SATA
ENTRY TYPE:
WORK TITLE: MARLEY AND THE FAMILY BAND
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE:
WEBSITE: https://www.cedellamarley.com/
CITY: Miami
STATE:
COUNTRY: United States
NATIONALITY: Jamaican
LAST VOLUME: SATA 259
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cedella_Marley
RESEARCHER NOTES:
PERSONAL
Born August 23, 1967, in Kingston, Jamaica; daughter of Bob (a musician) and Rita Marley; married David “Danny” Minto; children: Soul, Rebel, Skip.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Performer, fashion designer, entrepreneur, and author. Chief executive officer, Tuff Gong International (record label and music studio); Cedella Marley Designs, founder. Executive producer of documentary Africa Unite: A Celebration of Bob Marley’s 60th Birthday, 2008. Member of Ziggy Marley and the Melody Makers (musical group); actor in films, including The Mighty Queen, 1989, and Joey Breaker, 1993; acting director, Bob Marley Foundation.
AWARDS:(With members of Ziggy Marley and the Melody Makers) Grammy Award for Best Reggae Recording, 1988, for Conscious Party, and 1989, for One Bright Day; Grammy Award for Best Reggae Album, 1997, for Fallen Is Babylon.
WRITINGS
Her musical, Bob Marley’s Three Little Birds, opened at the New Victory Theater in New York City in 2014
SIDELIGHTS
Cedella Marley is the eldest child born to Jamaican reggae legend Bob Marley, an international musical star who died a premature death from cancer in 1981. Cedella Marley has maintained her father’s legacy in several ways: singing with her siblings in the Grammy-winning reggae group Ziggy Marley and the Melody Makers; serving as chief executive officer of her father’s recording studio and record label Tuff Gong International; and writing books for children based on her father’s life and lyrics. The first, a short biography titled The Boy from Nine Miles: The Early Life of Bob Marley, was cowritten with Gerald Hausman and covers Bob Marley’s childhood in Jamaica, both in his birth village of Nine Mile and his time living the city of Kingston.
Cedella Marley adapted the lyrics of some of her father’s most-noted songs for two picture books illustrated by Vanessa Brantley Newton. One Love takes the original chorus of “One love, one heart, let’s get together and feel all right!” and adds examples about love that children will understand. “Conflict-free, it’s simply a feel-good story of a community coming together,” asserted a Publishers Weekly critic in appraising the work. While a Kirkus Reviews critic remarked that the story’s “celebration of community is joyful,” School Library Journal contributor Lisa Egly Lehmuller concluded that “the message” of One Love “is laudable, and the words are simple and rhythmic.”
In writing her text for the picture book Every Little Thing Marley built on the lyrics of her father’s song “Three Little Birds” with the refrain from his “Don’t worry about a thing, ’cause every little thing is gonna be all right.” A Kirkus Reviews writer found Every Little Thing to be “an effervescent adaptation” and added that “the new lyrics slip easily into the cadences of the old.” The result, Martha Simpson noted in School Library Journal, is “a feel-good book.”
“Being a mother myself, kids always need encouragement but not false encouragement,” Marley told an interviewer for the KDHX Radio Web log. “And I think one of the great things about our parents was that everything was always real.” “That’s why I write children’s books,” she explained—”It’s to encourage kids but to let them know that nothing is going to come easy. Sometimes you have to get up and go get things done.”
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Marley continues to mine elements of her father’s and of her family’s lives in further books. With Get Up, Stand Up, she delivers a picture book adaptation of one of her father’s inspiring songs. With illustrations by John Jay Cabuay, the picture book provides an important message about standing up for others. The young girl at the center of the book goes through her day at school and several times as she witnesses incidents of teasing or bullying, she offers love and help to make things right. A Kirkus Reviews critic felt that Marley “delivers a statement about social justice and bravery in an appropriately simple style that children can grasp.” The critic further lauded the book’s “message of empowerment and unity.”
In an online Forbes interview with Rachel Kramer Busse, Marley commented on the inspiration for Get Up, Stand Up. As a child in a Rastafarian family, Marley experienced prejudice. She remarked that there were times when parents would not allow their kids to visit the Marley home because they were Rastafarian, and that implied that their home was dirty or that there were drugs. “Our home was nothing like that. It was joyful and filled with love, but that is not something that one would know looking from the outside in.” So Marley herself had to learn early on to stand up to prejudice and bullying. However, as she went on to comment, “[W]hen it started to happen to one of my children I realized that I had to do something. We, as parents, have to do more.”
Marley’s 2022 picture book, Marley and the Family Band, coauthored with Tracey Baptiste and illustrated by Tiffany Rose, was inspired by Marley’s own childhood, moving from Jamaica to Delaware when she was a child. The young Marley of the book is eager to make friends in her new home and she figures out the perfect way for her and her siblings to meet other kids: the musical family will hold an outdoor concert for the whole neighborhood. But when it starts raining hard the day of the concert, the family is downcast. Young Marley, however, tells her parents and siblings that they can still do it if they get enough umbrellas to cover the stage. In order to gather that many umbrellas, the family helps out neighbors with various problems caused by the storm. Then, after gathering sufficient umbrellas, Marley discovers a neighbor who desperately needs them and hands the umbrellas over. However, this act of kindness and generosity has unexpected results. A Kirkus Reviews contributor termed Marley and the Family Band a “well-played serenade to the power of kindness and community.” Similarly, a Publishers Weekly reviewer felt that the book conveys a “sense of unsinkable community.”
In an online YA and Kids! Books Central interview with Beth Edwards, Marley commented on the message she hopes young readers will take away from Marley and the Family Band: “No matter where you come from, where you move to; no matter the obstacles you will face, having your family by your side, as well as the friends you make along the way, can help you solve all problems and achieve greatness. Stay positive!”
Speaking with Children’s Book Review website contributor Bianca Schulze, Marley further remarked on what inspires her work as a children’s author: “[I]t’s like my father said, you know, tell the children the truth. So sharing the truth and joy of family, music, unity, and love for one another, yeah, that drives me.” In an interview with online London Observer contributor Tim Adams, Marley also remarked about the goal of her work in music and books: “The mission is to spread [Bob Marley’s] music to every corner of the Earth. Daddy wanted his words to be known in every place on Earth. And I think that we are accomplishing that goal.”
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BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Kirkus Reviews, September 15, 2011, review of One Love; September 15, 2012, review of Every Little Thing; July 15, 2019, review of Get Up, Stand Up; December 1, 2022, review of Marley and the Family Band.
Publishers Weekly, September 5, 2011, review of One Love, p. 46; September 17, 2012, review of Every Little Thing, p. 52.
School Library Journal, August, 2002, Tim Wadham, review of The Boy from Nine Miles: The Early Life of Bob Marley, p. 178; February, 2012, Lisa Egly Lehmuller, review of One Love, p. 104; November, 2012, Martha Simpson, review of Every Little Thing, p. 91.
ONLINE
Cedella Marley website, http://www.cedellamarley.com (April 13, 2022).
The Children’s Book Review, https://www.thechildrensbookreview.com/ (February 28, 2022), Bianca Schulze, “Cedella Marley Discusses ‘Marley and the Family Band’.”
Dancehallmag, https://www.dancehallmag.com/ (March 2, 2022), “Cedella Marley Shares Her Story As A Migrant Kid In New Children’s Book.”
Forbes, https://www.forbes.com/ (September 19, 2019), Rachel Kramer Busse, “Cedella Marley On Adapting Her Father Bob Marley’s Song ‘Get Up, Stand Up’ Into New Children’s Book.”
KDHX Radio Web log, http://kdhx.org/blog/ (April 15, 2012), interview with Cedella Marley.
London Observer, (September 19, 2021), Tim Adams, author interview.
Publishers Weekly, https://www.publishersweekly.com/ (February 24, 2022), review of Marley and the Family Band.
