing is kind of a blast from the past and is kind of assaulting on the ears. And there's a cool aspect to that, but it's not where I'm going musically as a composer.”
Meanwhile, Di Meola may be expanding his world music vocabulary even further after touring Morocco with his New World Sinfonia. “We'll be there a whole week and that will afford me the chance to jam with some of the local musicians there. I'm wide open to that kind of collaboration now. I've done some jamming back in New York at a world music club in the East Village called Drom. I have a very successful jam there with a Turkish clarinet virtuoso named Husnu Senlendiric. I find that I have a real affinity for the music of the Middle East. So we'll see how it goes in Morocco. Maybe there's something that can come out of this.”
Clearly, there are many chapters yet to come in the story of Al Di Meola. But so far, in his 35 years as a professional musician, he's already established a rich legacy that has secured a place for him in the Gallery of Guitar Greats. Stay tuned.
Source: Al Di Meola.com.
Bob Marley
Bob Marley was born Robert Nesta Marley on February 6, 1945, to 50-year old white quartermaster Captain Norval Marley of the British West Indian Regiment and an eighteen-year old black Jamaican woman, Cedella Malcolm. Bob's early life was spent in rural community of Nine Miles, nestled in the mountainous terrain of the parish of St. Ann. Residents of Nine Miles have preserved many customs derived from their African ancestry especially the art of storytelling as a means of sharing the past and time-tested traditions that are oftentimes overlooked in official historical sources. The proverbs, fables and various chores associated with rural life that were inherent to Bob's childhood would provide a deeper cultural context and an aura of mysticism to his adult songwriting.
Norval and Cedella married in 1945 but Captain Marley's family strongly disapproved of their union; although the elder Marley provided financial support, the last time Bob Marley saw his father was when he was five years old; at that time, Norval took his son to Kingston to live with his nephew, a businessman, and to attend school. Eighteen months later Cedella learned that Bob wasn't going to school and was living with an elderly couple. Alarmed, she went to Kingston, found Bob and brought him home to Nine Miles.
BOB MARLEY BEGIS HIS MUSIC CAREER
The next chapter in the Bob Marley biography commenced in the late 1950s when Bob, barely into his teens, left St. Ann and returned to Jamaica's capital. He eventually settled in the western Kingston vicinity of Trench Town, so named because it was built over a sewage trench. A low-income community comprised of squatter-settlements and government yards developments that housed a minimum of four families, Bob Marley quickly learned to defend himself against Trench Town's rude boys and bad men. Bob's formidable street-fighting skills earned him the respectful nickname Tuff Gong.
Despite the poverty, despair and various unsavory activities that sustained some ghetto dwellers, Trench Town was also a culturally rich community where Bob Marley's abundant musical talents were nurtured. A lifelong source of inspiration, Bob immortalized Trench Town in his songs "No Woman No Cry" (1974), "Trench Town Rock" (1975) and "Trench Town", the latter released posthumously in 1983.
By the early 1960s the island's music industry
was beginning to take shape, and its development gave birth to an
indigenous popular Jamaican music form called ska. A local
interpretation of American soul and R&B, with an irresistible accent
on the offbeat, ska exerted a widespread influence on poor Jamaican
youth while offering a welcomed escape from their otherwise harsh
realities. Within the burgeoning Jamaican music industry, the elusive
lure of stardom was now a tangible goal for many ghetto youths.
Uncertain about the prospects of a music career
for her son, Cedella encouraged Bob to pursue a trade. When Bob left
school at 14 years old she found him a position as a welder's
apprentice, which he reluctantly accepted. After a short time on the job
a tiny steel splinter became embedded in Bob's eye. Following that
incident, Bob promptly quit welding and solely focused on his musical
pursuits.
