Bob Marley

This is the 30th year since Bob Marley died, and his family is commemorating it with this new double-CD of his last performance. It’s from an emotional show in Pittsburgh that almost didn’t happen. Marley had played the Hynes Auditorium in Boston the week before, but looked gaunt from cancer and lacked the energy of previous stops at Harvard Stadium and the Music Hall. Then he collapsed while jogging in Central Park two days before the Pittsburgh gig. He opted to play the show partly because his band needed the money, as the liner notes state.

Thirty years ago this month, Bob Marley died of cancer at 36. Yet he's very much alive globally — and here in Massachusetts. "Marley," Kevin MacDonald's documentary about the Jamaican reggae singer, is playing in Cambridge. Local writer Stephen Davis's 1983 biography "Bob Marley: Conquering Lion of Reggae" is still in print. A recent children's picture book called "One Love," after one of Marley's songs, is on sale in Boston stores. His continuing popularity underscores how a simple, uplifting message — especially one set to compelling music — can transcend the unruliness of our...

Thirty years ago this month, Bob Marley died of cancer at 36. Yet he's very much alive globally — and here in Massachusetts. "Marley," Kevin MacDonald's documentary about the Jamaican reggae singer, is playing in Cambridge. Local writer Stephen Davis's 1983 biography "Bob Marley: Conquering Lion of Reggae" is still in print. A recent children's picture book called "One Love," after one of Marley's songs, is on sale in Boston stores. His continuing popularity underscores how a simple, uplifting message — especially one set to compelling music — can transcend the unruliness of our...

Whenever an artist's family authorizes a documentary, there's a worry that it's going to be a rosy, public-relations piece. "Marley" is not that. It's an outstanding, warts-and-all look at reggae legend Bob Marley, who died young of cancer at age 36 in 1981 but not before becoming a Third World superstar. Marley overcame a ghetto upbringing in the Trench Town neighborhood of Kingston, Jamaica, to become a gifted writer of socially conscious, spiritually uplifting reggae anthems.

KINGSTON, Jamaica - Cedella Booker, the mother of Jamaican music legend Bob Marley, died Tuesday in her sleep, a family spokesman said yesterday. She was 81. Ms. Booker, a native of Jamaica, was 18 when she married Norval Marley, a British man 32 years her senior. Their son brought Jamaican reggae music to international prominence, becoming its image. Bob Marley died of a brain tumor in 1981. "Mrs. Booker was the matriarch of a movement so powerful that the mystical qualities of the Marley musical legacy remain strong and potent," said Olivia Grange, Jamaica's information...

Whenever an artist's family authorizes a documentary, there's a worry that it's going to be a rosy, public-relations piece. "Marley" is not that. It's an outstanding, warts-and-all look at reggae legend Bob Marley, who died young of cancer at age 36 in 1981 but not before becoming a Third World superstar. Marley overcame a ghetto upbringing in the Trench Town neighborhood of Kingston, Jamaica, to become a gifted writer of socially conscious, spiritually uplifting reggae anthems.

There's no shortage of singers supporting Occupy Wall Street. Musicians who've performed for the movement include Rage Against the Machine's Tom Morello , David Crosby and Graham Nash , Joan Baez , and Amanda Palmer . (The Lexington-bred Palmer has hit several Occupy sites with her husband, Neil Gaiman - Boston, LA, Oakland, Portland, Vancouver, and Seattle - and is working with Boston filmmaker Michael Gill ...

The leader of the pioneering reggae group The Ethiopians has died in Jamaica. Leonard Dillon was 68. Daughter Patrice Dillon says her father died Wednesday at her home of lung and prostate cancer. She says Dillon had been diagnosed with cancer in June and underwent surgery to remove a brain tumor earlier this year. Leonard Dillon began his career using the stage name Jack Sparrow in the early 1960s. He recorded a series of ska songs, including "Bull Whip," which featured a young Bob Marley on backing vocals.

It doesn't come out until next month, but "More Room in a Broken Heart: The True Adventures of Carly Simon " is already upsetting its subject. We're told the "You're So Vain" singer is not happy that the book includes some juicy details on her many romances. (We leafed though the unauthorized bio this weekend and a partial list of Carly's liaisons includes producer Eddie Kramer , former Yardbirds bassist Paul Samwell-Smith , Kris Kristofferson , Warren Beatty , Mick Jagger , Cat Stevens , actor Jeremy Irons , and, of course, James Taylor , for whom...

