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The 20th Annual Ragga Muffins/Moss Jacobs Bob Marley Birthday Festivalsubtitle |
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By Joe Aytch |
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The spirit of Robert Nesta Marley is ever living, ever faithful, ever sure. Seen? The world celebrates Marley’s birth on February 6th, 1945, and mourns his death. In his wake, he has left a legacy of music that continues to inspire love, peace and harmony while chanting down the evils of Babylon, in the name of JAH RASTAFARI. Yet to other less conscious folk, his music still just plain sounds good.
In an Auckland, New Zealand prison his music blares over the loudspeakers at 6 am, calling the inmates to breakfast. In a Summertown, Tennessee hospice a mid-wife delivers a redheaded baby girl with Marley playing downstairs. At the age of ten when she starts pilfering her dad’s Bob Marley albums to play in her room, her mother smiles knowingly. Hanging on the back of a dune buggy, speeding down a very dark coconut husk-covered sandy road in Maraicape, Brazil, Rita (pronounced "Heeta"), who only speaks Portuguese, leads me in singing Redemption Song a capella as the glorious eastern sun rises from the ocean. A warm gentle rain ushers us into the new day, as we stand on the banks of a small delta emptying into the Atlantic. That’s the magic of Bob Marley. Each one has his or her own memory of the first time we heard his music, or the first time we actually listened to the words, or were lucky enough to see him perform.
Ragga Muffins Productions
In 2001, with a festival scheduled for Long Beach (2/17-2/18) in association with Moss Jacobs Productions, San Diego (2/19) with World Beat Center Productions and San Francisco (2/23-2/25) with 2B1 Productions, the fans of Bob Marley will again be celebrating with some of the best that reggae has to offer.
Bringing a cross generational mix and style of Reggae from the little island that produces BIG music, Ragga Muffins is bringing over twenty of Jamaica’s best international artists, complimented by dozens of regional bands. Bob Marley Birthday Celebration 2001 will feature Jamaican old school roots performed by Bunny Wailer (The last of the original Wailers — see http://www.reggaefestivalguide.com/arti_fire00.html for Roger Steffens article entitled "Old Fire Sticks"), Toots & The Maytals, Culture (with Joseph Hill), Wailing Souls (Grammy nominee), Marcia Griffiths (an original I-Three), Don Carlos and Judy Mowatt. The Rasta conscious lyrics of Nyahbinghi Ras Michael, Dub Poet Mutaburuka, Buju Banton, and Capleton, the Prophet (see www.vpcapleton.com), will be witnessed and dancehall smokers Shaggy, Red Rat, Mr. Vegas (read the in-depth Mr.Vegas interview here ), Kymani Marley (see www.ReggaeTrain.com) will perform. Hold on because they are going to tear the house down!
Related articles: Honoring Bob Marley by Laura Gardner "The "Real Revolutionary's" Guide to Bob Marley’s Star" by Gregory Stephens
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"You
think it’s the end, but 
Bob
Marley is in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, he has been named "Artist
of the Century" by Time Magazine, the Grammy Award Committee will
present him with the Lifetime Achievement Award and he will receive a
star on the Hollywood Walk Of Fame, to be dedicated on his birthday. Yet
his true legacy lies in the profound effect his music has had on the people
and on every generation since his death. His music lives in his talented
children, sustains his contemporaries, honors humanity and touches the
youth in Jamaica and abroad. 
Throughout
the far reaches of the world, in places where English is a foreign language,
his music and words ring true, and this February the world celebrates
his birth. No one does Bob Marley Birthday celebrations West Coast style
better than Ragga Muffins Productions and Moss Jacobs Presents.
"Over
the past 20 years, there have been multitudes of artists, both local and
international who have brought their talents and spirits together in celebration
of the legend known as Bob Marley," says Barbara Barabino of Ragga
Muffins Productions. 2001, the new millenium, will be no exception.
