Smile Jamaica 2017 on December 2
SATURDAY NIGHT’S Smile Jamaica 40th anniversary commemoration at the Bob Marley Museum was a sign of things to come in St Ann next December. Marie Bruce, general manager of the Bob Marley Museum, told the gathering: “If you think this is something tonight, wait until 2017 rolls around.”
The 2017 Smile Jamaica concert will be held on December 2 at Grizzly’s Plantation Cove, St Ann, then annually on, or as close as possible to, the anniversary of the original December 5, 1976 historic concert at Heroes Circle, Kingston.
“We want to see Smile Jamaica as a staple on the entertainment calendar,” Bruce said.
Robert Bryan of Grizzly’s, accompanied by Pratik Ruparell of PDP Entertainment, explained further that Smile Jamaica will include overseas entertainers as well as Jamaicans. Stephen Marley is co-executive director of the festival, as well as musical director, and the promise is to produce the event to the “highest international standard”.
Bryan gave a broad overview of plans to develop Grizzly’s Plantation Cove into “the ultimate Jamaican entertainment experience”, a major part of which will be The Bob Marley One Love Square. In due course, a new statue will be commissioned for the square. Bryan said the space is intended to be “the most comprehensive outdoorevent venue in Jamaica”.
Well before the Smile Jamaica concert in February, there will be the celebration of Bob Marley’s 72nd birthday, under the theme Exodus. Debbie Bissoon said the celebrations will begin at 56 Hope Road in the morning and there will be a symposium around marijuana.
EVENT AMBASSADORS
This year’s ambassadors for the celebration are Jah9, Dre Island and Runkus, all of whom performed at the Smile Jamaica 40th anniversary commemorative event at the Bob Marley Museum on Saturday night. As the birthday falls on a Monday, the now standard concert, done with Digicel and Red Stripe, will be held on Sunday, February 5.
Saturday night was also used to announce the planned Bob and Rita Marley Visitors’ Centre at the museum, Bruce and Rohan Marley unveiling the plaque which will mark the spot. Marley read the inscription, which quoted the song Harambe.
Speaking about the 40th anniversary of Smile Jamaica, Marley said: “It’s bittersweet today. We are celebrating the 40th anniversary, but we do remember that day when things happened and things took place. But through the love of the Almighty, we forgive, but we never forget.”
STEPHEN ‘RAGAMUFFIN’ Marley was born on April 20, 1972, so he was four years and seven months old on December 3, 1976, when his father was shot at his 56 Hope Road, St Andrew, home.
As young as he was, closing the Smile Jamaica 40th anniversary commemorative event at what is now the Bob Marley Museum on Saturday night, Stephen told the large audience (for the space) that as a child, “some things stand out in your memory ... . I remember I was supposed to come to rehearsal that night”. He did not and fell asleep, only to be awakened by a relative. Whispering to imitate her tones, Stephen recalled her saying “Steve, wake up! You father get shot!”
It was the introduction to the title song of the night’s event and the large concert which will be held at Grizzly’s Plantation Cove, St Ann, on December 2, 2017, and Smile Jamaica will be held annually on or close to the anniversary of the December 5, 1976, concert at Heroes Circle, where a wounded Marley performed to a reported crowd of 80,000 persons.
Stephen had opened with Trench Town Rock before remarking on the connection between Saturday night’s event and the shooting four decades ago, saying: “Same place! Same date! Same songs!”, before raising his voice to proclaim: “We still deh ya!” He then sang Rat Race.
ENTHUSIASTIC AUDIENCE
After Smile Jamaica came Jah Live, which was restarted as the enthusiastic audience reacted. “These songs, it was important for I an I to come and sing these songs. Not only was he rehearsing these songs, but after being wounded, these were the songs he chose to sing,” Stephen said.
His first brother guest was Ky-mani, who did Crazy Bald Head, then Damian did War, before
Stephen and Damian gave a sample of their combinations.
Stephen was not the only one who had four decades of memories to share. The night’s first host, Mitzie Williams of the Bob Marley Foundation, spoke about being at Smile Jamaica, but there were very few takers when she asked if anyone else had been there at Heroes Circle that night. Videographer Jose Walton, Robert Bryan of Grizzly’s (who stood on a stone in a crowd that did not allow him to fall), and Elaine Wint were.
Wint, the final of the night’s hosts, had a lot to say about Smile Jamaica as it was she who introduced Marley that night – just as she introduced Stephen 40 years later. She had got a call from the late Tony Laing asking her to be the emcee after the person who should have done so originally decided against it. In accepting, Wint said: “I don’t know if I was fool-fool, stupid, or, like many others, decided we had to take a stand ... . This was not a time to shrink, to hide, to fear.”
On the night, there were doubts about whether Marley would perform and, on stage, Wint said:
“We Stephen Marley closing the Smile Jamaica 40th anniversary commemorative free concert at the Bob Marley Museum, 56 Hope Road, St Andrew, on Saturday night.
only heard ‘he’s here’. There was no time to do any long introduction ... . All I could say was ‘ladies and gentlemen, the man leave his sick bed to come and sing for you’”, Wint asking the audience members if they were not going to cheer for Marley as there was this silence “like a hush of awe”.
NUMEROUS CHANGES
Stephen, Damian and Ky-mani Marley closed off a night of short performances mainly by performers with their own bands, making for numerous changes close together, which affected the event’s momentum . The live music lulls were filled by Zion Train International sound system, with Nasarella selecting and, following a documentary on the shooting at 56 Hope Road, in which Rita Marley and Don Taylor were injured before the concert, an off-stage narrator gave details of the attack inbetween performers.
The first of those was Rasta Village, Iron Station, Ricky Chaplin, deejaying to tracks, and the stage was set for brief performances when opening band Uprising Roots wrapped up after a few songs, causing the bass player to question the performance time. Blvk H3ro preceded the official introduction of Smile Jamaica 2017, the music resuming with an acoustic performance by Marla Brown. The Irie Souljah Band, Feluke, Runkus (who opened
with an excellent dub-style rendition of Burnin and Lootin), Kelissa, Jah9 (who impressed steadily, building to the closing New Name), Dre Island and Bongo Herman preceded Third World.
An intermittent drizzle did not amount to anything to interrupt the free concert, the band going through a shot set in which 1865 (96 Degrees in the Shade) and Sattamassagana especially moved the audience, Stephen ‘Cat’ Coore’s (who played bass at the Smile Jamaica concert), cello blending with the drums on Rastaman Chant.
Chronixx was coaxed on stage to do a verse of his Smile Jamaica without music, and DJ Pryce (Stephen Marley’s daughter) played a Marley-heavy set, in which hip-hop also had a strong hand. A pair of dancers added movement to Ambush in the Night, Bob Marley’s musical response to the shooting.
In remembering Smile Jamaica on December 5, 1976, Elaine Wint said that the stage was full of people, there was no space to move. As Saturday’s commemorative event closed, the stage was also full, this time with the lineage of the man who was shot at the same place on the same date 40 years earlier. “You see how full the stage is tonight,” Stephen said, saying that the people on stage (in addition to himself, Ky-mani and Damian) were Bob Marley’s grandchildren.