YA and Kids! Books Central, https://www.yabookscentral.com/ (February 16, 2022), Beth Edwards, “Author Chat with Cedella Marley (Marley and the Family Band), Plus Giveaway!”*
ABOUT
HER LIFE...As the first born of Bob and Rita Marley, Cedella Marley is a descendant of reggae royalty. As an accomplished singer, an inspiring author, an adventurous fashion designer and visionary entrepreneur, she is a self-made woman, with each aspect of her multifaceted creativity honoring her exalted familial legacy. The world first met Cedella as a singing and dancing teenager with The Melody Makers, the Marley sibling group featuring her younger brothers Ziggy on lead vocals and guitar and Stephen on percussion and vocals. For two decades The Melody Makers toured the world establishing a new generation of Marley musical mystique, as they sold millions of albums and reaped an assortment of prestigious honors including three Grammy Awards.
Cedella balanced the Melody Makers’ rigorous touring schedule with the responsibilities of motherhood (she and her husband have three sons), the management of the Marley family’s numerous business endeavors and the demands of designing her (celebrated) women’s casual wear collection Catch A Fire, named after her father’s first album for Island Records. She is the CEO of Tuff Gong International, the record label founded by her father in 1965 and director of The Bob Marley Foundation, a non-profit charitable organization. Additionally, she oversees Hope Road Merchandising, LLC, a Marley family entity that manages the rights to Bob’s name and likeness, and the Marley merchandising conglomerate House of Marley.
HER WORK...In 1993 Cedella was appointed as C.E.O. of Tuff Gong International where she has played a pivotal role in the expansion of its operations. The Tuff Gong group of companies now includes a renowned state of the art recording studio in Kingston, Jamaica, which is utilized by the island’s top reggae artists and producers, Marley’s sons, and an array of international artists. Tuff Gong also houses a (vinyl) record and CD manufacturing plant, an analog and digital mastering room, a worldwide distribution network, a wholesale and retail record outlet, even a book division.
Touched by creativity, Cedella’s Catch A Fire clothing collection, which debuted to rave reviews in 2001, presented tailored, bohemian-chic jackets, jeans, accessories and an assortment of tees for women. Catch A Fire was featured in numerous top fashion publications including Vogue and Women’s Wear Daily and was carried in major department stores including Nordstrom, Neiman Marcus and Saks Fifth Avenue. In June 2012 Cedella launched her design collaboration with PUMA for the 2012 Jamaican Track and Field Olympic Kit. The collection was a global success due to the overwhelming media acclaim for the design aesthetic and visibility from the Jamaican team world record achievements. Cedella is currently designing additional collections for the Marley family’s apparel company Zion Rootswear.
Cedella is also an accomplished children's book author, having written The Boy from Nine Miles (The Early Life of Bob Marley), Three Little Birds, One Love and Every Little Thing. Published by Chronicle Books in 2012 is Cedella’s “Every Little Thing” is adapted from the lyrics to her father’s beloved song "Three Little Birds". Debuting in an Off Broadway Children’s play adaptation in 2014 this children's book is a follow up to Chronicles widely successful release last year of "One Love". Adapted from one of Bob Marley’s most beloved songs, One Love brings the joyful spirit and unforgettable lyrics of his music to life for a new generation. This heartwarming picture book offers an upbeat testament to the amazing things that can happen when we all get together with one love in our hearts.
As if all of that weren’t enough to keep her busy, Cedella continues to record with her brothers and for her own projects. Her most notable solo single “Can You Feel the Love Tonight” from The Lion King, was included on the 2010 release “The Disney Reggae Club”, a compilation of famous songs sung by reggae artists (including her brother Ziggy) with the intention of introducing children to Jamaica’s signature rhythm. In 2013 Cedella recorded a very special version of "Get Up, Stand Up" that was included on the "Every Mother Counts Volume 2" compilation for Starbucks. The album is a compilation of music to help benefit Christy Turlington's Every Mother Counts charity, which is an “awareness and mobilization campaign that seeks to reduce the maternal mortality rate.” Although there are great demands on her time as she juggles the aforementioned roles, Cedella’s boundless creativity will not allow her to be limited to previous accomplishments. “I don’t think I can ever reach a plateau where I’m like this is it, I don’t have that type of personality,” she says. “I’m always trying to do something else.”
HER PASSION...A life-long advocate of philanthropy, Cedella is the acting director of the Bob Marley Foundation, she supervises a range of programs that provide financial assistance and other resources to various institutions, including
Kingston’s Bustamante Children’s Hospital and Victoria Jubilee Hospital (where Cedella was born); the Stepney Primary and Junior High (Bob’s former school in St. Ann, Jamaica) and the Eira Schrader Golden Age Home located in the west Kingston community of Trenchtown where Bob was raised and later immortalized in the reggae classics “Trenchtown Rock” and “No Woman No Cry”. Some of the Foundation’s current projects include rewarding scholarships/fellowships qualified individuals to attend academic and/or trade institutions in the Caribbean and Africa, as well as continuing education classes, seminars and workshops presented by professionals in the arts, entertainment, music, and sports industries, with the aim of increasing employment opportunities.
Cedella also helms 1Love.org, the family’s networking/charity foundation that partners with global organizations like the United Nations Environment Program and charity: water, directing fans to charitable organizations and causes important to the Marley family. “Dad's message and vision of “One Love” is as relevant today as it was 30 years ago,” says Cedella, “now we can use social media to spread the message and put his words into reality.”
In 2014, Cedella was appointed as Global Ambassador to the Reggae Girlz, Jamaica Women’s Football Program, in order to garner the support and awareness that the team needs to advance to the finals of the Women’s World Cup in Canada 2015. Through her tireless support, the team received adequate funding and product sponsorship enabling their advancement to the CONCACAF World Championship in 2014 and their continued efforts in 2015.
For more information, follow Cedella Marley….
Facebook: @CedellaMarley
Twitter: @cedellamarley
Instagram: @cedellamarley
Cedella Marley Shares Her Story As A Migrant Kid In New Children’s Book
Claudine Baugh
March 2, 2022 10:11 AM
cedella
Cedella Marley
Cedella Marley, the daughter of Reggae legend Bob Marley and Rita Marley, and the mother of Skip Marley has shared her story growing up as a migrant kid in Delaware by way of a new children’s book.
The new publication, titled Marley And The Family Band, which was written by Cedella Marley and New York Times bestselling author Tracey Baptiste and illustrated by Tiffany Rose, is a picture book that celebrates music, love, and family. It’s a poetic story about a young girl who moves to a new country and learns to make friends, which was inspired by Cedella’s childhood experience.
“[The book] chronicles my life when we moved to Delaware, we came from Jamaica and moved to Wilmington, Delaware when I was a young girl,” Cedella told CBS News in an interview on Friday. “And I just wanted to share that experience of being a migrant kid at the time and bringing music to the neighborhood,” she continued. “It’s also a shout out to the unifying power of music as well as the importance of migration stories for children like myself and others.”
The link between the Marley family and Delaware was established by Bob’s mother Cedella Booker, who remarried and settled in Wilmington. Three of Bob’s children reportedly lived with Booker and attended city schools.
In the book, the main character Marley, after settling into her new community with her family and musician dad, came up with a brilliant idea to help her and her siblings make friends. She would plan an outdoor concert for the whole neighborhood. But when the weather ruins their plans, she discovers help in the most unlikely places, as her new neighbors quickly become the kindest of friends. The story assures children that nothing can stop the music as long as they have community.
Cedella Marley, 54, said the storyline is a close reflection of how life unfolded for her at the time. “Well with her [Marley] moving there [to Delaware] and just trying to bring the neighborhood together and what she was really good at was music and so that is her unifier.”
“Its like ‘let me get the neighborhood together and I want to put on a concert and we’re gonna have a bash’ and that’s me too in a nutshell,” Cedella said. “If I go somewhere and people kind of feel down or whatever, I’m like ‘lets put on some music and lets have a good time’.”
