Whether you're Ravi Coltrane, Sean Lennon, Natalie Cole or Jakob Dylan, it's no easy task to follow in the footsteps of your legendary parent by entering into the same profession as a way to uncover your own individuality without the ghost of resemblance haunting you along the way. It's certainly no different for the five musician sons of reggae trailblazer Bob Marley.
But rather than dismiss or overlook the astounding career of their influential father, Ziggy, Stephen, Julian, Damian and Ky-Mani Marley will celebrate his contribution to the life of music and the progression of their respective careers with their recent announcement of the Bob Marley: Roots, Rock, Reggae Festival. The five brothers will play tunes from their successful solo albums, along with famed tunes from their father's collection of classics in a national summer tour beginning this month."For the past year, we've been talking about it; there is something special about playing with family that you don't have when you play with anyone else. It's a special thing that goes on when all of the brothers play together," said Ziggy. "We are very versatile and each of us has a different angle within our music. Damian does a lot of dance hall vibe, I kind of experiment a lot, I'm a wild person out there and Julian is the same way. But really, it's whatever we feel like, music is all about the feelings."
The coast-to-coast tour will not only feature the Marley brothers but reggae giants Toots and the Maytals, hip-hop artist Common and the San Diego band Slightly Stoopid among others.
"When we are on stage playing, we are with each other 100 percent, but if we are playing soccer or dominoes or video games then we can get very competitive with each other," said Ziggy.
The festival that celebrates the life and legacy of the Marley family music began earlier this month with its first date in Virginia. The tour marks the first time members of the Marley family have performed together in a national tour under their father's name.
"Our ambition is to spread the music all over the Earth to everyone, the message of one love and unity," said Julian. "It's the universal message, because our father's music is humanitarian music. Anywhere you go in the world it's the same, the oneness, the same justice and equality for all."
Some contend the word "reggae" was coined from the 1968 single, "Do the Reggay (sic)," by Toots and the Maytals while others believe the term was derived from the word "Regga," the name of a Bantu-speaking tribe on Lake Tanganyika in central Africa while others claim it came by way of the corruption of a "streggae," which is Kingston street slang for prostitute.
Bob Marley claimed the word was Spanish in origin and meant "the king's music." However, veteran Jamaican studio musicians argue the name came from a description of the music's actual beat itself.
"The world needs the truth and music is a very important part of society. If you can watch the direction of your society, it correlates with the direction of the music," said Ziggy. "In the 1960s, what type of music did you have? You had very conscious, very militant, protest kind of music. In the 1970s it began to change, so did society. Music is very important, the more the music changes, the more society changes. Music influences the youth, the younger generation, especially. I think music today reflects materialism, sexuality, a lot of selfishness, ego. I don't think it reflects social concern, I don't think it reflects spiritual concern. Today's society is like that now - materialistic, egotistical, all about looks and sexuality."
The boys' father, Robert Nesta Marley, was born Feb. 6, 1945, in St. Anns, Jamaica, West Indies. Marley began his career as a member of the Wailers - originally comprising six artists: Marley, Bunny Livingston, Peter Tosh, Junior Braithwaite, Beverley Kelso and Cherry Smith - formed in 1963. The band's first record, "Simmer Down" under the name Bob Marley and the Wailers, was released just before Christmas in 1963.
"My father loved music, all different types of music," said Ziggy. "He doesn't care about whatever music it is but more about what's coming out of that person's mouth that is really the most important thing. Some of the artists today he wouldn't like because they aren't really saying anything that would catch his ear - the consciousness, the music and words that have meaning, not just about frivolous things." In February of 1966, Marley married Rita Anderson who was part of the musical group the Soulettes and who later became a solo vocalist in her own right. He left Jamaica the next day to join his mother in the U.S., specifically Wilmington, Del. He later returned to Jamaica in October that same year. During this time, the Wailers became a vocal trio.
"Realistically speaking, we will always be known as Bob's sons. There is no escaping that, but we just play music," said Ziggy. "We don't sit there thinking we need to get away from our father."