At 16 years old Bob Marley met another aspiring singer Desmond
Dekker, who would go on to top the UK charts in 1969 with his single
"Israelites". Dekker introduced Marley to another young singer, Jimmy
Cliff, future star of the immortal Jamaican film "The Harder They Come",
who, at age 14, had already recorded a few hit songs. In 1962 Cliff
introduced Marley to producer Leslie Kong; Marley cut his first singles
for Kong: "Judge Not", "Terror" and "One More Cup of Coffee", a cover of
the million selling country hit by Claude Gray. When these songs failed
to connect with the public, Marley was paid a mere $20.00, an
exploitative practice that was widespread during the infancy of
Jamaica's music business. Bob Marley reportedly told Kong he would make a
lot of money from his recordings one day but he would never be able to
enjoy it. Years later, when Kong released a best of The Wailers
compilation against the group's wishes, he suffered a fatal heart attack
at age 37. EARLY WAILERS ERA
In 1963 Bob Marley and his childhood friend Neville Livingston a.k.a. Bunny Wailer began attending vocal classes held by Trench Town resident Joe Higgs, a successful singer who mentored many young singers in the principles of rhythm, harmony and melody. In his Trench Town yard, Higgs introduced Bob and Bunny to Peter (Macintosh) Tosh and The Bob Marley and the Wailers legend was born. The trio quickly became good friends so the formation of a vocal group, The Wailing Wailers, was a natural progression; Higgs played a pivotal role in guiding their musical direction. Additional Wailing Wailers members included Junior Braithwaite, Beverly Kelso, and Cherry Smith but they departed after just a few recording sessions.
Bob, Bunny and Peter were introduced to Clement Sir Coxsone Dodd, a sound system operator turned producer; Dodd was also the founder of the seminal Jamaican record label Studio One. With their soulful harmonies, influenced primarily by American vocal group Curtis Mayfield and the Impressions, and lyrics that echoed the struggles facing Jamaica's poor, the Wailers attained a sizeable local following. The Wailers' first single for Studio One "Simmer Down", with Bob cautioning the ghetto youths to control their tempers or "the battle would be hotter", reportedly sold over 80,000 copies. The Wailers went on to record several hits for Coxsone including "Rude Boy", "I'm Still Waiting," and an early version of "One Love", the song the BBC would designate as the Song of the Century some thirty-five years later.
By the mid 60s, the jaunty ska beat had metamorphosed into the slower paced rocksteady sound, which soon gave way to Jamaica's signature reggae rhythm around 1968. Dodd had not made a corresponding shift in his label's releases nor did he embrace the proliferation of lyrics imbued with Rastafarian beliefs that were essential to reggae's development. Declining sales of the Wailers' Studio One singles compounded by a lack of proper financial compensation from Dodd prompted their departure from Studio One.
Cedella Booker, meanwhile, decided to relocate to
the US state of Delaware in 1966. That same year Bob Marley married
Rita Anderson and joined his mother in Delaware for a few months, where
he worked as a DuPont lab assistant and on an assembly line at a
Chrysler plant under the alias Donald Marley.
In his absence from Jamaica, His Imperial Majesty
Emperor Haile Selassie I visited the island from April 21-24, 1966. His
Majesty is revered as Lord and Savior, according to Rastafarian beliefs
and his visit to Jamaica had a profound impact upon Rita and Bob. Bob
soon adopted the Rastafarian way of life and began wearing his hair in
dreadlocks.
Upon Bob's return to Jamaica, The Wailers
established the Wail'N Soul'M label/record shop in front of his aunt's
Trench Town home. The label's name identified its primary acts: The
Wailers and The Soulettes, a female vocal trio featuring Rita Marley. A
few successful Wailers' singles were released including "Bend Down Low"
b/w "Mellow Mood" but due to lack of resources, the Wailers dissolved
Wail'N Soul'M in 1968.
As the 1970s commenced, soaring unemployment, rationed food supplies,
pervasive political violence and the IMF's stranglehold on the Jamaican
economy due to various structural adjustment policies heavily
influenced the keen social consciousness that came to define Bob's
lyrics.In 1970 the Wailers forged a crucial relationship with Jamaican producer Lee "Scratch" Perry, a pioneer in the development of dub, the reggae offshoot where the drum and bass foundation is moved to the forefront. Perry wisely paired The Wailers with the nucleus of his studio band The Upsetters, brothers Carlton and Aston "Family Man" Barrett, respectively playing drums and bass. Collectively they forged a revolutionary sonic identity, as heard on tracks like "Duppy Conqueror", "400 Years" and "Soul Rebel", which established an enduring paradigm for roots reggae. The Wailers' collaborations with Perry were featured on the album "Soul Rebels" (1970) the first Wailers album released in the UK. The Wailers' reportedly severed their relationship with Perry when they realized he was the sole recipient of royalties from the sales of "Soul Rebels".
