Born on October 17: In the Marley family, I ask for Ziggy
David Nesta, his real name, was born in 1968 in the Trenchtown neighborhood of Kingston (Jamaica). He is the son of Bob Marley and Rita, who together had no less than eleven children!
Two years before the death of his father in 1981, Ziggy Marley was busy with the band the Melody Makers, accompanied by his two sisters Cedelia and Sharon as well as his brother Stephen. As a natural heir, the eldest of the siblings was chosen by the family to sing at the patriarch’s funeral in Miami. His first album with the Melody Makers, "Children Playing", was not released until 1984 on Tuff Gong, his father's label.
The son still sees in his father, who left much too soon, "a revolutionary figure" who instilled in him principles of life from which he does not intend to deviate. "Love Is My Religion", the title of his second solo album in 2006, is therefore also a literal application of one of the dogmas decreed by the imposing tutelary figure that Bob still embodies in his eyes. With this album, he won a Grammy Award in 2007 in the reggae category of course.
In February 2024, the biopic "One Love" was released online. Barely 12 years old when Bob died, Ziggy Marley took the opportunity to emphasize once again that the last words of the legendary "Exodus" singer were not "Money can't buy life" as has been repeatedly rumored for years (they were "Sing, sing", addressed to Rita). "When I laugh," he confides, "it sounds like my father's laughter. Little pieces of him are as if scattered inside me!".
For Ziggy, one of the most natural ways to remember Bob is to sprinkle his own concerts with selected covers. The last time I saw him in 2022, he performed "Positive Vibration", "Get Up Stand Up", "Jamming", "Could You Be Loved", "One Love" and "Redemption Song". Like father, like son...
(AK/ML - Photo: Etienne Tordoir)
Photo: Ziggy Marley at the Werchter Festival (Belgium) on July 3, 1988. He was just 20 years old. © (Etienne Tordoir)