Tuesday, October 18, 2005

NEVILLE GARRICK: BOB MARLEY PHOTOGRAPHS

November 5th – December 17th, 2005
Opening Reception with the Artist: Saturday November 5th 6pm-10pm




Robert Nesta Marley, better known as Bob Marley, was a Jamaican singer, guitarist, songwriter and activist. He is the most widely known Reggae musician of all time, famous for popularizing the genre outside of Jamaica. Much of his work deals with the struggles of the impoverished and/or powerless. Bob Marley's music and legend have gone from strength to strength in the years since his early death in 1981, whilst also bringing him a nearly mythic status in music history. He remains enormously popular and well known all over the world, and particularly so in Africa.

Neville Garrick joined Bob Marley in his Rasta crusade, touring with the Wailers and concentrating his talents on the visual side of things. He designed many of the Bob Marley and the Wailers album covers including Rastaman Vibration and Exodus. He was responsible for the backdrops and lighting for live shows, even joining in on percussion when the opportunity arose. These black and white photographs taken by Neville, document the heyday of Marley’s career, including the famous Rastaman Vibes photos from 1974, a concert at New York’s Central Park in 1975 and Marley's visit to Zimbabwe in 1980.


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''Slogans,'' First New Official Bob Marley Recording in More Than a Decade, Plus Two New Remixes, Highlight Africa Unite: the Singles Collection

Monday October 17, 9:00 am ET
Also Live! At The Rainbow Concert Homevideo Adds Caribbean Nights Documentary And Exclusive Extras For Its DVD Debut


LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 17, 2005--In the year Bob Marley would have turned 60, the past, present and future of his music are celebrated not only with the first Bob Marley & The Wailers greatest hits package to include both his early sides and his Island Records hits but also a new recording and two new remixes. Along with 17 vintage tracks, Africa Unite: The Singles Collection (Island/Tuff Gong/UMe), released November 8, 2005, spotlights "Slogans," the first new official Marley track released in more than a decade. It is believed Marley recorded the song in a Miami bedroom in 1979. The tapes were kept at Marley's mother's house and last year the reggae legend's sons Stephen and Ziggy revisited the acoustic demo. In 2005, Stephen overdubbed the tracks with other instruments, including guitar by Eric Clapton. Stephen and Ziggy produced "Slogans" specifically for this release.

Another new recording is a remix of "Africa Unite," whose original was heard on the 1979 album Survival. The song is presented here in an anthemic remix by will.i.am of The Black Eyed Peas, who was personally invited to create the remix by Rita Marley, Bob's wife. Also new is the Ashley Beedle Remix of "Get Up, Stand Up Vs. Jamrock," a mash-up of Bob's classic and "Welcome To Jamrock," the 2005 hit from youngest son Damian.



Africa Unite: The Singles Collection commemorates Marley's life on record just as the 2005 Africa Unite concert in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on his 60th birthday (February 6) commemorated it on stage. Africa Unite: The Singles Collection includes the early classics "Soul Rebel," "Lively Up Yourself," "Trenchtown Rock" and "Concrete Jungle" alongside the Island hits "I Shot The Sheriff," "Get Up, Stand Up," "No Woman, No Cry," "Exodus," "Jamming," "Could You Be Loved," "One Love/People Get Ready," "Roots, Rock, Reggae," "Waiting In Vain," "The Sun Is Shining," "Is This Love," "Three Little Birds" and "Buffalo Soldier."

Also issued is the DVD premiere of Live! At The Rainbow in a two-disc package that adds to the 1986 concert homevideo more than 20 minutes of exclusive interviews and footage recently shot in Kingston, Jamaica, of a visit to The Bob Marley Museum and Tuff Gong Studios, plus the award-winning 1988 documentary Caribbean Nights: The Bob Marley Story. The latter includes interviews with family and friends, and rare archival footage, and has been augmented for this edition by 20-plus minutes of exclusive interviews and new video of Marley's birthplace and final resting place, Nine Mile.