THE WAILERS AND BOB MARLEY - "BURNIN" AND "CATCH A FIRE"
In 1971 Bob Marley went to Sweden to collaborate on a film score with American singer Johnny Nash. Bob secured a contract with Nash's label CBS Records and by early 1972 The Wailers were in London promoting their single "Reggae On Broadway"; CBS, however, had little faith in Marley and The Wailers' success and abruptly abandoned the group there. Marley paid a chance visit to the London offices of Island Records and the result was a meeting with label founder Chris Blackwell. Marley sought the finances to record a single but Blackwell suggested the group record an album and advanced them £4,000, an unheard of sum to be given to a Jamaican act.
Island's top reggae star Jimmy Cliff had recently left the label and Blackwell saw Marley as the ideal artist to fill that void and attract an audience primed for rock music. "I was dealing with rock music, which was really rebel music and I felt that would really be the way to break Jamaican music. But you needed someone who could be that image. When Bob walked in he really was that image," Blackwell once reflected. Despite their "rude boy" reputation, the Wailers returned to Kingston and honored their agreement with Blackwell. They delivered their "Catch A Fire" album in April 1973 to extensive international media fanfare. Tours of Britain and the US were quickly arranged and the life of Bob Marley was forever changed. Bunny Wailer refused to participate in the US leg of the "Catch A Fire" tour so the Wailers' mentor Joe Higgs served as his replacement. Their US gigs included an opening slot for a then relatively unknown Bruce Springsteen in New York City. The Wailers toured with Sly and the Family Stone, who were at their peak in the early 70s, but were removed after just four dates because their riveting performances, reportedly, upstaged the headliner.
Following the successful "Catch A Fire" tour the Wailers promptly recorded their second album for Island Records, "Burnin", which was released in October 1973. Featuring some of Bob's most celebrated songs "Burnin" introduced their timeless anthem of insurgency "Get Up Stand Up" and "I Shot The Sheriff", which Eric Clapton covered and took to the top of the Billboard Hot 100 in 1974; Clapton's cover significantly elevated Bob Marley's international profile, the same year that Peter Tosh and Bunny Wailer left the group.
BOB MARLEY AND THE WAILERS
Bob Marley's third album for Island Records "Natty Dread", released in October 1975, was the first credited to Bob Marley and The Wailers; the harmonies of Peter Tosh and Bunny Wailer were replaced with the soulfulness of the I-Threes, Rita Marley, Marcia Griffiths and Judy Mowatt. The Wailers band now included Family Man and Carly Barrett, Junior Marvin on rhythm guitar, Al Anderson on lead guitar, Tyrone Downie and Earl "Wya" Lindo on keyboards and Alvin "Seeco" Patterson playing percussion. Characterized by spiritually and socially conscious lyrics, the "Natty Dread" album included a rousing blues-influenced celebration of reggae, "Lively Up Yourself", which Bob used to open many of his concerts; the joy he experienced among friends amidst the struggles of his Trench Town youth is poignantly conveyed on "No Woman No Cry", while the essential title track played a significant role in introducing Rastafarian culture and philosophies to the world. A commercial as well as a critical success, "Natty Dread" peaked at no. 44 on Billboard's Black Albums chart and no. 92 on the Pop Albums chart.
The following year Bob embarked on a highly successful European tour in support of "Natty Dread", which included two nights at London's Lyceum Theater. The Lyceum performances were captured on Bob's next release for Island, "Bob Marley and the Wailers Live", which featured a melancholy version of "No Woman No Cry" that reached the UK top 40.
