You can’t pronounce the name Ziggy Marley without thinking about his famous father, however Ziggy doesn’t mind, during the short interview preceding his show at Sonos Studio, he said he was still very connected to his father,… like a unit. There wasn’t the huge line I expected when I arrived, but since they let enter tons of VIPs before regular folks like me, they reached a close-to-capacity crowd very fast. I got lucky and I was probably one of the last persons they let in, and I could still find a place next to the stage when everyone was busy getting free cocktails. Great! I thought, I will be able to see the son of a legend and be so close! But I should stop thinking about Bob because six-Grammys-award-winner Ziggy is an accomplished artist, who is about to release his 5th solo studio album, ‘Fly Rasta’, mid April. For the occasion, he was performing during this intimate party at Sonos, miraculously I was invited front row, and it wasn’t an April Fools’ day.
Ziggy may be Bob’s son but he has a John Lennon complex, first of all his music is equally rock, poppy and reggae these days – he actually mixes a lot of genres in his music – then he has a new song called ‘You are my Yoko’ … it is a love song to his wife, and during the interview, he talked how the love of a woman is an important aspect of his creativity. He said he didn’t know if the real Yoko had heard the song, but since he didn’t hesitate to sing many times the line ’all we need is love’ during one of his songs, I am sure Yoko would approve.
After seeing him talk and perform on Thursday night, I was probably even more charmed by his lovable personality than his music, but you couldn’t really separate one from the other. Ziggy has certainly inherited a music talent from his father, but also a humanitarian philosophy, ‘love is my religion’ he said and sang. He explained that his new record, ‘Fly Rasta’ was about overcoming obstacles and difficult times, an obvious personal experience, but he didn’t elaborate more than this. However, there is nothing sad in all this, this comes from a positive point of view, some ‘tough fun times’ as he put it. Love may be his religion but fun is a large part of it too. He talked a bit about his music, which is blending pop, funk and reggae, but Ziggy doesn’t think in terms of genres, he just thinks in term of music in general and likes to discover new territories as he said,… he comes from many different places and just lets wander his imagination. But above all, he doesn’t put himself in the front, Ziggy, who looks very much like his dad, appears to be the most humble person ever, explaining he steps up from his own ego to compose music.
For this new album, he truly embraced his ‘rasta’ side, however, if it is the first time that rasta appears in the title of one of his albums, it is certainly not the first time his social and ecological consciousness shines through his music. This time, he was particularly aware of reducing the carbon footprint of the album, he used recycled material and included a package of ‘wild flower’ seeds to encourage fans to beautify the planet. Ziggy wants us to care of this place, as he proclaims with the opening song of the album ‘I Don’t wanna Live on Mars’, a love song to mother Earth and a central them for the entire album.
He was there to play, and surrounded by two drummers on quiet bongos, a guitarist and a backup singer, he gave a sample of his solo career in just a few songs. Opening with the title song of his fourth solo album ‘Wild and Free’, also playing the title songs of his first and second solo albums ‘Dragonfly’ and ‘Love Is my religion’, he covered one of his dad’s song ‘So much trouble in the world’, and only touched his new album for the last two songs. It was a very short set of course, but, as he is about to embark for a world tour, it was such a privilege to stand so close from him, in such an intimate setting. Ziggy said he wanted the new songs to translate well live, and they did, the music was instantaneously groovy, dance-y and soothing, and he said to be still searching for the true meaning of music, and trying to understand the power of music beyond any superficiality. But there was absolutely nothing superficial about this man, everything he said was about love, freedom, honesty and saving the earth… Ziggy Marley is a happy man, who far from suffering of his father’s overwhelming shadow looming over his career, has embraced his heritage, while pushing reggae music forward, into new territories.
setlist
Wild and Free
Dragonfly
So much trouble in the world
Love‘s my religion
I Get up
I Don’t wanna Live on Mars
For a lot of pictures of the show, go here.