For the 1977 concert at London's Rainbow Theatre, the group performed quintessential versions of "No Woman, No Cry," "Lively Up Yourself," "Rebel Music" and more. For its DVD debut, Live! At The Rainbow's video has been digitally enhanced and its audio digitally remastered in both 5.1 Surround Sound and stereo.

Marley's stature in music grows with each passing year. Africa Unite: The Singles Collection and Live! At The Rainbow continue his legacy.

Jamaica Honors Saxophonist Headley Bennett

By Associated Press


KINGSTON, Jamaica -- The Jamaican government has bestowed one of its highest civic honors on a saxophonist who played on the first song recorded by reggae icon Bob Marley.

Saxophonist Headley Bennett, 74, was awarded the Order of Distinction on Monday along with 157 other people during the annual National Honors and Awards ceremony.

Bennett is one of Jamaica's most prolific musicians. He has worked with some of the biggest names in reggae, including Bunny Wailer and Peter Tosh, co-founders with Marley of the band The Wailers.

Marley was a 17-year-old solo act in 1962 when Bennett played on his first song, "Judge Not," a ska number produced by Leslie Kong.

Also receiving the Order of Distinction, Jamaica's sixth highest civic honor, were keyboardist Michael "Ibo" Cooper and guitarist Stephen "Cat" Coore, co-founders of reggae band Third World.

Wednesday, October 12, 2005

Lee "Scratch" Perry Alive and Well

Lee 'Scratch' Perry, The Custard Factory, Birmingham
Review by Martin Longley
Published: 12 October 2005

Lee "Scratch" Perry dwells in a curious state of being at once one of reggae's pivotal producers while also being a true cult figure. He's always been eccentric, but in his early days he shaped a callow Bob Marley and recorded some of the most commercial singles to come out of Jamaica. In the Seventies, Perry was a leading innovator in the creation of dub, a radically minimalist mixing-desk art that retains some power over all worthwhile dance music.

The problem with Perry's live shows is matching up to the legend. The first time I saw him, at this venue in 2003, his performance was more subdued, the backing band more conventional. This time, Perry is wired up with a palpable tension, clearly in the mood for being a more forceful front-man.

He bobs onstage looking like a reconstruction of a Pearly King and a tiny jockey, garlanded with shiny trinkets. He's a shamanic priest, carrying a bottle stuffed with smoking incense, flicking it about above his head as if he's sanctifying venue and audience.

Perry uses the first number to introduce himself. The tumbling phonetics and burred tones would be impressive enough without the absurdist lyrical content. Surely Mark E Smith of The Fall must have picked up some of his own rambling surrealism and confrontational hectoring from Perry.

Earlier in the evening, Neal "The Mad Professor" Fraser had been celebrating 25 years of his Ariwa Sounds label. Now, surely, Fraser must be manning the mixing desk, cutting and throwing around the live band's drums, bass, keyboards and guitar, manipulating Perry's vocals with extreme echo trimmings. Fraser and Perry first worked together 20 years ago, and the bond is now tight, the two of them touring together regularly.

"War in a Babylon" is a highlight, the tune Perry created with Max Romeo updated to reflect the current global climate. A couple of tunes push their rhythms away from reggae, opening up to a faster, hybridised descendent.

Few performers are able to spread such a sense of complete spontaneity. He is nothing like a conventional singer, but Perry's is one of modern music's most distinctive voices.

Sunday, October 02, 2005

Reggae scion Damian Marley builds buzz for big Reggae Hit!

By Todd Martens Fri Sep 30, 6:37 PM ET

LOS ANGELES (Billboard) - Damian "Jr. Gong" Marley took the U.S. pop charts by storm earlier this month, when "Welcome to Jamrock" bowed at No. 7 on Billboard 200, the highest debut for a reggae release since Nielsen SoundScan starting collating data in 1991.