Marley's exposure to American recording groups came first in the slums of Trenchtown. Among their American contemporaries, Marley, Livingston and Tosh were inspired by music from artists like Ray Charles and Sam Cooke, along with the impeccable harmonies of The Impressions, led by Curtis Mayfield and Jerry Butler.
"As a family, we want to be remembered for music that uplifts and does more than entertain, music that is really like medicine and serves a higher purpose as our father and many other artists of that caliber have done," said Ziggy.
Trenchtown was a housing element erected subsequent to a 1951 hurricane that annihilated the region's squatter camps, which had gradually developed around West Kingston. Displaced rural folk and city dwellers became scavengers since the camp was built around Kingston's former refuse dump. In 1957, Bob and his mother, Cedella, moved from the countryside of Nine Miles to Kingston, Jamaica's capital, in search of work and an urban lifestyle. Employment was scare, and poverty and violence plagued the city.
Trenchtown did, however, maintain government yards for the down-and-out - one- or two-story concrete units - constructed around a central courtyard with communal cooking facilities but lacking any form of sewage system.
For many natives, the music of Jamaica lifted the spirits of those who witnessed the impacts of slavery and colonialism along with political corruption and civil disorder throughout the country's tumultuous history, but it gave the poor class a voice and celebrated the joys of life and the notion of spreading "One Love" all over the world.
Marley survived an assassination attempt in December 1976 and left Jamaica in early 1977 for 18 months. Marley learned he had cancer when he stubbed his foot in a soccer game and doctors operated on him to remove the cancerous cells in his right toe. Over the years, Marley continued to record albums at the rate of one each year until his death on May 11, 1981, in Miami, Fla., when the cancer spread to his brain. At this time, the umbrella label of the family-founded Tuff Gong Records, Island Records, estimated Marley's worldwide sales to be $190 million.
Both Marley and his sons were and are practicing Rastafarians, which is a religion that blends the simplest forms of Judaism and Christianity. Among their beliefs, Rastafarians accept the herb known as "ganja" or marijuana as an aid to meditation and is smoked as a religious rite. The religion also shuns the consumption of alcohol, tobacco and all meat as well as many types of fish and seasonings like salt. In short, anything that was not "ital," is forbidden, which is a Rasta term meaning pure, natural or clean. The religion also discourages the combing or cutting of the hair, hence the growth of dreadlocks.
"Our father's music is a Rasta music and so our music is a continuation like a relay race because it's one message which is universal," said Julian.
In 1994, Marley was inducted into the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame and five years later his celebrated song, "Get Up, Stand Up," was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. In the U.S., Marley and the Wailers have nine RIAA gold-certified albums and one double-platinum album, along with the 10-times platinum certified hits collection, "Legend."
Marley's eldest son, Ziggy, 35, a native of Kingston, has been singing and performing since the age of 10 and collaborated with three siblings - brother Stephen and sisters Cedella and Sharon - to become the group the Melody Makers. The Melody Makers have earned three Grammies, sold millions of albums and played numerous sold-out concerts. Ziggy recently broke out on a solo career and recorded "Dragonfly" in 2003.
"We check out people like Norah Jones and Outkast - anything that is original or unique. That's what I like to look for even within this time and I check for that," said Ziggy. "I think it's a good time for independence from the record labels. I think the Internet has been a good thing for musicians because right now the music business isn't doing a lot for musicians. So touring and being in connection with your fans over the Internet, that's really where it lies for us. The record company is secondary right now in the music, it's the people and taking it straight to the people."
Julian was born in London in 1975 and recorded his first song at the age of 5. Julian, a self-taught musician, plays the bass, drums and keyboards. In 1989, he finished work on his first album, "Uprising," which is also the name of his band. Although he spends time in Miami and London, Julian moved to Jamaica in 1992.