The Grammy-award-winning singer, formerly of the Melody Makers further disclosed that she has her sights set on bringing a little bit of Jamaica to your television screens. The new book Marley And The Family Band is currently in the works of becoming an animated series.
“I partnered with Lion Forge [Comics], I really love this team and we had like a good pow wow meeting just last week,” she said. “And we’re talking about Marley and the different characters which really are my brothers and sister but I renamed them in this book.”
“I’m just looking forward to bringing that to the screen, is like I’m bringing a little bit of Jamaica to TV, to your tablets, to your phone, you know however you [want] to watch it. But she’s coming and she’s coming in hard,” she said proudly.
Already, Cedella’s new book has created some buzz among critics.
“A well-played serenade to the power of kindness and community, “cited the Kirkus Reviews, while Publishers Weekly described it as “Buoyant … a sense of unsinkable community.”
L.A. Parent wrote, “Cedella Marley’s newest children’s book contributes to the legacy of her father, Bob Marley, and showcases the power of unity and family.”
Cedella has authored several other children’s books inspired by her father Bob Marley and his renowned songs, namely The Boy From Nine Miles (The Early Life Of Bob Marley), Every Little Thing, One Love, and Get Up Stand Up.
In addition, she has a cookbook, Cooking With Herb (75 Recipes For The Marley Natural Lifestyle), and others, Redemption (Reflections on Creating a Better World), The Healer’s Way: Bringing Hands-On Compassion To A Love-Starved World, 56 Thoughts from 56 Hope Road: The Sayings and Psalms of Bob Marley, and Bob Marley My Son,
Her famous brother Ziggy Marley has also ventured into writing, authoring the children’s books I Love You Too, Music Is In Everything, Little John Crow and My Dog Romeo, along with others Marajuanaman, The Kebra Nagast, Bob Marley – Portrait Of The Legend and a cookbook, Ziggy Marley and Family Cookbook.
Mother, Rita Marley has publications of her own, namely My Life With Bob Marley: No Woman No Cry and a cookbook Harambe For The Holidays: Vibrant Holiday Cooking With Rita Marley.
Cedella Marley
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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This article is about Bob Marley's daughter. For Bob Marley's mother, see Cedella Booker.
Cedella Marley
Born 23 August 1967 (age 54)
Kingston, Jamaica
Genres Reggae
Occupation(s) CEO, singer-songwriter, dancer, author, fashion designer, actress, author.
Labels Tuff Gong, Ghetto Youths
Associated acts Bob Marley, Ziggy Marley, Sharon Marley, Stephen Marley, Ziggy Marley and the Melody Makers
Website Cedella Marley Design
Cedella Marley (born 23 August 1967) is a Jamaican singer, dancer, fashion designer, actress, author, and entrepreneur. She is the daughter of reggae singers Bob Marley and Rita Marley and the mother of Skip Marley. She was in the group Ziggy Marley and the Melody Makers along with her sister and brothers. With the group, she has won three Grammy awards.[1]
Contents
1 Career
1.1 1980–1999: Early life and The Melody Makers
1.2 2002–present: Disbandment of the Melody Makers and recent work
2 Philanthropy
3 Discography
4 Books
5 References
6 External links
Career
1980–1999: Early life and The Melody Makers
Main article: Ziggy Marley and the Melody Makers
Formed at the request of their father, Bob Marley, it was only after his death that the Melody Makers came into their own. The band comprises four of Bob Marley's ten children, vocalist/guitarist Ziggy, vocalist/guitarist/drummer Stephen, vocalist Cedella, and vocalist Sharon. Her young brother Ziggy was the group's leader, with Stephen often sharing in the songwriting and lead vocals.
The group released over ten albums which includes their Grammy-winning albums Conscious Party, One Bright Day, and Fallen Is Babylon. They have scored a number one hit "Tumblin' Down" along with other successful singles "Tomorrow People", "Everyone Wants to Be", "Look Who's Dancin'", and "Power to Move Ya".
In the late 80s and early 90s, Cedella Marley appeared in a few movies, including The Mighty Quinn (1989) starring Denzel Washington, and was the female lead in Joey Breaker (1993) opposite Richard Edson.[2]
2002–present: Disbandment of the Melody Makers and recent work
In 2002, the group officially disbanded. Cedella is now the CEO of her father's recording label, Tuff Gong International. She also helps run her family's charitable organization, 1Love. In June 2010, Cedella released a song called, "Can You Feel The Love Tonight", which was featured on the compilation album, The Disney Reggae Club.
Cedella has begun several clothing lines which are, "Catch a Fire", "High Tide", "Nice Time Deconstructed", and "Nice Time Kids".[3] In February 2011, it was announced that she would design the uniform for the Jamaican track and field team at the 2012 Olympics, including world champion Usain Bolt, under an arrangement with Puma. She described her vision for the outfits as "Grace Jones meets my Dad – very music-inspired and a bit retro."[4]
In September 2011, she released her book One Love. Cedella is also featured in the documentary movie, Marley, which was released in April 2012. Cedella Marley is also currently recording an album to be released in 2012 or 2013.
Her musical Bob Marley's Three Little Birds, which includes several of her father's songs, opened at the New Victory Theater in New York City in February 2014.[5]
In June 2014, Marley presented a line of menswear she designed inspired both by clothes her father wore on the football pitch as well as the 2014 World Cup team designs.[6] It consisted mainly of sportswear items such as T-shirts, hoodies, and tracksuit jackets. The line was named, simply, Marley. The proceeds from the line will go toward funding Jamaica women's national football team, the Reggae Girlz,[7] of which Marley is currently a sponsor and official ambassador.[8]
Philanthropy
Marley is the acting director of the Bob Marley Foundation, which seeks to deliver social interventions throughout Jamaica through educational and community development initiatives.
In 2014, after learning the Jamaica women's national football team had disbanded because it wasn't receiving funding from the nation's football federation, Marley became a team benefactor.[9] Through the Bob Marley Foundation, Cedella raised enough money for the team to reform and found the team's coach, Hue Menzies. She has continued to help fund the team through their surprise qualification for the 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup.[10]
Discography
Singles
2017: "Could You Be Loved"
2017: "Could You Be Loved" (featuring Savi & Bankay)
Books
2002: 56 Thoughts from 56 Hope Road: The Sayings & Psalms of Bob Marley
2006: Three Little Birds
2008: The Boy from Nine Miles: The Early Life of Bob Marley (Young Spirit Books)
2011: One Love
2012: Every Little Thing: Based on the song 'Three Little Birds' by Bob Marley
2017: Cooking With Herb with Raquel Pelzel
QUOTE: “The mission is to spread [Bob Marley’s] music to every corner of the Earth. Daddy wanted his words to be known in every place on Earth. And I think that we are accomplishing that goal.”
Interview
Cedella Marley: ‘The mission is to spread Daddy’s music to every corner of the Earth’
Tim Adams
Cedella Marley photographed in Miami, Florida by Jeffery Salter for the Observer.
Cedella Marley photographed in Miami, Florida by Jeffery Salter for the Observer.
As a new musical about the life of Bob Marley prepares to celebrate his spirit and classic songs, Marley’s daughter, plus the director and star of Get Up, Stand Up!, discuss his extraordinary legacy
Tim Adams
@TimAdamsWrites
Sun 19 Sep 2021 07.00 BST
44
Cedella Marley was 13 years old when the man she still calls “Daddy” died in 1981. She has many memories of him, she tells me, but two often stand out for her. The first is a sense of Robert Nesta Marley as a kind of shape-shifting presence in her childhood, always there and not there.
“He was always rehearsing when we were little and living in Jamaica,” she says, speaking on the phone last week from New York. “He would be the one that was always peeping in, peeping in the morning when he went out, and then peeping in at night when he got back. I would cover my head with my blanket in bed and I think he enjoyed scaring me a little bit. For a long time, he was a kind of scary shadow to me.”