Marley already has a Grammy Award for best reggae album for his 2003 effort, "Halfway Tree," on Universal's Motown Records. Yet the album failed to produce a radio hit, and has sold only 92,000 copies in the States, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

After "Halfway Tree," Motown dropped Marley from its roster. But his Universal status changed with the title track to "Welcome to Jamrock." Christy Barber, president of Kingston, Jamaica-based Tuff Gong -- the label started by the young artist's father, Bob Marley, in 1965 -- sent the song to U.S. radio in March. After securing play on R&B/hip-hop WQHT (Hot 97) New York and placing the video on BET, Barber found that Universal was looking to rekindle its relationship with Tuff Gong and Marley.

"He was on Motown," Barber says, "and he was -- what's the nice word -- released? But he was still on the family label."

Barber says the Tuff Gong-affiliated Ghetto Youth imprint, which was founded by Marley's older brothers Ziggy and Stephen, maintained its joint venture with Motown. The labels were prepping the solo debut from Stephen, a co-producer on "Welcome to Jamrock," when Damian's song started to take off at radio.

"We had every major label in a bidding war," Barber says. "We chose Universal because we felt like we wanted to keep the family under one umbrella. Damian did feel a little reluctant, but Bob's catalog is there, and Stephen is there, and there were enough good people who cheerleaded for us, so it made sense."

It appears to have paid off, with a top 10 debut and 86,000 units sold. Marley also set a family record, besting the No. 8 high posted by his father's "Rastaman Vibration" in 1976.

Reggae artists have not been strangers to The Billboard 200 in recent years, with albums charting by Sean Paul, Shaggy, Beenie Man and Elephant Man, among others. With Paul's "The Trinity" (Atlantic) hitting store shelves September 27, retailers are counting on reggae to be a consistent seller this holiday season.

Barber began setting up Marley's third full-length release in October 2004, when Tuff Gong released a 7-inch of the single. A video was shot in December, and Barber worked the song in Jamaica before submitting it to Bobby Konders' radio show on WQHT.

"They really jumped on it," Barber says. "They're not really a key station in breaking reggae. It usually comes out of Boston or Miami."

Tuff Gong hired an independent promoter to help work the single, and soon had a clip on mtvU and BET. What followed was a three-month bidding war to sign Marley.

"I was actually getting married when I was in the middle of negotiating this," Barber says. "I wasn't even at my own rehearsal dinner. I was in the parking lot on my cell phone. On the day of my wedding, I had my cell phone off for the ceremony, but had it on during the reception."

Barber was married June 25, and the new deal with Universal was closed in early July. In November, Marley will open for U2. "They came to us," Barber says. This month Marley will be a guest on "MTV Unplugged:
Alicia Keys."

With his crossover appeal, success in the United States was not entirely a surprise. But Barber will not deny an advantage. "The Marley name always helps," she says.

Reuters/Billboard

The Rise of a Movement

A GNA Feature By Cephas Amevor (AIJC Intern)

Accra, Sept 27, GNA- "All the days of his vow, no razor shall come upon his head; until the time is completed for which he separates himself to the Lord, he shall be holy, he shall let the locks of his hair grow long."- Numbers 6:5.

The above quotation in the Bible backs the idea for any person to put on dreadlocks, provided he or she wants to become a Nazarene. That person could also be called a Rastafarian.

Starting in Jamaica in the 1930s by Joseph Hibbert, Archibald Dunkley, Ferdinand Rickets, Vernal Davis and Leonard Hewell Rastafarianism and its movement spread to the United Kingdom, Canada and the United States and to other Caribbean islands.

In Ghana Rastafarians are found in all the 10 regions. And in the media, mention Ras Black Santino of Vibe FM; Ras Culture B (Korku Adinkra Apetu) of Joy FM and, Daddy Bosco of Adom FM. When it began, the Rastafarian Movement was named after Tafari Makonnen, which was the original name of Haile Selassie I, a prince who in 1930 was crowned Emperor of Ethiopia. Ras means "Lord" in the Amharic language.

