Monday, June 28, 2004  

"Do you remember Burning Spear?"

Burning Spear, "Old Marcus Garvey"
from Marcus Garvey (Mango, 1976)
Burning Spear, "As It Is"
from Calling Rastafari (Heartbeat, 1999)

Went to see Burning Spear this weekend---though not at the 9:30 Club. Since we'll be seeing Spear at the Montreal Jazz Festival this coming weekend, we went to XM Radio (i.e., the free concert) where he was cutting a session and being interviewed by Dermot Hussey. It was fun mostly to see how such a big band would do in XM's relatively small session room. Alas, the music mix was geared for recording, not live performance: the guitars were turned down low and the drums & horns were behind plexiglass baffles. But a good source reports that Spear's 9:30 show was incredible, so Montreal, here we come.

"Old Marcus Garvey" is a Burning Spear classic where he states, "No one remember old Marcus Garvey." Spear updates "Old Marcus Garvey" on "As It Is," a tale about how Spear got his start and wondering who will remember him, St. Ann's number two dread (Marley being No. 1).

The photo up there of Burning Spear is by Carter Van Pelt, publisher of 400 Years. Spear has a nice Web site with tons of interview links (including three by Carter) and plenty to purchase, including his new self-released album, Freeman, and, erm, the always fashionable canvas tote bag.

Posted by CP | Link |

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