Bob Marley catapulted to international stardom in 1976 with the release of "Rastaman Vibration", his only album to reach the Billboard Top 200, peaking at no. 8. With the inclusion of "Crazy Baldhead", which decries "brainwash education" and the stirring title cut, "Rastaman Vibration" presented a clearer understanding of Rastafari teachings to the mainstream audience that was now attentively listening to Bob. Also included was "War", its lyrics adapted from an impassioned speech to the United Nations General Assembly in 1963, delivered by Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie I whom Rastafarians consider a living God. Thirty-five years after its initial release "War" remains an unassailable anthem of equality, its empowering spirit embraced by dispossessed people everywhere.
As 1976 drew to a close Bob Marley was now regarded as a global reggae ambassador who had internationally popularized Rastafarian beliefs. At home, that distinction fostered an immense sense of pride among those who embraced Bob's messages. But Bob's expanding influence was also a point of contention for others in Jamaica, which was brutally divided by political alliances. With the intention of suppressing simmering tensions between Jamaica's rival People's National Party (PNP) and the Jamaica Labor Party (JLP), Bob agreed to a request by Jamaica's Ministry of Culture to headline a (non partisan) free concert, Smile Jamaica, to be held on December 5, 1976 in Kingston. Two days prior to the event, as Bob Marley and The Wailers rehearsed at his Kingston home, an unsuccessful assassination attempt was made on his life. Gunmen sprayed Bob's residence with bullets but miraculously, no one was killed; Bob escaped with minor gunshot wounds, Rita underwent surgery to remove a bullet that grazed her head but she was released from the hospital the next day. Bob's manager Don Taylor was shot five times and critically wounded; he was airlifted to Miami's Cedars of Lebanon Hospital for the removal of a bullet lodged against his spinal cord.
If the ambush in the night at Bob Marley's home was an attempt to prevent him from performing at the Smile Jamaica concert or a warning intended to silence the revolutionary spirit within his music, then it had failed miserably. Bob defiantly performed "War" at the Smile Jamaica concert, which reportedly drew 80,000 people but shortly thereafter he went into seclusion and few people knew of his whereabouts.
Three months after the Smile Jamaica concert,
Bob flew to London where he lived for the next year and a half; there he
recorded the albums "Exodus" (1977) and "Kaya" (1978). Exodus' title
track provided a call for change, "the movement of Jah people",
incorporating spiritual and political concerns into its groundbreaking
amalgam of reggae, rock and soul-funk. A second single, the sultry dance
tune "Jamming" became a British top 10 hit. The "Exodus" album remained
on the UK charts for a staggering 56 consecutive weeks, bringing a
level of commercial success to Bob Marley and the Wailers that had
previously eluded the band.
In a more laid back vein, the "Kaya" album hit no. 4 on the British
charts, propelled by the popularity of the romantic singles "Satisfy My
Soul" and "Is This Love?" Kaya's title track extols the herb Marley used
throughout his lifetime; the somber "Running Away," and the haunting
"Time Will Tell" are deep reflections on the December 1976 assassination
attempt. The release of "Kaya" coincided with Bob Marley's triumphant
return to Jamaica for a performance at the One Love Peace Concert, held
on April 22, 1978 at Kingston's National Stadium. The event was another
effort aimed at curtailing the rampant violence stemming from the
senseless PNP-JLP rivalries; the event featured 16 prominent reggae acts
and was dubbed a "Third World Woodstock". In the concert's most
memorable scenario, Bob Marley summoned JLP leader Edward Seaga and
Prime Minister Michael Manley onstage. As the Wailers pumped out the
rhythm to "Jamming", Bob urged the politicians to shake hands; clasping
his left hand over theirs, he raised their arms aloft and chanted "Jah
Rastafari". In recognition of his courageous attempt to bridge Jamaica's
cavernous political divide, Bob traveled to the United Nations in New
York where he received the organization's Medal of Peace on June 6,
1978.BOB MARLEY IN AFRICA
At the end of 1978 Bob made his first trip to Africa, visiting Kenya and Ethiopia, the latter being the spiritual home of Rastafari. During his Ethiopian sojourn, Bob stayed in Shashamane, a communal settlement situated on 500-acres of land donated by His Majesty Emperor Haile Selassie I to Rastafarians that choose to repatriate to Ethiopia. Marley also traveled to the Ethiopian capitol Addis Ababa where he visited several sites significant to His Majesty's life and ancient Ethiopian history.