The long, matted locks known as dreadlocks easily identify Rastafarians. Many Rastafarians also wear beads around their necks, hand and legs signifying their love for local made artefacts. They also carry along badges of Haile Selassie, Marcus Garvey, a Pan-Africanist and sometimes Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah, First President of the Republic of Ghana.

In Ghana, a number of tour guides are Rastafarians. They sometimes wear knitted caps of red, gold, green, and black -the colours of the Ethiopian flag, which have symbolic significance for members of the movement.

They also observe Hebrew dietary laws, abstaining from certain items in their diet, and eating only those foods considered pure. Sometimes, Rastafarians tend to have a rather low public image. They are seen as mentally derailed and often denied jobs as a result of wearing dreads.

But if the Constitution and the electoral laws accept Rastafarians votes, taxes and other roles in national development, why are they discriminated against when it comes to giving jobs and positions for which they are qualified?

There is no need to neglect and scorn Rastafarians. Speaking to the GNA Aswad Nkrabia, Organizer of Rastarafari Unity Home and Abroad (RUHA), an NGO championing the Rasatafarian cause, advised Rastafarians, who have rather made roaming their daily schedule, to leave the streets and use their God given hands to do something profitably for themselves and the nation.

He said being a Rastafarian was entering into a covenant with God, hence one needed to be neat. Jesus Christ is believed to be a Rastafarian because he observed all the vows that were now known as Rastafarian vows.

The central doctrine of Rastafarianism, also known as Rasta, is that Haile Selassie is the Christ of the black race. This belief continued to be held even after his death in 1975.

The Ras Tafari movement is thought to be a strand of the "Back to Africa" movement created by Jamaican leader Marcus Garvey after he moved to the United States and settled in New York City in 1916.

Garvey preached black pride and black emancipation, and advocated a return of black Americans to Africa, their ancestral homeland, and particularly to Liberia, Sierra Leone and Ghana.

According to a widely believed report, Garvey told his followers in Jamaica, at his departure for the United States, "Look to Africa where a Black King shall be crowned; he shall be your redeemer.

"After the coronation of Haile Selassie, many Garvey followers began to search the Bible for confirmation of the prophecy. The confirmation was found in Revelation 19:16, which reads: "And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, King of Kings, and Lord of Lords." With these events the Rastafarian movement was born.

Rastafarianism is a millenarian movement emphasizing the belief that, through the power of a supernatural being, oppressed people would miraculously be led from oppression to a new heaven on Earth where all problems would be solved in peace.

To believers, Haile Selassie I is the reincarnated Jesus Christ with supreme powers; through him they looked for an immediate return to Ethiopia - the promised land- and the biblical name for Africa. Rastafarians have developed an elaborate ritual system using marijuana (ganja) as a sacrament, as Christians use bread and wine. They have adopted the law of the biblical Nazarites, which prohibits the cutting of their hair.

The conversion of reggae singer Bob Marley to Rastafarianism in 1967 helped to propagate the Rastafarian message and become widespread during the 1970s and early 1980s as Marley and reggae achieved mainstream popularity.

After Marley's death in 1981 other reggae musicians, inspired by the Rastafarian message, also communicated it through their music. Because of its revolutionary stance the Rastafarian movement has been controversial since its emergence. It is unequivocally a black-consciousness movement.

The creed itself is generally peaceful, and Rasta has become increasingly accepted by mainstream organizations as a legitimate religious movement. However, Rastafarians say it is a movement that teaches moral uprightness, humanity and love for one another worldwide. The ritual use of marijuana has contributed to some unfavourable perceptions of the movement, especially in countries where the use of marijuana is illegal.

Marijuana, some scientist s say, has negative implications on the human body. However, Rastafarians debunk the claim saying it is a good herbal medicine, which was created by God. Some scientists say it could reduce high blood pressure and the tendency of becoming asthmatic.