And then, she says, there was the time when she finally won the admiration of her schoolmates, whose parents used to tell them not to mix with the Marley kids, because of Bob’s reputation for “bringing the ghetto uptown”. “One of my really cool memories is when Michael Jackson and the Jackson Five came to Jamaica. Daddy was the opening act. That was one time when I was proud to be Bob Marley’s daughter.”
Both those recollections seem to speak to a more complicated relationship with her father than any all-encompassing “One Love” mythology might suggest. But if he was often absent from Cedella’s day-to-day life as she was growing up, he has been ever-present in the 40 years since he died of cancer when he was only 36.
I think in some type of dictionary when you look up "confidence", you will find the words "Bob Marley"
As CEO of the “music, merch, publishing” business Tuff Gong that her father established, Cedella, now 53, is obviously surrounded by the songs. But also in off-duty moments, I imagine hardly an hour goes by without her happening to hear some track (one of the uncanny things about thinking about this story in the past couple of weeks is that every time I have sat down anywhere to work, a Marley track has come on within minutes. This morning, at home, it was from a car with an open window playing Waiting in Vain in the street outside).
“Yeah. You can tell the cool stores from not the cool stores by whether they are playing the music,” she says, with a laugh. When we speak she has just arrived in New York from her home in Miami. The music was there in the airport lounge. “The other day I had to go for an MRI scan and the guy put on these headphones for me and of course Three Little Birds came through.”
Bob Marley and his wife, Rita, with their children, left to right, Sharon, Ziggy, Cedella, and baby Stephen, Jamaica, circa 1972.
Bob Marley and his wife, Rita, with their children, left to right, Sharon, Ziggy, Cedella, and baby Stephen, Jamaica, circa 1972.
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Her father would have been obviously gratified by the fact that his songs have become the whole world’s soundtrack?
“When Daddy passed in 1981, the naysayers said that his music and his legacy would be nothing,” she says. “Now that he is no longer physically here, he has long ago proven them wrong. He was the one who said, ‘My music will live on for ever.’”
It seems that almost from the beginning, writing songs in his teens, he was completely confident of that?
“I think in some type of dictionary when you look up ‘confidence’, you will find the words ‘Bob Marley’. Daddy knew he had special gifts,” she says, referring to her father’s understanding of himself as a mystic and seer. “And I know people don’t really talk about that much. Because it makes them uncomfortable. But I know that he could see things and he said what he said, and it’s happened, and it continues to happen.”
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While the family, consisting of 11 acknowledged kids, Marley’s widow, Rita, and various other claimants, were still in long drawn-out battles over his legacy – he declined to leave a will – Marley’s ghost was ever more active. “I don’t believe in death, neither in flesh nor in spirit,” he used to say and he was as good as his word. At the millennium, Time magazine selected Exodus as the greatest album of the century. The BBC’s millennial celebrations began each hour with local renditions of One Love beamed from every part of the world.
If anything, since the arguments about his estate have been resolved that legacy has only advanced. The posthumous greatest hits album, Legend, is the longest-charting album in the history of the Billboard chart, 694 consecutive weeks and counting. For the past 10 years, he has occupied a steady place in the top five of the somewhat macabre Forbes magazine list of “top-earning dead celebrities”, regularly banking more than $20m. His estate, now named House of Marley, is managed by four of the children, Rohan, Cedella, Stephen and Ziggy (the latter three were part of the pop-reggae band the Melody Makers), while the other seven siblings sit on the board and share the proceeds. Profits come from the sale of licensed products in more than 50 countries, which included headphones, Marley Natural cannabis, smoking paraphernalia, Get Together portable speakers along with T-shirts, hats, posters, tapestries, scented candles and coffee.
Cedella’s most recent contribution to this industry of Bob is a series of children’s books based on the songs. In the latest, Marley and the Family Band, the family move from Jamaica to Wilmington, Delaware, as she did as a child. The girl in the book brings joy into her neighbourhood with her family’s music. Producing the books, she says, has been a further education in the universal appeal of her father’s message. All over the world, she has watched kids become instantly enthralled by the figure at the heart of them.
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“It’s like, I think these kids are coming out with old souls,” she says. “It is kind of eerie. They just gravitate towards Daddy…”
I quote to her something she said in Kevin Macdonald’s documentary Marley to the effect that, even when her father was dying, they never had him to themselves, there were always people wanting something from him. Does a part of her still feel that?
“No, she says, “it’s different because he’s not physically here. So they can’t get any more pieces of him. We have the memories and we have the mission. And we’re fearless in how we go about our mission.”
Wokeness means nothing to me. I was born woke. As Daddy would say: we have work to do
Cedella Marley
How would she define that mission?
“The mission is to spread his music to every corner of the Earth. Daddy wanted his words to be known in every place on Earth. And I think that we are accomplishing that goal.”
The latest expression of that mission, a musical based on Marley’s life, Get Up, Stand Up!, will open at the Lyric theatre in London in October. The book of the show has been written by Lee Hall, whose many credits include Billy Elliot. One way of thinking of this project is as a sort of global version of that earlier hit: the story of the ghetto boy who gave the whole world a new rhythm – that fusion of Jamaican ska and rocksteady and American doo-wop and rock’n’roll that became known as reggae.
Earlier this month, I sat in on rehearsals of Get Up, Stand Up! as the cast welcomed the on-stage band for the first time. Even in a bare rehearsal space in south London those opening guitar chords and drum rhythms, the accent on the off-beat, immediately transported you to the Kingston suburb of Trenchtown circa 1960, where Bob first joined up with his cousin, Neville “Bunny” Livingston, and guitarist Peter Tosh to form a band and write songs. The Caribbean’s poet laureate Derek Walcott coined the perfect term to describe that new beat: “thud-sobbing”. For all its dancehall joys and energy, Walcott wrote, reggae is a music that evokes “a sadness as real as the smell/ of rain on dry earth”.
In rehearsal, a good deal of that emotion was on display, arising from Marley’s understanding that “one good thing about music, when it hits you, you feel no pain”. The musical will attempt to give a sense of the whole arc of Marley’s career in two and a half hours. The songs are obviously the perfect vehicle for this storytelling, each one a window into a specific time and place and part of a wider philosophy. Watching even a part of it as I did – vibrant renditions of Trenchtown Rock and Lively Up Yourself – you imagine it will further establish the storied trajectory of the singer’s life as something like the stations of the cross.
Arinzé Kene during rehearsals for Get Up, Stand Up! at the Lyric theatre.
‘This job is kind of career-changing’: Arinzé Kene during rehearsals for Get Up, Stand Up! at the Lyric theatre. Photograph: Craig Sugden
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Some details of that journey remain better known than others. Marley, known by his middle name Nesta, “wise messenger”, as a child, was as an outsider from birth. He was born in 1945 in the hills of Jamaica’s “garden parish” of Saint Ann, his mother, Cedella Malcolm, was an 18-year-old village girl, his father a rootless white Kingstonian in his 60s who claimed (falsely) to be a British-born “captain”. Marley was first sent away to live with family before he and his mother settled in Trenchtown, then a squatter camp west of Kingston, where Marley grew up with the poverty and spiritual aspiration and politics of rebellion that drove his songwriting. He was bullied as a kid for his pale skin and mixed parentage and found an escape in music. He cut his first record, Judge Not, on the eve of Jamaican independence in 1962. Thereafter, his music became synonymous with freedom, as well as triumph over suffering.
The musical will also dramatise his experiments in what Rastafarians understood as “social living”, his ever-complicated love life, in particular that triangle between his backing singer, Rita (his wife and mother of his four elder children) and Cindy Breakspeare, the 1976 Miss World, his lover and muse, as well as his near fatal involvement in Jamaican political struggle. (In 1976, days before Marley was scheduled to perform at a Smile Jamaica concert aimed at preventing civil war at the forthcoming election, gunmen entered his house at 56 Hope Road, shooting him, Rita and his manager, Don Taylor. Despite wounds to his chest and arm, Marley insisted on performing at the National Stadium two nights later as planned.)