That same year Bob Marley and The Wailers' tours of Europe and America were highlighted on their second critically acclaimed live album "Babylon By Bus". In 1978 Bob and The Wailers also toured Japan, Australia and New Zealand, where the indigenous Maori people greeted them with a traditional welcoming ceremony typically reserved for visiting dignitaries.
Bob released "Survival", his ninth album for Island, in the summer of 1979. From opening track's clarion call to "Wake Up and Live" to the concluding "Ambush In The Night", his definitive statement on the 1976 assassination attempt, "Survival" is a brilliant, politically progressive work championing pan-African solidarity. "Survival" also included "Africa Unite" and "Zimbabwe", the latter an anthem for the soon-to-be liberated colony of Rhodesia. In April 1980 Bob and the Wailers performed at Zimbabwe's official Independence Ceremony at the invitation of the country's newly elected president Robert Mugabe. This profound honor reconfirmed the importance of Bob Marley and the Wailers' throughout the African Diaspora and reggae's significance as a unifying and liberating force.
Unbeknownst to the band, the Zimbabwe Independence concert was solely for a select group of media and political dignitaries. As Bob Marley and The Wailers started their set, pandemonium ensued among the enormous crowd gathered outside the entrance to the Rufaro Sports Stadium: the gates broke apart as Zimbabweans surged forward to see the musicians who inspired their liberation struggle. Clouds of teargas drifted into the stadium; the Wailers were overcome with fumes and left the stage. The I-Threes returned to their hotel but Bob Marley went back onstage and performed "Zimbabwe". The following evening, Bob Marley and the Wailers returned to Rufaro Stadium and put on a free show for a crowd of nearly 80,000.
The final album to be released in Bob's lifetime, "Uprising", helped to fulfill another career objective. Bob had openly courted an African American listenership throughout his career and he made a profound connection to that demographic with "Could You Be Loved", which incorporated a danceable reggae-disco fusion. "Could You Be Loved" reached no. 6 and no. 56 respectively on Billboard's Club Play Singles and Black Singles charts. "Uprising" also included contemplative odes to Bob's Rastafarian beliefs, "Zion Train" and "Forever Loving Jah", and the deeply moving "Redemption Song" a stark, acoustic declaration of enduring truths and profoundly personal musings; Angelique Kidjo, the Clash's Joe Strummer, Sinead O'Connor and Rihanna are but four of the dozens of artists who have recorded versions of "Redemption Song".
Bob Marley and The Wailers embarked on a major European tour in the spring of 1980, breaking attendance records in several countries. In Milan, Italy, they performed before 100,000 people, the largest audience of their career. The US leg of the "Uprising" tour commenced in Boston on September 16 at the JB Hynes Auditorium. On September 19 Bob and the Wailers rolled into New York City for two consecutive sold out nights at Madison Square Garden as part of a bill featuring New York based rapper Kurtis Blow and Lionel Richie and the Commodores. The tour went onto the Stanley Theater in Pittsburgh, Pa. where Bob delivered the final set of his illustrious career on September 23, 1980.
BOB MARLEY LIVE FOREVER
The Pittsburgh show took place just two days after Marley learned that the cancer that had taken root in his big toe in 1977, following a football injury, had metastasized and spread throughout his body. Bob courageously fought the disease for eight months, even traveling to Germany to undergo treatment at the clinic of Dr. Josef Issels. At the beginning of May 1981, Bob left Germany to return to Jamaica but he did not complete that journey; he succumbed to his cancer in a Miami hospital on May 11, 1981.
The Bob Marley biography doesn't end there. In April 1981 Bob Marley was awarded Jamaica's third highest honor, the Order of Merit, for his outstanding contribution to his country's culture. Ten days after Bob Marley's death, he was given a state funeral as the Honorable Robert Nesta Marley O.M. by the Jamaican government, attended by Prime Minister Edward Seaga and the Opposition Party Leader Michael Manley. Hundreds of thousands of spectators lined the streets to observe the procession of cars that wound its way from Kingston to Bob's final resting place, a mausoleum in his birthplace of Nine Miles. The Bob Marley and the Wailers legend lives on, however, and thirty years after Bob Marley's death, his music remains as vital as ever in its celebration of life and embodiment of struggle.
