Marley Magic: Tribute to Bob Marley
Marley Magic, a concert recorded in Central Park at SummerStage on a July day in 1996, saw the coming together of Bob Marley's musical family to play and pay tribute to reggae's greatest icon, who died in 1981. The youngest Marley offspring, Damien "Jr. Gong" and Julian, kick off events here, with sweet but sturdy pop-reggae. Yvad's softer acoustic ballads are a little insipid by comparison, but Marley's wife Rita--now a grand, straw-hatted matriarch on the reggae scene--picks things up with "Good Girls Culture" and a cover of Marley's "No Woman, No Cry." Inevitably, it's Ziggy Marley & the Melody Makers who headline and offer the strongest reminder of the Master's own stage presence, backed, à la Bob, by three female vocalists and a rhythm section. So inspired is one member of the audience by Ziggy's rendition of "Stir It Up" that he lifts a cigarette lighter, a gesture that loses something on a blazing summer's afternoon. But relax, who cares?--David Stubbs