His subsequent exile in London began in the creative genius of Exodus and ultimately ended in tragedy when the cancer that began in an infected big toe (a reported football injury) spread through his body. Towards the end, when his weakened body could not support the weight of his dreadlocks, a group of the women closest to him, led by Rita, still his wife, and Breakspeare, gathered in candlelight, read passages from the Bible and cut his beloved hair.
Subsequently, disciples have inevitably multiplied. In So Much Things to Say: The Oral History of Bob Marley, the historian Roger Steffens offered a bibliography of more than 500 books that have been written about Marley since his death. His music and his spirit have become synonymous with youthful rebellion across the world. Macdonald’s documentary film ends with a sequence of references to the singer at the heart of popular political movements. “In Tunisia at the start of the Arab spring, people are singing Get Up, Stand Up,” Macdonald noted. “Immediately after the fruit seller set fire to himself to start the revolution, that was the slogan written on the wall near where he died.”
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If the hopes that came with post-colonial liberation fuelled the songs, they have currently become inevitable anthems of the Black Lives Matter movement. After watching the rehearsal of Get Up, Stand Up! I asked director Clint Dyer, deputy artistic director of the National Theatre, whether it felt like a particularly important moment to be doing this show.
“It’s a weird one, isn’t it?” he says. “Because you could argue if it had happened earlier we might have got to a better understanding of this message already. Especially in the theatre industry or in Britain more widely. The message is as heartfelt and as important and as desired as it ever was. It’s just now it feels that there is more kind of acceptance of a voice like Bob’s.”
Like most first-generation British Jamaicans, Dyer’s Sundays as a kid “were filled with reggae music”. (It is not for nothing that Steve McQueen’s series of films about the Windrush generation were titled Small Axe, a quote from Marley’s song about finding a voice in a hostile culture: “if you are the big tree/ We are the small axe/ Ready to cut you down”.)
“For me growing up here as a Brit,” Dyer says, “Bob gave me a portal into the experiences of my parents, my grandparents, my family, you know, so it was important to have that, especially in a Britain that wasn’t really accepting us as British people. We had to feel some deeper meaning somewhere else. And obviously, that would be Jamaica.”
Bob Marley in concert at the Rainbow theatre, London, 4 June 1977.
Bob Marley in concert at the Rainbow theatre, London, 4 June 1977. Photograph: Reuters
As he has got older, he feels the music has grown up with him. “The wonderful thing about Bob’s legacy is that every generation seems to have a point in which they meet Bob Marley.” If you’re alive in the world, he suggests, “you can’t really get from ages 16 to 20 without having a Bob phase. It’s like a rite of passage into becoming a moral human – at some point you get to hear and be interested in the philosophies he speaks about; whether you can live by them is the challenge.”
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The onerous task of inhabiting that spirit on stage falls to Arinzé Kene, the polymathic playwright, actor and singer, whose career includes celebrated stage performances in Girl from the North Country and as soul singer Sam Cooke in One Night in Miami, as well as an Olivier award for his play Misty. “We first had discussions about me playing Bob back in 2016,” Kene says. “Probably the first feeling about it for me was fear, because he was such an amazing human being. It’s a big job, kind of career-changing. I also just really didn’t want to fuck it up.”
If the rehearsal is anything to go by, Kene need have no worries. If one of your regrets in life is never to have seen Marley on one of those sell-out tours in the late 1970s, then I imagine parts of this show might give you a flavour of what you missed, like a revivalist meeting.
There are survival tactics in most of his songs. He will often use the words to tell you a secret
“It’s not a tribute act,” Kene says. “We’re going under the layers as far as we can. I have tried to understand what music meant to Bob, that’s how I find the voice. It was always him opening up to see through the pain, you know, through the political turmoil, through the religion of being Rasta.”
Marley has come to be perceived as a saintly figure though he obviously was a complex and often troubled character. Is it possible to contain those multitudes in a musical?
In many ways, Kene suggests, the feelgood “don’t worry about a thing” quality of some of the music is itself the political point. “Just seeing a black person really love themselves was and is really offensive to some people. Some people believed and still believe that we should hate ourselves, because they hate us. Bob’s existence was defiance of that, his entire existence.”
All the qualities required to embody that spirit are embedded in the songs, he says, if you listen hard enough. “Partly,” Kene says, “I realised I’d always listened to him for survival, there are survival tactics in most of his songs. He will often use the words to tell you a secret: this is how you spread love, give love, be open to receive love. This is how it feels. ‘Could you be loved and be loved?’ The lyrics are full of questions and lessons.”
Because of Covid, Cedella Marley has been unable to travel over to see rehearsals of the musical though she is trying to be hands-on as a producer on Zoom. She hopes she can be here for the opening, along with her mother, Rita, who celebrated her 75th birthday during lockdown. She loves the fact that it is happening in the West End. “I think Daddy would – will – appreciate it. These were some of his happiest hunting grounds. [London] was a place where his creativity really flourished.”
Rita Marley and her children (Cedella on the right) in Central Park, New York, 1982.
Rita Marley and the children (Cedella on the right) in Central Park, New York, 1982. Photograph: Michel Delsol/Getty Images
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She suggests that the trajectory of his story makes it perfect for this interpretation. She was named after Marley’s mother, Cedella Booker, who “put him on the bus and sent him to go live with a bunch of strangers when he was young. And that scarred him for life, you know, abandonment issues. Later, because his mother was a devout Christian, Rastas were not allowed in the house. So it was nice to see her in her later years come to appreciate her son for bringing joy to so many people around the world.”
If Cedella Marley has any abandonment issues of her own she has, she says, long ago learned to live with them. She was forced to toughen up early in life, not least by the assassination attempt on her parents. “You come to discover that sometimes the bad men are the nicest people,” she said of that event. “But they are nice people who would kill at the blink of an eye. I wouldn’t wish anybody to go through having their parents shot.” As an adult, she has also had cause to call on that toughness. In 1993, she was attacked and held hostage by six gun-wielding youths who ransacked her home. “All the while I just kept thinking of Daddy,” she said subsequently. “He was telling me to stay calm: I could feel him hovering over me.”
It must feel a great privilege to have her surname, but does it sometimes also seem a burden?
“I was born in 1967. All of this about identity crisis is a modern invention,” she says. “Wokeness means nothing to me. I was born woke. As Daddy would say: we have work to do.” She is proud of the way the family have retained control of her father’s legacy, as he would have wanted. “You also have to remember, Bob Marley was the first Jamaican artist that decided that he was going to print his own T-shirts. He decided that he was going to manufacture his own records. He decided that he was going to choose his own destiny. I learned that you take control of your own assets. We’re rebuilding our vinyl factory plant in Jamaica. So that’s exciting for me, you know, just growing up around vinyl.”
What does she think he would have made of digital media?
“Well,” she says, “he’s not physically here and he’s got 66 million Facebook friends. I imagine he would be competing with the pope…”
Get Up Stand Up! previews at the Lyric theatre, London W1, from 1 October
QUOTE: “[I]t’s like my father said, you know, tell the children the truth. So sharing the truth and joy of family, music, unity, and love for one another, yeah, that drives me.” “[W]hen it started to happen to one of my children I realized that I had to do something.We, as parents, have to do more. Anytime a child harms him or herself because of bullying it’s time to have stronger conversations with our children.”
Cedella Marley Discusses Marley and the Family Band
Bianca SchulzeBy Bianca SchulzeFebruary 28, 2022Updated:March 7, 202218 Mins Read
AGES 4-8
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Cedella Marley Discusses Marley and the Family Band
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An interview with Cedella Marley
The Children’s Book Review
In this episode, I talk with Grammy-winning singer, designer, entrepreneur, and the first-born daughter of reggae singers Bob and Rita Marley, Cedella Marley, about her newest picture book Marley and the Family Band!