THE BOB MARLEY INFLUENCE AND LEGACY
The Bob Marley influence upon various populations remains unparalleled, irrespective of race, color or creed. Bob Marley's revolutionary yet unifying music, challenging colonialism, racism, "fighting against ism and scism" as he sang in "One Drop", has had profound effects even in country's where English isn't widely spoken. In August 2008, two musicians from the war scarred countries of Serbia and Croatia (formerly provinces within Yugoslavia) unveiled a statue of Bob Marley during a rock music festival in Serbia; the monument's inscription read "Bob Marley Fighter For Freedom Armed With A Guitar". "Marley was chosen because he promoted peace and tolerance in his music," said Mirko Miljus, an organizer of the event.
In Koh Lipe, Thailand, Bob Marley's February 6th birthday is celebrated for three days with a cultural festival. In New Zealand, his life and music are now essential components of Waitangi Day (February 6) observances honoring the unifying treaty signed between the country's European settlers and its indigenous Maori population. When Bob visited New Zealand for a concert at Auckland's Western Springs Stadium on April 6, 1979, the Maori greeted him with a traditional song and dance ceremony reserved for visiting dignitaries. Marley's former manager, the late Don Taylor, referred to the Maori welcoming ritual as "one of my most treasured memories of the impact of Bob and reggae music on the world".
On April 17, 1980 when the former British colony of Rhodesia was liberated and officially renamed Zimbabwe and the Union Jack replaced with the red, gold, green and black Zimbabwean flag, it is said that the first words officially spoken in the new nation were "ladies and gentlemen, Bob Marley and the Wailers". For the Zimbabwean freedom fighters that listened to Bob Marley, inspiration and strength were drawn from his empowering lyrics. Marley penned a tribute to their efforts, "Zimbabwe", which was included on the most overtly political album of his career, 1979's "Survival" and he was invited to headline their official liberation celebrations. Zimbabwean police used tear gas to control the crowds that stampeded through the gates of Harare's Rufaro Stadium to get a glimpse of Marley onstage. As several members of Marley's entourage fled for cover, he returned to the stage to perform "Zimbabwe", his words resounding with a greater urgency amidst the ensuing chaos: "to divide and rule could only tear us apart, in everyman 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." "There was smoke everywhere, our eyes filled with tears so we ran off," recalls Marcia Griffiths, who sang backup for Marley, alongside Rita Marley and Judy Mowatt, as the I-Threes. "When Bob saw us the next day he smiled and said now we know who are the real revolutionaries."
BOB MARLEY INSPIRATION
A generation later a group of political refugees
from Sierra Leone living in Guinean concentration camps and traumatized
by years of bloody warfare in their country, found through the music of
Bob Marley, inspiration to form their own band and write and record
their own songs. The Refugee All Stars won international acclaim for
their 2006 debut "Living Like A Refugee" and their 2010 album "Rise and
Shine", each utilizing a blend of reggae, Sierra Leone's Islamic rooted
bubu music and West African goombay.
Further evidence of Bob Marley's ongoing
influence arrived on October 13, 2010 when Victor Zamora, one of 33
Chilean miners rescued after being trapped in a San Jose mine for 69
days, asked to hear Marley's "Buffalo Soldier" shortly after his
release. Recorded in 1980 and posthumously released in 1983, "Buffalo
Soldier" recounts the atrocities of the slave trade. Like so many of Bob
Marley's songs, it highlights the importance of relating past
occurrences to present-day identities: "if you know your history then
you will know where you are coming from, then you wouldn't have to ask
me, who the hell do I think I am?"
