Bob Marley

Born in Nine Mile, in Saint Ann Parish, Jamaica, Robert Nesta Marley grows up between the Jamaican countryside and the Trenchtown district of Kingston, where in the early 1960s he forms the Wailers with Bunny Wailer and Peter Tosh. Initially rooted in ska and then rocksteady, Bob Marley accompanies the transition of Jamaican music toward a broader reggae, based on flexible rhythmic lines, an impassioned vocal and lyrics threaded with Rastafarian spirituality, social issues and the Pan-African idea. After the first recordings for Studio One and sessions with Lee "Scratch" Perry, Bob Marley and the Wailers gain international dimension with Catch a Fire and Burnin’ in 1973. When the original group splits, Marley continues under this name with a new lineup including the Barrett brothers and the I-Threes vocal trio. The albums Natty Dread (1974), Rastaman Vibration (1976), Exodus (1977), Kaya (1978), Survival (1979) and Uprising (1980) mark this period, between roots reggae, soul-inflected accents and tighter writing. After a period living in London following the assassination attempt he survived in 1976 in Kingston, Marley develops an international concert career that is interrupted by his death in 1981 at the age of 36.