Cedella Marley is the CEO of Bob Marley’s recording label, Tuff Gong International, and the author of multiple children’s books including One Love. A life-long advocate of philanthropy, she is the director of the Bob Marley Foundation and is a Global Ambassador to the Jamaica Women’s Football Program. Cedella Marley is a living embodiment of the way the ethics and values instilled during her upbringing carry forward the belief that, with passion and purpose, we can all make a difference in our communities, our country, and ultimately the world. She lives in Miami with her husband and three children.
Listen to the Interview
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Discussion Topics:
About Cedella Marley
About Marley and the Family Band
Get to know Cedella Marley
A discussion on Marley and the Family Band
How Cedella’s childhood inspired Marley and the Family Band
Marley and the Family Band coming to the screen
Taking care of the physical body to help keep the mind healthy
Learning and celebrating music in the home
Cedella Marley’s favorite childhood books
Read the Interview
Bianca Schulze: Well, hello, Cedella Marley! Welcome to The Growing Readers Podcast.
Cedella Marley: Hey, thank you for having me.
Bianca Schulze: Oh, it’s a pleasure. I have to get my fangirling out of the way right up front because I’m a massive fan of your work and your family’s work. I have so many memories of turning up the volume to your father’s Legend album and listening to Ziggy Marley and the Melody Makers. So this is wonderful.
Cedella Marley: Great. Keep doing that, though. Jammin’ Jammin’.
Bianca Schulze: Absolutely.
I also want to say your picture book versions of One Love and Three Little Birds and Get Up, Stand Up have been read and sung so much in my home. So we love those books.
Cedella Marley: Oh, thank you. Thank you.
Bianca Schulze: So, before we dig into your new book, I thought it might be fun just to get to know you a little bit. So I’d love to ask a couple of rapid-fire questions if that’s okay.
Cedella Marley: Okay.
Bianca Schulze: All right, I would love to know what’s your favorite color?
Cedella Marley: Black.
Bianca Schulze: Favorite food?
Cedella Marley: Lychees.
Bianca Schulze: Favorite song.
Cedella Marley: Nice Time by Bob Marley.
Bianca Schulze: Favorite book?
Cedella Marley: The Bible.
Bianca Schulze: Do you use a bookmark, or do you fold over the corner of a page to hold your place in a book?
Cedella Marley: Neither I use stickies.
Bianca Schulze: I love it. I usually use whatever I can get hold of.
Do you have a nickname?
Cedella Marley: Nice Time.
Marley and the Family Band: Book Cover
Bianca Schulze: So it may be evident by the title of this podcast, The Growing Reader’s Podcast, that I have a giant passion for children’s books and raising readers, as do our listeners. But another form of storytelling that I love is music because the connection that I make between the two is that both books and music can help people see and be seen. And all of your books connect readers with music, including your latest picture book, Marley and the Family Band. So I’d love to know what drives you and guides you in creating these music-filled books for children.
Cedella Marley: It’s that connection. You know, it’s like my father said, you know, tell the children the truth. So sharing the truth and joy of family, music, unity, and love for one another, yeah, that drives me. You know, it makes me happy when people reach out to me to let me know, just like how you did, how much music, my music, Ziggy’s music, the family’s music, help them, inspire them, and keep them moving and keeps them positive. So that motivates me, too.
Bianca Schulze: All right. So some of the other picture books you’ve released, as I mentioned before, are based on the songs and lyrics of your father, Bob Marley, but this new story seems to be a little bit of possibly a glimpse at your family life. So would you be willing to share a little bit about your childhood and how your upbringing has perhaps inspired this new picture book?
Cedella Marley: Well, I mean, it’s right there, you know? Marley, who is me, and her family, moved from Jamaica to Delaware. She decides the best way to make friends is through music. She wants to throw a concert, and the first obstacle that came her way was rain. You know, a hurricane. But coming from Jamaica, this is nothing new to her. So she’s like, what’s the real problem? We can still put on this concert. All we need are some really good umbrellas.
You know, she’s this feisty little girl, and she reminds me of myself because I think I would have done the same thing, you know, if that was the circumstances I was facing. You know, how do I put on this concert? How do I bring this neighborhood together? I’m new here, but I’m going to explore, and I’m going to see what happens. And the music is what brings the entire neighborhood together. Yeah.
Bianca Schulze: So, knowing that this story is personal to you and embodies your desire to bring the joy of family and love and music into the homes of others. Do you have a favorite part of this story or a favorite spread from the book?
Cedella Marley: Let me see. I think it’s the same thing. When she goes around the neighborhood, inviting herself into people’s homes. And really, she’s very determined that this rain is not going to stop her. So Marley knew about storms in Jamaica, but I guess people in Delaware are not used to it. So everybody kind of freaked out. And she’s just like, Mommy, Daddy, we’re going to make this happen regardless of the circumstances.
Yeah. So it’s just to watch her bring the whole neighborhood together by doing her little chores—you know, she had to do something to get something, whether she has to, you know, take water out of the basement or, you know, help with the birds. So she’s very determined.
Marley and the Family Band Illustration
Bianca Schulze: Absolutely. I agree with you.
So I want to tell you a few parts that I love about it. I just love the way your other books are, you know, songs. If you’re not a singer, you can read them. But if you know Bob Marley’s music, you sing along with them. This picture book is not a song. It is a story. But yet there’s musicality weaved in all the way through, like the thunder crashing like cymbals. And you’re brothers’ muddy boots making a symphony of music, splashing in the puddle. And I love that. I love how that was woven in.
Cedella Marley: Thank you. Thank you.
Bianca Schulze: I would love to know a little bit about your experience writing this book. So like, how did creating this particular story like I just mentioned, because this one isn’t a song, it isn’t based on lyrics. So how did writing and creating this story differ from the other children’s books you’ve released?
Cedella: Well, I think the other books were inspired by my daddy’s music and lyrics, and this one, I just really wanted to reach out to the kids like me. You know, where you’re migrating to a different country, you’re experiencing a different culture. It was scary, but it was still rewarding. And this is me reaching out to those young kids who, for whatever reasons, the family has to move from one country to another. And I wanted to take the fear out of migration for children. You know, it’s going to be all right. It’s going to be okay.
I just hope when they’re actually moving that mommy and daddy put on some Bob Marley music and play Three Little Birds to let them know that every little thing is going to be all right. Yeah.
Bianca Schulze: Oh my gosh.
So there is a line, too, that I particularly liked here. I’m just going to read one of the spreads if that’s okay. And it says when Marley wasn’t ready to give up on the concept, she said, or her mother said, Where are you going? And she says to the park; you can’t fix a problem until you look at it up close. And I love that drive. I love that she just knows that, okay, well, maybe she needs to go outside and take a walk so that she can really take in this problem. And I love that.
Cedella Marley: She is just remarkable, and I can’t wait to bring her to the screen because she is just a feisty little girl from Jamaica who just believes that she can do anything she sets her mind to. And her brothers and her sisters, they’re kind of like, you sure? We’re going to ride with you anyways, but we’re kind of hesitant too. But whatever Marley says goes, yeah, it’s cool to watch that dynamic between even her and her siblings.
Marley and the Family Band Illustration 2
Bianca Schulze: Yeah. I love that they’re like ride-or-die siblings. Well, yeah, since you just said that Marley will be on the screen. That’s really exciting news. What can you tell us about that?
Cedella Marley: Well, I’ve just partnered with Lion Forge Animation, Dave Steward, and his team—they’re amazing. We will be bringing Marley and her family and all of her adventures to the screen. I mean, I can’t wait. I’ve never been so excited about really just sitting down in a room with a bunch of people and working on this. So yeah, it’s going to be exciting. It’s like I’m bringing a little bit of Jamaica, you know, to our kids or your kids, everybody’s kids who probably don’t even know our culture that well. So Marley will be bringing that to the screen.
Bianca Schulze: Gosh, it’ll be so exciting to have some flavor on the TV for our kids, for sure. You know, there’s a lot of children’s books now that are getting programmed for the screen, and I love that kids will be able to make that connection between a book and the TV and with yours, music. So that’s super exciting.
How long do you think we have to wait? Is it too soon to say?