Whether reggae, soft rock, hardcore punk or power pop, the music of the ‘70s is playing again at South By Southwest. Several of the many music documentaries at this year's SXSW revisit acts from the decade, a time often skipped over in pop culture history. But for that same reason, the ‘70s left a number of stories ripe for rediscovery or more thorough examination. Put under the documentary lens is the beloved legend Bob Marley ("Marley"), the forgotten songwriting talent Paul Williams ("Paul Williams Still Alive")

Whether reggae, soft rock, hardcore punk or power pop, the music of the ‘70s is playing again at South By Southwest. Several of the many music documentaries at this year's SXSW revisit acts from the decade, a time often skipped over in pop culture history. But for that same reason, the ‘70s left a number of stories ripe for rediscovery or more thorough examination. Put under the documentary lens is the beloved legend Bob Marley ("Marley"), the forgotten songwriting talent Paul Williams ("Paul Williams Still Alive")

It doesn't come out until next month, but "More Room in a Broken Heart: The True Adventures of Carly Simon " is already upsetting its subject. We're told the "You're So Vain" singer is not happy that the book includes some juicy details on her many romances. (We leafed though the unauthorized bio this weekend and a partial list of Carly's liaisons includes producer Eddie Kramer , former Yardbirds bassist Paul Samwell-Smith , Kris Kristofferson , Warren Beatty , Mick Jagger , Cat Stevens , actor Jeremy Irons , and, of...

A feud has erupted within the first family of reggae, with the widow and nine children of Bob Marley suing his half brother to stop use of the Marley name to promote an annual Miami music festival and profit from other businesses in his native Jamaica. The lawsuit filed Thursday in federal court contends the half brother, businessman Richard Booker, and several affiliated companies are violating copyright and trademark laws by using Marley's name, photographs, lyrics, symbols and other intellectual property without authorization.

There's no shortage of singers supporting Occupy Wall Street. Musicians who've performed for the movement include Rage Against the Machine's Tom Morello , David Crosby and Graham Nash , Joan Baez , and Amanda Palmer . (The Lexington-bred Palmer has hit several Occupy sites with her husband, Neil Gaiman - Boston, LA, Oakland, Portland, Vancouver, and Seattle - and is working with Boston filmmaker Michael Gill ...

The leader of the pioneering reggae group The Ethiopians has died in Jamaica. Leonard Dillon was 68. Daughter Patrice Dillon says her father died Wednesday at her home of lung and prostate cancer. She says Dillon had been diagnosed with cancer in June and underwent surgery to remove a brain tumor earlier this year. Leonard Dillon began his career using the stage name Jack Sparrow in the early 1960s. He recorded a series of ska songs, including "Bull Whip," which featured a young Bob Marley on backing vocals.

This is the 30th year since Bob Marley died, and his family is commemorating it with this new double-CD of his last performance. It’s from an emotional show in Pittsburgh that almost didn’t happen. Marley had played the Hynes Auditorium in Boston the week before, but looked gaunt from cancer and lacked the energy of previous stops at Harvard Stadium and the Music Hall. Then he collapsed while jogging in Central Park two days before the Pittsburgh gig. He opted to play the show partly because his band needed the money, as the liner notes state.

Reggae is swinging back into vogue, judging from the sold-out crowd of 5,000 fans that attended the Roots Rock Reggae Festival at FleetBoston Pavilion Thursday. "This is the first sellout we've ever had here with reggae," said Jim Jensen, the general manager of the facility. That's the good news. The bad news is that the definition of reggae is now stretched so broadly that just about anything can wedge into the genre. This was not "roots reggae" from the days of Bob Marley, Peter Tosh, and Bunny Wailer.

KINGSTON, Jamaica - Cedella Booker, the mother of Jamaican music legend Bob Marley, died Tuesday in her sleep, a family spokesman said yesterday. She was 81. Ms. Booker, a native of Jamaica, was 18 when she married Norval Marley, a British man 32 years her senior. Their son brought Jamaican reggae music to international prominence, becoming its image. Bob Marley died of a brain tumor in 1981. "Mrs. Booker was the matriarch of a movement so powerful that the mystical qualities of the Marley musical legacy remain strong and potent," said Olivia Grange, Jamaica's information...