Burning Spear is an undisputed musical legend.
Not a
year goes by that he doesn't release a blockbuster album
or complete a successful tour. His concerts are events,
and each subsequent record that he releases is greeted
with eager anticipation by reggae fans everywhere.
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Spear Press Kit Here | Press Photos
"I don't know how other people see music," reggae legend
Burning Spear reflects. "Some people might see it based
upon money, some people might see music based upon
opportunity and access. But I see music as life. I see
music as inspiration."
For more than 35 years, Burning Spear's music-thus, his
life-has inspired people on numerous continents. Since
the beginning, his songs have implored listeners to
fight oppression in all its forms, to work at improving
their own condition and to consider the social impact of
their actions.
Our Music builds upon the Jamaican native's legacy of
musical activism. With its inimitable dancing groove,
the album percolates and bubbles rhythmically in its
call for unity between races, between nations, between
individuals and even between business associates.
Our Music is the second album released on his Burning
Spear label, following 2003's Grammy-nominated
Freeman.
In the midst of its expected messages about love,
oppression and African history is the title track, a
public confirmation that his brand of positivity is
tempered with a strong sense of self. "Our Music" is
Burning Spear's reclamation of his own artistry-a
justification for establishing his record company and a
challenge to all artists to commandeer their own future.
"A lot of artists just have no time to really look
within the business section of the music business,"
Burning Spear reasons. "There's no one to really sit
them down and give them some of that business
understanding before they get into what they get into.
So then people walk all over these artists and do things
where it's not appropriate and it's not right. It's not
in the artist's love." |
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With his art and his business now firmly in his own
control, Burning Spear's Our Music stands among the most
joyful albums of his career. Bolstered by its throbbing basslines, bright horn parts and slinky female
background singers, the songs embrace persistence ("Try
Again"), self-analysis ("Friends"), love ("Fix Me") and
community ("Together") through deceptively simple lyrics
that point to deeper issues. It is, in effect, smart
music you can dance to.
"It's like art," he says. "You're gonna paint this
thing, and people are gonna look at this art and say
that it looks like a tree, looks like a car, some people
it looks like a flower. People are gonna say different
things according to what they see. It's very different,
what it looks like to them."
No matter who looks at Burning Spear's career, they have
to be impressed. Of his more than 25 albums, nine have
earned Grammy nominations, with one of them - 1999's
CALLING RASTAFRI - receiving the Academy's Best Reggae
Album honor. And he remains one of the few reggae
pioneers still working and influencing the people today.
Born Winston Rodney in St. Ann, Jamaica, he was an early
fan of Bob Marley. As the legend goes, Rodney bumped
into Marley while walking through a field, and the two
began talking about music. Marley encouraged him to
visit Jamaica's Studio One, where Rodney and a fellow
musician recorded "Door Peep." By the time of its
release, Rodney had branded the duo Burning Spear,
taking the nickname of Jomo Kenyatta, who was jailed by
a colonial British government in Africa but rose to
become the first president of Kenya.
"I believe in people who are gonna stand up for what
they believe in," Burning Spear notes, "not only for
themselves, but for themselves and their people, and
that was what Jomo was doing."
Even more central to Burning Spears' mission - and it
truly is a mission - was the doctrine of Marcus Garvey,
a 20th century figure who pushed for a stronger black
race through self-reliance. The Jamaican-born Garvey
supported freedom and economic strength for all people,
but made the African-originated population his focus and
published his views in a New York-based newspaper, Negro
World. Garvey was jailed in the 1920s and eventually
exiled to Jamaica, though he never lashed out at the
system that brought him down. His message survived,
influencing the likes of Kenyatta, Martin Luther King
Jr., Marley and Burning Spear, which titled some of its
seminal albums Marcus
Garvey and
Marcus' Children.