Cedella Marley: It’s too soon to say because that’s the same question I asked too.
Bianca Schulze: I love it.
Cedella Marley: I’m anxious for it, though, but hopefully sooner rather than later.
Bianca Schulze: Yeah. Well, it’s always good to have something to look forward to, right?
Cedella Marley: There you go. There you go.
Bianca Schulze: So here’s something I’d like to know. You’re a Grammy-winning singer, a designer, an entrepreneur, a philanthropist, a mom, a sister, an aunt, and a dog mom. So you must get pulled in many different directions on any given day. So how do you choose what to work on each day? And do you have any day-to-day practices that help you stay focused?
Cedella Marley: Well, you know what I do? I take my Marley One mushroom drops in my Marley coffee, and it’s not a plug. It’s the real thing. But I do; I feel like the Marley One, in my morning regimen, keeps my mental clarity very, very clear. And then, you know, exercise. I have to exercise at least for an hour, an hour and a half. And then, you know, the rest of the day just happens. I’m a Leo woman, so I can multitask.
However, you know, I do have my OCD moments. I like things to be in order. So I have a great group of people around me who are really just there for me because they know I have a lot on my plate. I just have to remind myself that I have to take care of the physical because then the mind won’t shut down. So you just have to be cautious of your body and your mind. Yeah, and I take good care of it.
Bianca Schulze: Yeah, that’s good advice. So we have a couple of listener questions for you. I have one that was a write-in question, and then I have one that I’m going to line up and play for you that I think is an adorable question. Okay, so this one is from Sandra Meaders of the Life Is What It’s Called blog, and she’d like to know:
How did your parents teach you music in your home? What did you gain from having music in your home?
Cedella Marley: Well, just having parents who are musicians, you just kind of grew up with music. It wasn’t like our house was always bumping, and you know, the place shaking; it was a very strict home. Our mom and dad always said to us, if this is something that you want to do, you have to be really good at it. So we were trained in piano and voice lessons. Then, if we weren’t doing good in school, we couldn’t go to our voice lessons or piano lessons. So we always tried to just be good at everything, just to be in a family of musicians.
It was, and I say this because I think it’s something that we should all consider. If we put a lot of our academic lessons to music, our kids would absorb it so much better. You know, they can sing a Drake song or even a Cardi B song. And I’m not sure they actually know what the words are really saying, but there is something catchy about a beat that young kids just kind of gravitate towards. That’s why we sing our ABC. You know, it’s just easier that way; kids gravitate to music. And I think if we start to put more of our academic lessons in with music, we’ll be surprised at how these kids just kind of turn it on and grasp it quicker than we would ever imagine.
Bianca Schulze: I think that’s right, too. And I just think music is such a great thing for mental health. I know me personally; if I’m having a tough day and I’m on an errand, and I get a moment in the car by myself, you know that music is up loud. And by the time I hop out of the car, I’m feeling good.
Cedella Marley: Yeah, it’s a different thing. It does something to your mental and also your physical. You know, we might take it for granted when we tap our fingers, you know, or we stomp our feet when we listen to something. But it’s something that the brain and the body—it’s connecting, you know, so we should try and explore that, especially for our children.
Bianca Schulze: Yeah.
All right. So here’s another question this one is super cute.
Adriana: My name is Adrianna, and I have two questions. What is your favorite instrument, and who are the members of your family band? What instruments do they play? Thank you for answering, and I really liked your book.
Cedella Marley: So my favorite instrument to play—I’m really good at playing the piano, but I have two dream instruments that I kind of try every now and then, which are the bass and the drums. Yeah, so that’s what I like to play. Now in my family, we’re full of guitarists. My son, Skip, plays the guitar, plays the drum, and plays the piano.
But all of my brothers, they’re really good at the guitar. I have one brother, Rohan, who really thinks he can play the drums. He’s okay at it, but he can’t take it up professionally. Yeah, and the rest, we just kind of play around with the Congo drums, you know, the strings, percussion. You know, I think percussions are easy, but it’s also the bedrock of lots of music too. You know, it drives the beat—drives the rhythm.
Oh, yeah. When you come from a family of musicians, everybody has to know what to do with their fingers and hands. So, yeah.
Bianca Schulze: Yeah, I love it.
I was just driving in the car yesterday with two of my three kids and my youngest, who’s seven; we were listening to—I think it was Tomorrow People by Ziggy Marley and the Melody Makers—and he was so curious about that reggae sound. And he was asking me, “Mom, what instrument is making that sound?” And I was like, Which one? Which sound? I don’t know. And I felt so bad. I wanted to be able to answer him. But I loved that he was able to pick up that in reggae music, there were maybe some different instruments that he wasn’t hearing in some of the other music that he was listening to.
Cedella Marley: Smart kid!
Bianca Schulze: Well, I think so, of course.
Okay, so let’s see. I have a question that I ask everyone. They say you need to be a reader first to be a writer. And I’m curious, was there a book that you read as a child that you believe made you a reader?
Cedella Marley: Well, growing up, I really loved Nancy Drew. I couldn’t wait for the next episode, and I was kind of bummed when it became like a TV series because I felt like that was not her in the book, so I was kind of torn. But Nancy Drew, back in the day, was my go-to. Yeah, I actually felt like she was my she-ro. You know? Yeah, big up to Nancy.
Bianca Schulze: Yeah, yay, Nancy.
All right. So last of all. What impact do you hope Marley and the Family Band will have on readers?
Cedella Marley: I hope it just brings them positivity. You know, the thing about Marley is that she was just so focused on doing what she thought would bring the neighborhood together. And I think we need more a little Marley’s running around, you know, trying to see how they can bring people together. We have to show our kids that sometimes as adults, we divide people. And I would like for all of them to be little Marley’s and just use their voice to bring people together to unify people. That’s what’s important.
Bianca Schulze: Yes, Cedella Marley. Wow. Marley and the Family Band is so joyful, and Marley is such a lovable, positive role model for kids; I can just imagine how your book will inspire family bands, complete with kitchen pots and pans.
Cedella Marley: So let’s get it. Let’s do that.
Bianca Schulze: Yes, absolutely. Well, thank you so, so much for sharing a piece of your busy day with our listeners and me. I am so, so very grateful.
Cedella Marley: Oh, thank you guys, and have a wonderful rest of the week and one love.
Bianca Schulze: Yeah, one love to you, Cedella Marley.
About the Book
Marley and the Family Band: Book Cover
Marley and the Family Band
Written by Cedella Marley with Tracey Baptiste
Illustrated by Tiffany Rose
Ages 4-8 | 40 Pages
Publisher: Random House Books for Young Readers | ISBN-13: 9780593301111
Publisher’s Synopsis: A picture book that celebrates music, love, and family from author Cedella Marley. A poetic story about a young girl who moves to a new country and learns to make friends—inspired by a childhood growing up with the musician Bob Marley as a father.
When Marley and her family move from Jamaica to Delaware, she knows life is about to change in big ways. And she’s got the perfect plan to help her and her siblings make friends: an outdoor concert for the whole neighborhood!
But when weather ruins their plans, she discovers help in the most unlikely places as her new neighbors quickly become the kindest of friends.
In this joyful, vibrant picture book inspired by her childhood and iconic father, Cedella Marley assures children that nothing can stop the music as long as they have community.
QUOTE: “Our home was nothing like that. It was joyful and filled with love, but that is not something that one would know looking from the outside in.” “[W]hen it started to happen to one of my children I realized that I had to do something. We, as parents, have to do more.”
Cedella Marley On Adapting Her Father Bob Marley’s Song “Get Up, Stand Up” Into New Children’s Book
Rachel Kramer BusselSenior Contributor
I write about books, publishing, authors and readers
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Sep 10, 2019,04:04pm EDT
This article is more than 2 years old.
