‘Big up the woman’

While the world gets ready to pay respect to international reggae icon Bob Marley with the launch of his new biopic on February 14, singer Nadine Sutherland is singing the praises of another Marley family member.

Sutherland first met Rita Marley shortly after winning the popular Tastee Talent Competition at 11 years old in 1979.

She recalls growing under the reggae icon’s wings.

“Miss Rita never left me out at any interval; she was very loving and caring towards me. I grew up with and right next to [the] Marley children, so my father would take me to school and then to piano class and vocal class and it was just a lot of that next to them. They became like family to me and Rita like a mother,” Nadine told The Sunday Gleaner.

But not only was Rita like a mother, she was also a highly experienced and knowledgeable teacher.

“I’ll never forget my first lesson – her voice still rings in my head. I was to sing a one song at a staging of a Reggae Sunsplash and I had gotten ill. Mrs Marley brought me some mix-up-mix-up and just like that, I was better. And she said to me ‘remember it’s your voice’. I never forgot that,” Sutherland said.

CAPTAIN MARLEY

Nadine was only 13-years-old when Bob Marley died, but she remembers the scenes at Tuff Gong Studios vividly.

“As a child, I could feel the walls of Tuff Gong mourning when Bob died – it was like the light from the place had gone. And it makes sense, Bob was the life of that place – he kept it buzzing,” Sutherland said.

It was at this moment that Rita Marley stepped up to the helm of the Marley ship.

“It was amazing to watch. Tuff Gong was like a chicken that had its neck cut off. And Mrs Marley did everything in her power to get that place back together. I figure there is a lot of things she didn’t know, but she had to grow. And grow she did.”

Rita and the Marley family have since gone on to be one of Jamaica’s most successful families. Their business acumen stretches from music to movies and everything in-between.

Sutherland argues that it is all thanks to the entrepreneurial mind of the family’s matriarch.

“Even outside of the family, a lot of the artistes you see with them own business or a do a thing, they came up under the wings of that amazing businesswoman,” she said.

Nadine Sutherland became a household name after winning the first-ever staging of the Tastee Talent Competition, an experience that changed her life.

“It has been 45 years since that, but the vision of Tastee facilitated the life I now live. For an institute to care as much as they did for me was absolutely amazing. Without that competition there probably wouldn’t be a Beenie Man, or a Yellow Man or even a TOK” she said.

Sutherland explained that a platform is important for any young artiste to stand on, “and Tastee provided that,” she explained.

Sutherland was speaking at the press launch of the annually hosted Island Music Conference (IMC) which returns from February 21-25.

The event was first conceptualised by Sharon Burke, Orville ‘Shaggy’ Burrell and Judith Bodley, and has been lauded for its ability to bring together the entertainment industry through its educational panels led by industry experts and stalwarts.

“Bob Marley had a vision of making the artistic journey easier. He wanted new artiste’s lives to be easier than he and his team had to go through. And that kind if sentiment was relayed through [the] Tastee Talent [Contest] and it now resonates through IMC,” Sutherland said.

Registration for the IMC closes on February 10.

kenrick.morgan@gleanerjm.com