"Growing up we listened to dance hall, hip-hop, jazz; we listened and still listen to a lot of different music that can give you inspiration," said Julian. "There are a lot of groups that influenced us, legends Stevie Wonder, Nat King Cole, a lot of different stuff. Music is a love and there are no boundaries. No matter what song it is, if it is good there is always a consciousness."
Damian was born in 1978 to Jamaica's former Miss World Cindy Breakspeare and is the youngest of Marley's children. Marley was known to cheat on his wife, Rita, and fathered children with several different women. He grew up in the nurturing musical environment of his father's Hope Road home in Kingston. He formed his first band at the age of 13 called the Shepherds. Damian's 1996 debut album, "Mr. Marley," highlights the production work of his brother Stephen who established the Ghetto Youth International production label with Ziggy, and was recorded at the renovated Marley Music Studio at 56 Hope Road.
Ky-Mani, also born in Jamaica, was the only child of Jamaican table tennis champion Anita Belnavis and Marley. He spent numerous summers with his father and Rita as a child. He moved to Miami at the age of 9 and grew to love sports. He eventually fell into music after his mother encouraged him to take piano lessons.
It was in 1977 when a few native New Orleans musicians agreed to form a traditional jazz brass band in the spirit of the genre's earliest kind of organized music groups. These groups are synonymous with the city's historically rich culture and music scene, particularly within the context of the jazz funeral.
The group, now comprising eight members and now famous throughout the U.S. and around the world as the Dirty Dozen Brass Band, first sprouted roots via the Dirty Dozen Social and Pleasure Club. This group of men would provide entertainment at baseball games, picnics, parades, weddings, neighborhood gatherings and, most notably, funerals. New Orleans residents first dubbed the group the Dozen, which led to Dirty Dozen and later its current four-word name.
Social and pleasure clubs have a history that dates back several centuries in New Orleans when black Southerners couldn't afford life insurance and such groups would provide the proper funeral arrangements for them. Brass bands were usually hired to follow the funeral procession that would play somber, traditional tunes and end with jubilee dance numbers. By the time the Dirty Dozen Brass Band arrived on the scene in the 1970s, traditional funeral processions and brass bands were perceived as somewhat archaic. However, this particular group - Gregory Davis, trumpet and vocals; Sammie Williams on trombone; Roger Lewis on baritone and soprano saxophone; Kevin Harris on tenor saxophone; Terence Higgins on drums; Julius McKee, Kirk Joseph and Jeffrey Hills Sr. on sousaphone; Jamie Mclean on guitar; and Efrem Towns on trumpet and flugelhorn - made a name for itself, touring more than 30 countries on five continents, recording 10 albums and playing as guest studio musicians on albums by Elvis Costello, Dave Matthews, David Bowie, Widespread Panic and the Black Crowes just to name a few.
Lewis, who has been with the band since it first sprouted roots in New Orleans, the birthplace of jazz along with some of the genre's exceptional talent - Louis Armstrong, Sidney Bechet, and Wynton and Branford Marsalis - was born and raised in town.
The group's latest work, "Funeral for a Friend," is dedicated to famed musician, Anthony "Tuba Fats" Lacen who was put to rest this past January. The record pays homage to an era of the popular funeral processions that always called upon the increasingly popular groups of the 18th century to play the music: brass bands. On the way to the cemetery it was always customary that the band perform a mournful dirge or spiritual and on its return into town, usually a rousing version of something like "When the Saints go Marching In."
In observance of a funeral, Bechet once said, "Music here is as much a part of death as it is of life."
The album represents the exploration into the beauty and influence of traditional blues and gospel hymns that reflect not only on loss and death but the celebration of life and love which is common in funeral music. The new record is a stark contrast to the band's 2002 work entitled "Medicated Magic" (both out on Rope-A-Dope Records).
The Beach Reporter this week sat down with Lewis and talked about the album, the New Orleans music scene and his friend "Tuba Fats."
The Beach Reporter: 'Funeral For A Friend' is dedicated to 'Tuba Fats.'
