It’s always great to come across artist profiles and concert reviews in the vast newspaper archives. These articles give us a first-person account of the performance, without the fluff, embellishment, and legend that inevitably gets added to the description of these shows over the past 30 years. It’s a snapshot-real, factual (albeit opinionated), and preserved in perpetuity.
I have FLAC audio for this show, but it is beyond garbage. It’s actually painful to listen to. However, in the spirit of sharing, you can download and hear it for yourself HERE.
I have also included a link to an interview with Marley by a Canadian journalist at the end of the post.
Most people are not aware that Bob Marley and the Wailers once occupied the stage alongside the King of Pop.
What is most amazing to me about this small bookmark in Marley’s life is that the odds of two future megastars-individuals who no doubt even exceed the “megastar” label-crossing paths before each becomes famous, I mean, the odds must be more than impossible. I can’t even put into words what I’m trying to say. Hopefully you get my drift. Actually, words cannot describe the impact that these two young ones would one day have on almost every person on the planet. At the time, they have no clue. It boggles the mind.
I know that the first photo in this series is Lee Jaffe’s, however, I’m not sure about the rest of the photos. Please visit Lee Jaffe’s website at www.leejaffe.com as he is a friend of the blog.
Today I share with you a tape that was auctioned at Christie’s on December 20, 2002 for $26,290. This is as raw as it gets. Marley, a guitar, and a tape recorder. This tape was rare even among collectors until a few years ago. Still, you will find it on very few sites today.
A 1960s-era audio cassette tape which features never-before-heard versions of eight songs that a young Bob Marley recorded in New York when he had aspirations to become an American-style rhythm and blues singer. Joined by Jimmy Norman (a songwriter and later a member of the R&B group, The Coasters) and others, this recording was made in 1968 using a simple home tape recorder. Norman’s handwritten notation of Bob Marley Live is penned in blue ballpoint ink on the cassette while his later addition of 7-1-83 appears in a different-colored ink. (Not considering the value of the Marley material, Norman casually added Coasters songs to this same cassette years later, but thankfully did not record over the original 1968 content at the beginning of the tape.) This original master has about twenty-four minutes of Marley material and is in fragile, but playable, condition. It also includes Norman’s later 1983 additions of music by The Coasters. The eight Marley songs on the tape are:
1) Wings of a Dove (I Need Your Love So Much) – Bob Marley 2) Stranger on the Shore – Bob Marley 3) One Love, True Love – Bob Marley 4) Splish for My Splash – Bob Marley 5) I’m Hurting Inside – Bob Marley(missing from source) 6) Falling In and Out of Love – Jimmy Norman and Al Pyfrom 7) Stay With Me – Jimmy Norman and Al Pyfrom 8) You Think I Have No Feelings – Jimmy Norman and Al Pyfrom
“The Bob Marley ‘Bronx Jam Session’ as recorded on this audio tape represents a pivotal day in the life of one of the world’s most popular musical artists.
When Bob Marley visited songwriter Jimmy Norman at his New York City apartment in early 1968, his goal was to become an R&B performer. Not yet a star, the twenty-three year old Marley had just come under contract with pop music pioneer Johnny Nash. Norman, already a veteran Tin Pan Alley composer and R&B singer, was asked by Nash to work with the promising Jamaican artist on his trip to New York. The day began in apartment 6-H at 2119 Valentine Avenue in the Bronx with Marley and Norman sharing songs. Marley was a big fan of James Brown and wanted to learn as much from Norman as he could about R&B. In turn, Norman learned from Marley about Rock Steady, a style of music that would soon evolve into Reggae. During the day, the pair worked together on eight songs. Norman played an old upright piano. Marley played his guitar. There were various instruments, including part of a drum set, in the six-room apartment and they all were used from time to time throughout the day.
That night, after a long collaboration, Marley, his wife, Rita, Norman, his wife, Dorothy and his co-writer, Al Pyfrom recorded the songs on a cassette tape recorder. That original cassette is being offered for sale in this auction.
The jam session was such a success that Marley invited Norman to join him a week later in Jamaica to work with the Wailers on their first major record. Remarkably, all eight songs from the ‘Bronx Jam Session’ recording, several written by Norman and Pyfrom and several by Marley, would eventually be recorded for commercial release by Marley. When later issued in some form on Marley’s albums, the songs were performed as Raggae and not R&B as originally intended.
