His Story: The Life and Legacy of Bob Marley
Bob Marley was a hero figure, in the classic mythological sense. His departure from this planet came at a point when his vision of One World, One Love -- inspired by his belief in Rastafari -- was beginning to be heard and felt. The last Bob Marley and the Wailers tour in 1980 attracted the largest audiences at that time for any musical act in Europe.
Bob's story is that of an archetype, which is why it continues to have such a powerful and ever-growing resonance: it embodies political repression, metaphysical and artistic insights, gangland warfare and various periods of mystical wilderness. And his audience continues to widen: to westerners Bob's apocalyptic truths prove inspirational and life-changing; in the Third World his impact goes much further. Not just among Jamaicans, but also the Hopi Indians of New Mexico and the Maoris of New Zealand, in Indonesia and India, and especially in those parts of West Africa from wihch slaves were plucked and taken to the New World, Bob is seen as a redeemer figure returning to lead this
In the clear Jamaican sunlight you can pick out the component parts of which the myth of Bob Marley is comprised: the sadness, the love, the understanding, the Godgiven talent. Those are facts. And although it is sometimes said that there are no facts in Jamaica, there is one more thing of which we can be certain: Bob Marley never wrote a bad song. He left behind the most remarkable body of recorded work. "The reservoir of music he has left behind is like an encyclopedia," says Judy Mowatt of the I-Threes. "When you need to refer to a certain situation or crisis, there will always be a Bob Marley song that will relate to it. Bob was a musical prophet." The tiny Third World country of Jamaica has produced an artist who has transcended all categories, classes, and creeds through a combination of innate modesty and profound wisdom. Bob Marley, the Natural Mystic, may yet prove to be the most significant musical artist of the twentieth century.
Howard Campbell, Gleaner Writer
Reggae music lost one of its pioneers last Friday with the death of keyboardist Glen Adams, who died at the University Hospital of the West Indies (UHWI). He was 65 years old.
Adams' wife of 18 years, Judy, told The Gleaner that he was admitted to the UHWI one week earlier, but she did not give a cause of death. He had lived in Brooklyn, New York, for more than 30 years and was visiting Jamaica when he became ill.
Known as 'Capo', Adams was most active as a musician and performer during the mid- and late 1960s when he was a member of the Hippy Boys and the Upsetters, two of the most influential bands in reggae history.
The latter backed The Wailers on Duppy Conqueror and Mr Brown, which were produced by Lee 'Scratch' Perry. Adams wrote Mr Brown, an eerie song about a three-wheeled coffin prowling the streets of Kingston.
Mr Brown, which features a memorable organ intro by Adams, is rated by critics as one of The Wailers' most creative.
The Hippy Boys and the Upsetters also included the Barrett brothers, Aston and Carlton on bass and drums, respectively; and Alva 'Reggie' Lewis on guitar. They played on numerous hit songs, including Stick By Me by John Holt, and Delroy Wilson's Better Must Come and Cool Operator.
Those songs were produced by Bunny Lee in the early 1970s. Most of Adams' recording sessions were done with Lee, a former auto-parts salesman who entered the music business as a producer in the mid-1960s.
"Glen was the man who brought that great organ shuffle to reggae, he was a force to be reckoned with but never really got his due," Lee told The Gleaner.
Adams was born in Jones Town, the son of a Jamaican mother and father who hailed from St Vincent. He started his music career as a singer with The Heptones and once formed a duo with another young singer from Denham Town named Ken Boothe.
After relative success as a solo act, Adams began playing keyboards for producer Arthur 'Duke' Reid. Moving to work with Lee, Adams had instant success, appearing on saxophonist Lester Sterling's monster hit song Bangarang (featuring Stranger Cole and Lloyd Charmers) and Everybody Needs Love by singer Slim Smith.
Adams, however, is best known for his years with the inspirational Perry.
With the Barrett brothers and Lewis, he played on Return of Django, a 1969 hit for Perry in Britain.
In addition to Holt and Wilson, the quartet were also behind hits from singer Max Romeo. At the height of their success with Perry, the Barretts left to join The Wailers and became a cornerstone of Bob Marley's band in the 1970s.
Adams moved to New York where he continued recording. In recent years, he worked with hip hop artistes for his Capo label and made guest appearances during shows by American reggae bands such as The Slackers.
Glen Adams is survived by his wife and a son. Another son pre-deceased him.
