A reggae original
Burning Spear brings his reggae music to Whiskey Jacques’
By ADAM TANOUS
Express Staff Writer
Like
many musical genres, reggae is a fusion of several influences. It is, however, primarily
the melding of "ska," an early form of Jamaican popular music, and the
Rastafarian political movement. One of the musicians responsible for developing this union
35 years ago was a man named Winston Rodney. The musical world knows him as Burning Spear.
The 2000 Grammy Award winner for Best Reggae Album of the Year and
eight-time nominee, Burning Spear will be performing at Whiskey Jacques’ in Ketchum
on Tuesday, Sept. 19. This pioneer of reggae will bring his eight-piece Burning Band to
town as part of his 87-date, Grammy celebration tour.
Burning Spear’s Grammy-winning album, "Calling Rastafari,"
is his 34th in a career spanning four decades. Dedicated to exposing the
teachings of Marcus Garvey, a social activist and fellow native of St. Ann’s Bay,
Jamaica, Spear writes and sings songs of emancipation, sufferance and calls for social
justice. Some of his most notable albums are "Man In The Hills" and "Marcus
Garvey."
Burning Spear fashioned his name after the nickname of Jomo
Kenyatta—the leader of the Mau Mau uprising and the first president of independent
Kenya.
In a press release, Spear said of his music: "I deliver strong music,
music that uplifts the mind and the heart of people, music that helps people and comforts
people, music that calms people down, music that shows people the light and gives them a
place where they can create their plan, their aim and their direction."
Spear, 55, began his musical journey many years ago in the hills of
Jamaica. That is where he ran into the legendary Bob Marley walking on a trail toward his
farm. Spear has said (and later sung in "Calling Rastafari") of that meeting,
"The man was moving with a donkey and some buckets and a fork, and cutlass and
plants. We just reason man-to-man and I-man say wherein I would like to get involved in
the music business. And Bob say, ‘All right, just check Studio One.’"
Shortly thereafter Spear recorded his first two albums there, "Burning Spear"
and "Rocking Time."
In the 1970s, Spear released his albums, "Marcus Garvey,"
"Man In The Hills," and "Garvey’s Ghost." Those releases
established Spear as central figure in the then budding field of reggae music. Other
releases that solidified Spear’s place in the reggae world were "Hail
H.I.M." (1980), "Farover" (1983), and "Resistance" (1985), which
earned Spear his first of eight Grammy nominations.
Though he did not seek the role out, Spear became the unofficial spokesman
for Rastafarianism after the Marley died in 1981. The movement has a three-fold focus:
encouraging the relocation of the African diaspora to Africa, the deification of Haile
Selassie I (the former Ethiopian Emperor), and the sacramental use of ganja (marijuana).
It was during the ‘70s and ‘80s that the Rastafari movement
began to influence reggae music. Musicians such as Spear, Black Uhuru, and Big Youth were
responsible for that fusion. Soon the genre spread to the United Kingdom where it spawned
the rise of artists like UB40 and Steel Pulse. Reggae then moved to the U.S. as a result
of Marley’s music and Eric Clapton’s remake of Marley’s "I Shot the
Sheriff."
An early form of Jamaican popular music, "ska," was the
foundation for reggae. The latter genre uses a four-beat rhythm driven by drums and bass
guitar. Its distinctive sound became the "chunking" sound of the rhythm guitar
at the end of each measure, also called "sken gay." It was originally identified
with the sound of gunshots ricocheting in Kingston’s ghettoes.
Spear, who tours ten months out of the year, is in Ketchum for just one
night, Tuesday, September 19th. The show will start after the D.J. Dr. Rock opens the
evening at 10 p.m. Tickets will be sold at the door only.