As 2011 draws to a close, Occupy Wall St. styled protests spread
around the world, challenging social and economic inequality, as well as
corporate greed and its influence upon government policy. The
uncompromising sentiments expressed on Bob's "Get Up Stand Up", lyrics
that are repeatedly chanted at these demonstrations, seem to have
directly inspired the protesters' dissenting stance: "Some people think a
great God will come down from the sky, take away everything and make
everybody feel high/but if you know what life is worth, you will look
for yours on earth and now we see the light, we're gonna stand up for
our rights!"BOB AND RASTAFARIAN BELIEFS
The pan-African consciousness, progressive political ideologies and deep spiritual convictions heard in Bob Marley's music were derived from his firmly rooted commitment to Rastafarian beliefs and its attendant lifestyle. "The combination of his own inquisitiveness and the profound depth and influence of the Rastafari movement transformed Bob Marley into an artist who reshaped reggae music and the course of world history," says Carlyle McKetty, President of the Brooklyn, NY based Coalition to Preserve Reggae Music. "The intricate relationship between reggae and Rasta is seminal to understanding and preserving the reggae form and Bob Marley's keen understanding and internalization of the tenets of the Rastafari movement have yet to be adequately explored."
RASTAFARI ROOTS
Many principles of the Rastafari movement were constructed from the teachings of Jamaica's Marcus Mosiah Garvey. Born in St. Ann Jamaica on August 17, 1887, Garvey was the founder of the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) and a proponent of repatriation to Africa for Africans throughout the Diaspora. Garvey urged his people to know their history lest they be doomed to repeat it. He preached the importance of Africans worshipping God in their own image. "We Negroes believe in the God of Ethiopia, the everlasting God, the one God of all ages; we shall worship him through the spectacles of Ethiopia," Garvey said. Garvey's associate Reverend James Morris Web, a clergyman from Chicago and the author of "A Black Man Will Be the Coming Universal King, Proven By Biblical History" stated at a UNIA convention "look to Africa where a Black king shall be crowned he shall be the redeemer", a prediction that is often attributed to Garvey.
Another primary source from which Rastafari tenets were drawn was The Holy Piby, The Black Man's Bible, a controversial book compiled by Robert Athlyi Rogers published in 1924. Barbadian minister Charles F. Goodridge and Grace Jenkins Garrison brought the Holy Piby to Jamaica in 1925. The Piby's Afro-centric teachings, intended to counteract the distortions allegedly made by white leaders when the bible was translated into English, engendered staunch opposition from traditional Christian church leaders in Jamaica. Goodridge and Garrison faced ongoing persecution for preaching the Piby's doctrines so they eventually fled to the rural interior of the eastern Jamaican parish of St. Thomas. There the seeds of the Rastafarian movement were planted and quickly proliferated through the leadership of Leonard P. Howell.
When Ras Tafari Makonnen the great grandson of Saheka Selassie of Shoa was crowned His Imperial Majesty Halie Selassie Emperor of Ethiopia on Nov 2, 1930 in Addis Ababa, Howell told his followers "the king of all kings has now been crowned in Ethiopia and all tribute is due to him." Howell's followers, Garveyites and others saw Selassie I's coronation as the fulfillment of a prophecy of deliverance.
Born in 1892, Haile Selassie I is the 225th in an unbroken line of Ethiopian monarchs descended from the Biblical King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba. Rastafarians claim that His Majesty, the Emperor of Ethiopia from 1930 to 1974, was the reincarnation of Jesus Christ, and a manifestation of Jah upon Earth. Rastafarians maintain that Halie Selassie I's (supposed) death on August 28, 1975 was a hoax because God cannot die.
Bob Marley wrote the solemn "Jah Live" as a direct response to newspaper headlines announcing the death of His Imperial Majesty: "Fool say in their heart Rasta your God is dead/But I and I know, Jah Jah Dread it shall be Dreader Dread/Jah Live children yeah."
EARLY RASTAFARI REFERENCES ON RECORD
Before the rise of Bob Marley, Rastafari doctrines and practices were sporadically referenced in Jamaican popular music throughout the early 60s. The Jamaican jazz percussionist Oswald Williams, aka Count Ossie, inspired by African burru drumming established several Rastafarian camps in the 1940s where he invited musicians to be a part of his musical experiments. Ossie led a troupe of Rastafarian Nyabinghi drummers on the 1960 hit "Oh Carolina" by the Folkes Brothers, marking the first incorporation of Rastafarian practices into Jamaican popular music.