Black filmmaking in Britain is often treated as a recent phenomenon, beginning around the 1980s. In fact, the roots go back deeper: Black people started making films in Britain as early as the 1960s, and immediately started to experiment with narrative and technique. This remains a characteristic of Black British filmmaking. Opportunities to break into the industry were slim, however, and budding filmmakers made a living as actors or extras, or worked in other, unrelated jobs.
Lionel Ngakane was born in South Africa and came to Britain in 1950 as an exile from the Apartheid regime. As an actor, he appeared in Zoltan Korda's anti-Apartheid Cry, The Beloved Country (1952), and also worked as Korda's assistant, choosing local actors in South Africa and helping with the locations. In 1962, he bought a 16mm camera and filmed and directed the feature length documentary Vukani - Awake, about the struggle for South Africa's liberation. It was the first film about South Africa to be made by a Black African. His second film, Jemima + Johnny was made in London in 1966. In Venice that year it became the first Black British film to win an award at an international film festival. A touching tale of two children from different racial backgrounds and cultures who become friends in spite their parents' prejudices, the film displays the influence of the Free Cinema movement, particularly Lorenza Mazzetti's Together (1956).
Lloyd Reckord, another actor turned director, chose to ignore the black/white dynamic of racial politics and to turn a critical eye on Black culture. A talented writer and performer in his native Jamaica, Reckord came to London to further his career in the theatre. He consolidated his career with appearances in the likes of Danger Man (ITV, 1960-61), and was still acting in the late 1990s. His experimental short Ten Bob in Winter (1963), made with a grant from the British Film Institute's Experimental Film Fund, explored the consequences of the loan of a ten-shilling note between two Caribbean men. Ten Bob in Winter concentrates on issues of colour, class and snobbishness among Caribbean people. This film was followed in 1965 by the homoerotic short Dream A40, which examined how self-oppression can damage a couple's relationship.
In the late 1960s, the Trinidadian-born Horace Ové made Baldwin's Nigger, a filmed lecture about race, racial separatism and the African Diaspora given by author and political commentator James Baldwin. Ové started out as an artist and photographer in Italy before coming to Britain. He diverted his talents to the moving image and in 1975 became the first Black filmmaker to direct a feature film in the UK. Written by author Sam Selvon and again funded by the BFI, Pressure dealt with issues that would still be familiar to contemporary audiences: the struggle of the children of immigrants to reconcile their culture of origin with the culture of the country of their birth. Ové is the only Black filmmaker to have sustained a career in Britain over four decades, encompassing feature films, television dramas and documentaries.
The early 1980s saw the rise of the independent workshop movement, made possible by the ACTT Workshop Declaration of 1984 which, along with new funding streams from the recently-established Channel 4 Television and the Greater London Council, created new structures and working methods to filmmakers outside the mainstream film and broadcasting industries. Black workshops Ceddo Film and Video, Black Audio Film Collective and Sankofa Film and Video emerged from this environment, challenging the dominant ideologies of the (white) film and TV industries and fighting to produce alternative images of Black Britain.
This era produced the most politically and aesthetically uncompromising Black films, which challenged white racism, gender relations and homophobia at a time when increasing frustration and anger with racism and police brutality led to riots in Brixton, Birmingham and elsewhere. Menelik Shabazz's Burning an Illusion (1981) captured the growing militancy and the rise of Black consciousness, while later films like Handsworth Songs (d. John Akomfrah, 1986), The Passion of Remembrance (d. Maureen Blackwood/Isaac Julien, 1986) and Looking for Langston (d. Isaac Julien, 1988) offered a variety of perspectives on the contemporary Black experience.
Unfortunately, none of the workshops of the 1980s have survived into the 21st Century. Opportunities for Black filmmakers are as scarce as ever. The breakthrough experienced in the late 1990s and early 2000s by Asian British filmmakers like Gurinder Chadha (Bhaji on the Beach, 1993; Bend It Like Beckham, 2001), Asif Kapadia (The Warrior, 2001) and Metin Hüseyin (Anita and Me, 2002), has not so far been matched by any equivalent boom in Black British filmmaking. John Akomfrah's last film, Digitopia (2001), was made in Korea, while his contemporary Isaac Julien now makes his films in an art context, where he has enjoyed greater critical respect (he was nominated for the Turner Prize in 2001). Julian Henriques, whose innovative musical Babymother (1998) was critically well-received, has yet to make his second feature.
Inge Blackman
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