"Those men wasn't preachin' any violence," Burning Spear
says. "They were preachin' about Oneness and the
struggles of black people about where they can live and
having their voices heard. I don't see anything wrong
with his plan and his direction. I think he opened a lot
of eyes and opened a lot of mouths so those people could
really talk and their voices could be heard. I think the
time is right now to clear his name up and set his
record free."
Burning Spear's mission remains rather unchanged today,
though the act and the music have undergone some
alterations. The duo grew into a trio, but has long
since morphed into Burning Spear, a solo artist. And
while his music has always been a vehicle for social
change, his songs are now increasingly melodic,
developed with catchy hooks that use short phrases and
point more subtly to internal truths for those willing
to go through self-exploration.
The music survives in a much different musical era. The
reggae genre, once a distinct idiom unto itself, has
been co-opted by artists throughout the years and melded
with other pop forms. Artists such as Eric Clapton, Paul
Simon, The Rolling Stones, The Police, Stevie Wonder and
UB40 combined it with pop and rock during the '70s and
'80s, while Shaggy and Sean Paul have blended it with
hip-hop textures in more recent years. Even country man
Willie Nelson put together a hybrid album involving
Toots Hibbert, of The Maytals.
Those efforts have called attention to the genre, and
specifically to those who helped bring reggae to the
world in the '70s, including Burning Spear, Peter Tosh,
Hibbert and Marley. In his time, Marley gave Burning
Spear his personal seal of approval, and the Spear
continues to maintain a devotion to reggae's roots while
continuing his service to Jah.
"I think people have to remember the originals," Burning
Spear suggests. "So to be honest, I don't really feel no
way about it when people put reggae in a different form.
Regardless who's gonna do what with the music, I don't
think they interfere with Burning Spear."
Our Music relies heavily on the roots of the reggae
movement.
"What I tried to do with this album, musically and
lyrically, is to go back to the '70s, when we were
singin' about the history and the culture and the
lifestyle of these people," Burning Spear observes. "A
lot of Burning Spear songs of that earlier times, people
would see as political. To me, it's just a natural
thing. As an artist, I just expressed that."
Burning Spear continues his mission of expressing his
heart, of entertaining and educating the masses. He
cleverly accomplishes that by winning over his
listeners' bodies before he impacts their minds. He
witnesses that process each time he takes the stage.
"You see the head start to nod, you start to see one
movement from one of these legs down here and another
one, 'til the whole body just gets involved in the whole
thing," he laughs. "You have to think about that when
you're creatin' the music-you're not just creatin' the
music for people to sit back and listen, 'Oh, that's all
good and that's bad.' You need people to shake a leg."
As they listen at home and shake legs to
Our Music,
listeners will also be swept up with the headiness of
Burning Spear's message. The political statements are
still there, most obviously in the continued references
to Marcus Garvey ("One Marcus" and "Little Garvey").
But OUR MUSIC also contains deeper ideas that penetrate
quietly, subtly into the mind before they reach clarity.
The bouncy "Friends" asks rather simplistically, "Are
you my friend, my neighbor or my enemy?/Who are you? Who
are you?" On further reflection, it's obvious that the
question is a complex one about societal roles and
provocative self-evaluation. "Together" recalls the
image of African slaves, shackled together at the
ankles, while suggesting that contemporary blacks can
still link together figuratively at the elbow in the
continued quest for equality. And "Fix Me" embraces the
power and essence of love, which Burning Spear sees as
the ultimate goal of humanity.
"Love," he says, "is a harmony thing, it's a
communication. Love is a link."
Burning Spear's link is a pure one in 2006. Unfettered
by someone else's record company, still linked to the
roots of reggae and to the ideals of its forefathers,
OUR MUSIC points to a better world for those who are
oppressed, and for those who simply believe a better
world is possible.
"Music," Burning Spear maintains, "is a very important
thing. We have to remember that no force is stronger
than the music."
Contact:
Sonia Rodney / Burning Music Production
sonia (at) burningspear.net
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© Burning Music Production 2008