Don Drummond the acclaimed lead trombonist with Jamaican super group The Skatalites is credited with introducing Rastafari to ska, the dominant music genre of the early 60s and the precursor to rocksteady and reggae. The titles of some of the Skatalites' greatest instrumentals recorded between 1964-1965 including "Addis Ababa"and "Tribute to Marcus Garvey" reflected Drummond's Rastafarian faith.
In 1966 The Wailers released the single "Rasta Shook Them Up" their earliest recorded reference to Rastafari, written about His Majesty's visit to Jamaica in 1966. But it was Bob Marley's Island Records releases throughout the 1970s, commencing with "Burnin" and "Catch A Fire" (both recorded with Peter Tosh and Bunny Wailer and released in 1973) and subsequent albums with the Wailers band that brought Rastafari to an international audience. Burnin' featured the traditional "Rasta Man Chant", its worshipful lyrics adapted from the Holy Piby.
RASTAMAN INTERNATIONAL VIBRATIONS
The title track to "Natty Dread" (1974) the first Bob Marley album to chart in the US, provided an affirmation of Bob's unyielding faith: "Don't care what the world say (Natty Dread) I'n'I couldn't never go astray (Natty Dread)". "Rastaman Vibration" Marley's highest US charting album (at no. 8) rightfully proclaimed Rasta as offering "a new time, a new day" on its title track. Released in 1976, "Rastaman Vibration" also included "War" a stirring equality anthem, its lyrics taken from an address by Haile Selassie I to the United Nations' General Assembly in 1963. "War's" globally pertinent lines ("until the color of a man's skin is of no more significance than the color of his eyes...until the ignoble and unhappy regime that holds our brothers in Angola, in Mozambique, in South Africa, in subhuman bondage, have been toppled and utterly destroyed everywhere is war") and the reverence with which Marley regarded His Majesty's words transformed his performances of the song into spellbinding displays. The title track of 1977's "Exodus" was a clarion call to heed the guidance of Rastafari: "Many people will fight ya down when ya see Jah light/let me tell you if you're not wrong then everything is alright".
Bob Marley's most overtly political album "Survival" released in 1979 offers several direct references the Rastafarian way of life. "One Drop" advocates for "the teachings of His Majesty, a we no want no devil philosophy"; "Africa Unite" champions oneness among the Diaspora, declaring: "How good and how pleasant it would be before God and man to see the unification of all RastamanÉWe are the children of the Rastaman". Although it is common nowadays to see people from various walks of life wearing their hair in dreadlocks and donning the red, green and gold colors of the Ethiopian flag, these representations of an uncompromising African identity developed by Rastafarians were once contemptuously viewed as deviations from accepted cultural norms. "Survival's" "Ride Natty Ride" details the opposition Rastafarians have endured: "all and all you see a-gwaan/is to fight against the Rasta man so they build their world in great confusion to force on us the devil's illusion".
Bob Marley reaffirms his adherence to Rastafari on "Forever Loving Jah" from "Uprising" the final album released during his lifetime. "Uprising" features the acoustic "Redemption Song" which implores the listener: "emancipate yourselves from mental slavery none but ourselves can free our mind", reiterating the self-empowering convictions that Rastafarian tenets have sought to establish."
"Blackman Redemption" from the posthumously released "Confrontation" album summarizes Halie Selassie's royal lineage, "coming from the root of King David through to the line of Solomon, His Imperial Majesty is the Power of Authority". On "Rasta Man Live Up" Bob encourages his Rasta brethren and sistren to "keep your culture, don't be afraid of the vulture/grow your dreadlocks/don't be afraid of the wolf pack".
When Rastafarian identity first emerged in Jamaica it allowed displaced Africans to connect to their ancestral homeland despite the persecution they faced for such practices. Today, thirty years after Bob Marley's passing his enlightened lyrics, accompanied by the Wailers' powerful drum and bass driven reverberations continue to provide a voice for the suffering masses, the injustices of political corruption and the indignities of racial oppression, in the all-encompassing spirit of "one love".
Source: Bob Marley.com.
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