Roger Lewis: Yes, he was the first tuba player in the band and when we really decided to put the band together he decided he didn't want to be a member, he wanted to do his own thing. Some of the tunes we did over the years that we already knew we used on this album, and so we went into the studio and just did it. We usually rehearse the music before we go into the studio but this time we went in and just created it as we went from tune to tune. Technically speaking, there are some things I don't like but I'm a musician and I can't be satisfied with everything anyway. But one thing I was satisfied with was that we really captured the feeling of a jazz funeral. That's serious, it'll make you cry. We dedicated it to "Tuba Fats." He died right after we finished the CD so we thought it was only fitting that we dedicate it to him. He had one of the largest jazz funerals in the history of New Orleans.
What kind of man was Tuba?
He was about 6-foot-3-inches and about 300 pounds - he was a big man. You would shake his hand and you wouldn't be able to see yours in his. I don't think he realized how famous and popular he was. He was very well-loved and a beautiful human being. How do you think he shaped music in New Orleans?
Well, he revolutionized tuba playing around here. He was the most famous tuba player who has ever come out of New Orleans.
You play the baritone and the soprano saxophone. Does moving from one instrument to the other affect your playing?
Well, the soprano saxophone is really hard to play in tune but as far as switching from a big mouthpiece to a smaller mouthpiece, I really don't have a problem with that. I've been doing it a while. I play the baritone more than I play the soprano and so the only problem I have is when I have to make a switch. Picking up an instrument that's cold, sometimes I might have a tendency to play a bit out of tune. It's just a very delicate instrument and it can happen with any instrument. You've got to warm it up before you play it
What qualities do you like about each instrument?
The baritone is probably the most unexplored one out of all of the instruments. It's got such a wide range you can play as high as the soprano on a baritone using overtones. You can play chords or you can use the instrument as a percussion effect. The baritone requires more wind, and a lot of people don't want to deal with that and the weight of it because it is a heavy horn - you just don't hang it around your neck. I don't think there are as many baritone players as there are alto and tenor players.
Do you remember the first time music affected you in a way in which you knew you wanted to be a musician?
Well, I'll tell you what happened. When I was a kid, my first instrument was a piano which was back in the late 1940s/early 1950s. As a kid I would make toy saxophones. I would take newspaper and shape it into a saxophone and I would play in my back yard with it. I guess I had a hell of an imagination. I was fascinated with the sound and shape of that instrument. I had a cousin who played the alto saxophone; he was a professional musician. He gave the alto to another cousin who didn't keep it up. My dad bought me a tenor in the 10th grade and I began playing it. But I think it was my cousin who was really responsible for me really playing the saxophone by giving his saxophone to another cousin who didn't keep it up. When I finally got a saxophone I had to prove to him that I was going to be able to play this thing. One day I became good enough in which I was able to sit in with him. During my generation, it wasn't about TV; it was about radio, listening to different bands on the radio and I was always fascinated with music.
In your opinion, where do you think jazz is going?
Ah, who knows? I mean it ain't like it used to be back in the 1930s through the 1950s. There were all different styles of jazz - you had your bebop and your avant garde and many other styles - so who is to say where it's going. People are still trying to play it like they did in the 1920s and 1930s. People are still trying to learn how to play bebop which was so advanced it was music ahead of its time. People are still trying to play like Miles Davis, John Coltrane and Louis Armstrong, who are pioneers, so jazz is not dead but now where it's going, I don't know, I can't answer that question. I know it's here to stay, it's not going anywhere. But I do believe it's the most sophisticated music on the planet Earth. Jazz is less played and musicians are less paid these days. Somebody at the top is pushing the buttons and deciding what kind of music is being presented to the general population, and they push that. If they would push jazz music and play it as much as some of the pop and rap music is played then people would learn to love it as much as all this other music.
Over the years, the band has toured the world bringing its music to many countries. How do you think outsiders perceive the rich music history in New Orleans?
