Burning Spear

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Burning Spear at the Chiemsee Reggae Summer 2006

Burning Spear (born March 1, 1948 in Saint Ann's Bay , Saint Ann Parish , Jamaica ; actually Winston Rodney ) is a Jamaican reggae musician. The Grammy winner has been one of the main exponents of roots reggae since the 1970s . Initially Burning Spear was the name of the band that Winston Rodney had formed with Rupert Willington and Delroy Hines, later Rodney also used the name for himself, while the accompanying band dubbed the Burning Band .

Career

Winston Rodney's first recordings date back to 1969. That year he recorded Door Peep at the legendary Studio One in Kingston . Bob Marley made contact with the studio owners . Even before the single was released, Rodney took the stage name Burning Spear, which goes back to a quote from Jomo Kenyatta , the African freedom fighter and later President of Kenya. Burning Spear's work is also very much influenced by the liberation movement of Marcus Garvey .

In 1975 the album Marcus Garvey was released only in Jamaica. Some of the most renowned reggae instrumentalists were involved as studio musicians, including parts of the Wailers, Bob Marley's band. After the great success in his home country, Island Records signed Burning Spear and re-released the album internationally in 1976. Without consulting Burning Spear, the record company remixed the album to adapt it to the international market and annoyed the musicians. As compensation one appeared in the same year Dubversion the album under the title Garvey's Ghost , on the instrumental dub of the original pieces are included versions and one of the first successful dub albums ever was. In the following years, the corresponding dub albums were released for many Burning Spear albums.

Marcus Garvey was Burning Spear's first international success. Further successful albums followed, initially with the help of producer Jack Ruby . From the late 70s, Rodney also produced the records himself.

At the beginning of the eighties Burning Spear was under contract with EMI and produced three LPs for this label before switching to the label Slash in the middle of the eighties. From 1990 Burning Spear was back under contract with Iceland, but switched to Heartbeat Music in 1993, where he had a short interlude in 1979. In 2002 the step into complete artistic independence took place with the establishment of the own record label Burning Spear Records.

For the 1999 album Calling Rastafari Burning Spear received the Grammy for Best Reggae Album in 2000 . In 2009 he was able to win this award again with the album Jah is real .

Burning Spear has recorded around 20 original albums in the past 30 years, plus almost a dozen derived dub albums and several other live LPs as well as numerous compilations. The labels Island and EMI released greatest hit compilations for the first time from the recordings of the corresponding contract period in the mid-80s, the other labels have successively followed suit, so that numerous such compilations are on the market, but most of them only contain contract material from one record company, and therefore can only provide an insufficient overview.

The sound of the classic Burning Spear recordings is characterized by restrained instrumentation and characteristic brass sections - and of course Winston Rodney's charismatic voice.

Discography

  • Burning Spear (1973)
  • Rocking Time (1974)
  • Marcus Garvey (1975)
  • Garvey's Ghost (1976)
  • Man in the Hills (1976)
  • Dry & Heavy (1977)
  • Live (1977)
  • Social Living (1978)
  • Living Dub Vol. 1 (1979)
  • Harder Than the Best (1979)
  • Hail HIM (1980)
  • Living Dub Vol. 2 (1980)
  • Farover (1982)
  • The Fittest of the Fittest (1983)
  • Reggae Greats: Best of Island Years 1975-1978 (1984)
  • Resistance (1986)
  • People of the World (1986)
  • 100th Anniversary: ​​Marcus Garvey / Garvey's Ghost (1987)
  • The Fittest Selection: Greatest Hits of 1980-1983 (1987)
  • Mistress Music (1988)
  • Live in Paris (1989)
  • Mek We Dweet (1990)
  • Jah Kingdom (1991)
  • The Original (1992)
  • The World Should Know (1993)
  • Love and Peace: Burning Spear Live! (1994)
  • Rasta Business (1995)
  • Living Dub Vol. 3 (1996)
  • Chant Down Babylon: The Island Anthology (1996)
  • Best of Burning Spear (1996)
  • Appointment with His Majesty (1997)
  • (A) live in Concert 97 (1998)
  • Living Dub Vol. 4 (1999)
  • Calling Rastafari (1999)
  • Live in Montreux (2001)
  • Ultimate Collection: Best of Collection (2001)
  • Spear Burning: Best of the Non-Albums Releases (2001)
  • Best of the Fittest: Best of Collection (2001)
  • Rare and Unreleased (2001)
  • 20th Century Masters: The Best of Burning Spear: Best of the Island Years (2002)
  • Jah No Dead (2003)
  • Free Man (2003)
  • Living Dub Vol. 6 (2004)
  • Creation Rebel (2004)
  • Sounds from the Burning Spear (2004)
  • Live in South Africa 2000 (2004)
  • Our Music (2005)
  • Jah Is Real (2008)

Awards

  • Grammy Award for Best Reggae Album
    • 2000 for Calling Rastafari
    • 2009 for Jah Is Real
    • Further nominations: Resistance (1986), People of the World (1988), Live in Paris Zenith '88 (1990), Mek We Dweet (1991), The World Should Know (1994), Rasta Business (1996), Appointment with His Majesty (1998), Free Man (2004), Our Music (2006), The Burning Spear Experience (2008)

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Individual evidence

  1. ↑ according to other information in 1945
  2. ↑ Personal data according to Allmusic
  3. ↑ Allmusic: Review / Awards for "Calling Rastafari"

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Burning Spear
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Rodney, Winston (real name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Jamaican reggae musician
DATE OF BIRTH March 1, 1948 or March 1, 1945
PLACE OF BIRTH Saint Ann's Bay, Saint Ann Parish , Jamaica