This ‘Bronx Jam Session’ recording is a remarkable documentation of Marley’s rapid musical evolution from traditional R&B to the newly minted ‘Reggae’ sound which ultimately made him an international star. Yet, this ‘Bronx Jam’ is virtually unknown in Marley lore. Outside of a select group of less than six people, the tape has never been heard and its existence has been previously unknown to collectors within the Marley community.”
Thanks to Allen from NZ! FlawI&I, ONE love!
I was graciously given this tape by my good friend Tammy Beveridge. Please visit her website at http://movementofjahpeople.freeforums.org for downloads, interviews, song lyrics, and more. Great site!
The Essex House Hotel is a luxury hotel located on 160 Central Park South in Manhattan. It was a favorite of Bob Marley’s when staying in New York, as he stayed there for extended periods in 978 and 1980.
Opened in 1931as the Sevilla Towers, it is situated across the street from the southern border of Central Park and is convenient to both the stylish shops on Fifth Avenue and the nightlife of both Broadway and the Upper West Side. The 44-story hotel has 509 Art Deco style rooms and an in-house spa, and it is immediately recognizable by its original red neon rooftop sign.
Here are some interesting pop culture facts about the Essex House Hotel:
In the famous 1932 photograph “Lunchtime atop a Skyscraper,” the neon Essex House sign can be seen in the background.
Milton Berle’s mother, Sarah, died in her apartment at the Essex House on May 30, 1954. The famous Russian composer Igor Stravinsky lived there from the autumn of 1969 until his death on April 6, 1971.
On January 13, 1979, R&B singer Donny Hathaway was found dead on the sidewalk in front of the hotel, after an apparent suicide leap from the 15th floor room in which he had been living.
The Essex House is known for its relationship with the American television program Saturday Night Live. In the early years of the show, announcer Don Pardo would proclaim that “guests of Saturday Night Live stay at the Essex House!”
I actually stayed at the Essex House Hotel in 2001. I was in NYC corking the World Trade Center disaster clean-up and the hotel, which was owned by Westin Hotels at the time, put me up for free while I was in town.
Several interviews were conducted with Bob Marley at the Essex House. By the late seventies, Bob’s status was such that reporters had to come to him if they wanted an interview. Logically, since he often stayed there, several well-known interviews were conducted with him in his hotel room, where he often sat alone and played guitar.
The Basil Wilson Interview May 1978
This interview with Bob was conducted at the Essex House in NYC by Basil Wilson in May 1978. The interview was first published in Everybody’s Magazine in June/July 1978. Give thanks to my friend Marco Virgona of www.bobmarleymagazine.com for sharing!
Marley reluctantly participated in an interview and acoustic jam session with Earl Chin of Rockers TV on September 2, 1980. I say ‘reluctantly’ because chin was allegedly heavily involved in the cocaine trade, something that Marley despised. It has been said, but never confirmed, that there was heavy cocaine use going on in the room during this interview. I find this hard to believe knowing how Marley purportedly viewed the use of hard drugs, however, stranger things have happened.
I have included the full interview and acoustic session (45 minute video) here:
The Anita Waters Interview September 18, 1980
At the time of this interview in September 1980, Anita Waters was a graduate student in sociology at Columbia University in New York City. Bob Marley and the Wailers were in town playing several opening shows for The Commodores national tour. As you may know, it would be Marley’s last tour as his body was now wrecked by cancer.
Gil Noble conducted an interview with Bob Marley at the Essex House for his television show “Like It Is.” Gil Noble was an American television reporter and interviewer. He was the producer and host of New York City television station WABC-TV’s weekly, “Like It Is”. The program focused primarily on issues concerning African Americans and those within the African Diaspora.
This is one of the most in-depth and detailed interviews that Marley participated in, lasting a little under 30 minutes.
The video footage of the interview has been shared in bits and pieces on the web. I have included it here in its entirety. This has seen a significant upgrade since it first started circulating. Enjoy!
On June 20, 1975, Fikisha Cumbo interviews Bob Marley on the 24th floor of the Barbizon Plaza hotel in NYC. Bob and his band of dreads are in NYC to play the Schaeffer Music Festival at the Wohlmann Skating Facility at Central Park South. Ms. Cumbo, a new devotee of Marley and reggae, owes her enthusiasm for the man and his message to the album Natty Dread, which has not left her record player since she bought it.
She attends the Wailers’ show at the Shaeffer Music Festival and is taken to Marley’s trailer. While most of Marley’s interviewers at the time were white males, Cumbo is a black female with enthusiasm for Marley and this new style of music. She puts him at ease like no interviewer has. What she gets is an interview with the reggae king that will live forever in Wailers history.