It's a music that is so powerful that it is so well-received in every country I've ever been in. It's better received than in most places in the United States, certainly more appreciated by those living outside New Orleans. People who have been born and raised around this music have a tendency to take it for granted but they do love it and everything. Places in Europe and Asia, they don't get a chance to hear anything like that so they just go ape. We played a gig in Beijing, China, a couple of years ago. We were on the bus going back to the hotel after the gig and the people were still dancing.
In your opinion, do you think the music scene in New Orleans has changed over the years?
Well, the music scene hasn't really changed that much. During my time, we had more nightclubs and I grew up during segregation so we had more places to play within the black community than you have now. New Orleans, you had music at just about every section of the city. It's not like that now, that part of it has changed. During the time when I was on Bourbon Street, we had more clubs and you could play where there was live music. They are getting back into that. It's alive but it's not like it used to be.
In looking back on your career, is there any one particular memory that sticks out?
I think it was playing Carnegie Hall. My whole music career has been a trip for me when I actually sit down and think about it. I used to like to read the encyclopedia and look at all of the pictures like the Louvre and Big Ben and cities like London and Paris, and all of a sudden you wake up and you're there - that really gets you. You hear about Carnegie Hall and you think you'll never play on that particular stage and then there you are.
What is the biggest lesson music's taught you?
Keep on practicing, don't ever stop. You can never stop learning, it's endless. You may think you're powerful but you don't know everything.
A few years back, from a dorm room at Temple University in Philadelphia, sophomore student and aspiring singer Shareese Renee Ballard called her childhood friend Santi White. White was a songwriter and guitarist living in New York and working as an A&R assistant for Epic Records.
Ballard, known by her fans as Res (pronounced Reese), started singing for White over the telephone. The songwriter was impressed by her old friend's vocals, and Res was soon on her way to New York to record a demo of Santi's original compositions.
"We went over the songs together; I sang and Santi played the guitar," Res remembers. "She had just started writing songs at the time and so I went to New York where she hooked me up with my manager."
Subsequent to the recording session, several music labels including Epic Records approached Res with offers. She hesitated, waiting for the right deal. She finally signed with MCA in 1999 - at the age of 21. She packed her bags for New York and soon recorded her debut album, "How Do I."
Born and raised in the Philly suburbs, Res, now in her mid-20s, attended an all-girls Catholic school from kindergarten through her senior year of high school. A classically trained vocalist, she began singing Italian arias at the age of 14 and continued with her formal training until she was 19.
"For the first six months, all I sang were scales - I never sang a song," she said. "I remember when I was 12, I wanted to make a record. But the way that I actually got my record deal had to do with me being bored at school one day and calling my friend."
Prior to signing with MCA, Res knew of the music industry only what she saw on MTV, heard on the radio and read in magazines: Fame. Fortune. A catered life. But the reality of a career in music presented itself almost immediately.
"Just like everybody else, I bought records, I watched MTV and I thought it was a life of signing autographs, a life of glitz and glamour," she recalled. "A part of it is, but people don't see the time you put in at the studio, the time for interviews.
"What people can't see is that it's a job like any other job in this world. It can come with the same s**t - long hours, bosses or employees you may not like, and hanging in the studio nonstop. Right now I hate the studio and I can't wait for the next thing, which is performing on stage."
Complementing Res' fiery vocal style, "How Do I" features the talents of drum 'n' bass innovator Doc, and hip-hop beat originator A Kid Called Roots. The album melds dissonant musical styles from reggae, rock and hip-hop to folk and electronica.
"A lot of people have asked me what I'm trying to accomplish with my music, and right now I'm having fun and enjoying myself," Res explained. "I'm enjoying my life and I'm lucky that I am accomplishing what I am. I love my band; they're all dope and we've been playing really well from the jump."
As a black artist, Res hopes to continue defeating stereotypes common in the music industry - primarily, that all black artists are hip-hop or R&B. "The industry has to label everything in order to sell it," she said. "There is all this talk of black artists who are doing something other than R&B, but the truth is black artists have been playing different types of music since I was young. Look at people like Tina Turner - she was singing rock."