Cedella Marley, 52, the daughter of famed singer Bob Marley, has adapted one of his most famous songs, written with Peter Tosh, into a new children’s book out today entitled Get Up, Stand Up (Chronicle Books), illustrated by John Jay Cabuay. The book, aimed at children between the ages of six and eight, shows scenarios where children bully, tease and exclude their peers on the school bus and playground, only to eventually learn how to be friends and play together. It culminates with the children hanging a banner reading “One Love” along with an illustration of Bob Marley.
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CHRONICLE BOOKS
Marley, also the author of two previous adaptations of her father’s songs, the board books One Love and Every Little Thing, said in an interview that the process of writing the book was relatively easy. “It is an anthem for all those who struggle and a call for change with a message that continues to inspire everyone who hears it,” said Marley. “With this book, my goal was to make the song speak to our youth. I hope that it inspires them to do the right thing, no matter how hard that might sometimes be.”
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Cedella Marley, author of Get Up, Stand Up AUBRIE PICK
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Marley was inspired by lessons she learned from her own parents as well as her own experiences as a mom. “Get Up, Stand Up” was a song she’d been thinking of turning into a picture book for several years, but felt the urgency all the more after one of her children dealt with bullying, which Marley says “has become an epidemic” in recent years. “There have been many instances in my life where I have had to stand up to bullies as a girl and as a woman, but when it started to happen to one of my children I realized that I had to do something. We, as parents, have to do more. Anytime a child harms him or herself because of bullying it’s time to have stronger conversations with our children. We need to be constant advocates of empathy and compassion—and, to lead by example for standing up for what is right.”
Bullying and judgment are something Marley also experienced in her own childhood. She said there were times “times when parents would not send their children to our home because we were Rastafarian. To them, Rastafarian meant that our home was dirty or that there was marijuana everywhere. Our home was nothing like that. It was joyful and filled with love, but that is not something that one would know looking from the outside in.”
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“I remember one time there were kids calling my parents dirty because they had dreadlocks,” Marley said. “That really bothered me and when I went to my mom to talk about it she suggested that we invite the kids over to show them how we wash our dreadlocks. To show them that we were clean and not dirty. My parents’ approach to everything was through the lens of compassion and empathy. The only way to educate those who ridicule you or judge you is to teach them with patience and kindness.”
Marley, who will next adapt her father’s song “Is This Love” for a Chronicle Books picture book, said she hopes the book will “empower children get up and stand up for what is right. I want them to know that they have the power to change the world that they live in and that they can do that with love and compassion.”
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QYOTE: Central interview with Beth Edwards, Marley commented on the message she hopes young readers will take away from Marley and the Family Band: “No matter where you come from, where you move to; no matter the obstacles you will face, having your family by your side, as well as the friends you make along the way, can help you solve all problems and achieve greatness. Stay positive!”
Author Chat with Cedella Marley (Marley and the Family Band), Plus Giveaway! ~ (US Only)
February 16, 20222 Comments
Written by Beth Edwards, Blog Manager
Posted in Giveaways, News & Updates
Marley-and-the-Family-Band_cove_20220216-000606_1.jpg
Today we are chatting with Cedella Marley, author of
Marley and the Family Band!
Read on for more about Cedella, her book and giveaway!
Meet Cedella Marley!
Cedella Marley is a Grammy-winning singer, designer, entrepreneur, and the first-born daughter of reggae singers Bob and Rita Marley. She is the CEO of Bob Marley’s recording label, Tuff Gong International, and the author of multiple children’s books including One Love and Get Up, Stand Up. A life-long advocate of philanthropy, Cedella is the director of the Bob Marley Foundation and is a Global Ambassador to the Jamaica Women’s Football Program. Cedella Marley is a living embodiment of the way the ethics and values instilled during her upbringing carry forward the belief that, with passion and purpose, we can all make a difference in our communities, our country, and ultimately the world. She lives in Miami with her husband and three children.
Website * Facebook * Twitter * Instagram
Meet Marley and the Family Band!
From Grammy award-winning musician and New York Times bestselling author CEDELLA MARLEY comes a poetic story about a young girl who moves to a new country and learns to make friends. MARLEY AND THE FAMILY BAND (Random House Books for Young Readers | on sale February 1, 2022 | Ages 4-8) is inspired by Cedella’s childhood and her father the musician Bob Marley. In this joyful, vibrant picture book, Cedella Marley assures children that nothing can stop the music as long as they have community. When Marley and her family move from Jamaica to Delaware, she knows life is about to change in big ways. And she’s got the perfect plan to help her and her siblings make friends: an outdoor concert for the whole neighborhood! But when weather ruins their plans, she discovers help in the most unlikely places as her new neighbors quickly become the kindest of friends.
“A well-played serenade to the power of kindness and community.”
~ Kirkus Reviews ~
Purchase Book Here!!
~ Author Chat ~
YABC: What gave you the inspiration to write your new book, Marley and the Family Band?
My three sons. My sons Soul and Skip were both born in Kingston, Jamaica. Even though we emigrated to the U.S. when they were quite young, they still experienced what it’s like to embrace a different culture and to celebrate the differences while keeping their roots close to their hearts.
YABC: Who is your favorite character in the book?
Marley of course! She is so me…a feisty, curious, problem-solver with a love of fashion.
YABC: Which came first, the title or the novel?
The novel. I’ve been living with this story for quite some time and I look forward to continuing with Marley on her journey.
YABC: What do you like most about the cover of the book?
I love how Tiffany Rose captured the soul, the music, and the love of family, as well as the musical notes and the colors and the smiles.
YABC: What’s up next for you?
Taking Marley to the screen! I’m so proud and so grateful to be partnering with Dave Steward and his team at Lion Forge animation on a new animated series based on the book. I can’t wait to start working with such a talented crew on bringing Marley to an animated life.
YABC: What is the main message or lesson you would like your reader to remember from this book?
No matter where you come from, where you move to; no matter the obstacles you will face, having your family by your side, as well as the friends you make along the way, can help you solve all problems and achieve greatness. Stay positive!
YABC: What would you say is your superpower?
I have many!
YABC: Is there an organization or cause that is close to your heart?
As a director of the Bob Marley Foundation, I have been blessed throughout the years to work with so many organizations–from grassroots to global, and they all mean so much to me. As ambassador of Jamaica’s national women’s football team, the Reggae Girlz, I’m honored to have played a role in bringing a team that was about to be disbanded to qualifying for the World Cup in 2019.
YABC: Is there anything that you would like to add?
From one, there are many. Our children truly are our future. Teaching them at a young age to respect, to embrace, to love, and to celebrate everyone’s differences is so important as we all struggle to navigate this wonderful beautiful world we call home.
Marley and the Family Band
Author: Cedella Marley
Publisher: Random House Books for Young Readers
Publish Date: February 1st, 2022
QUOTE: “well-played serenade to the power of kindness and community.”
Marley, Cedella MARLEY AND THE FAMILY BAND Random House (Children's None) $17.99 1, 4 ISBN: 978-0-593-30111-1
Newly arrived in Delaware from Jamaica, Marley is determined to make new friends by performing an outdoor family concert for her neighbors.
The weather, however, has other plans. Marley's parents and older sister seem ready for a rain check as a downpour drags on outside, but Marley and her two younger brothers, Axel and Zayne, won't be dissuaded. "You can't fix a problem until you look at it up close," Marley tells her mother, then the three children don rain gear and head for the park. Having experienced tropical storms back in Jamaica, Marley decides that the concert can go on if many umbrellas are hung from the overhead stage lights. "Who has that many umbrellas?" Axel asks skeptically. Marley decides they will help their neighbors with their storm problems in exchange for umbrellas. The siblings cheerfully and determinedly rescue a cat, bail out a flooded basement, and pick produce in a greenhouse. The plan works well until they meet someone who needs all the umbrellas they have collected. There is a small moment of hesitation when Marley's smile loses its sunniness, but she and her brothers head home empty-handed. The ending is both unsurprising and gratifying. The vibrant digital watercolor-and-crayon illustrations coupled with the communal focus of the text set a positive tone throughout. The joy of music is present in textual metaphors as well as visual representations of instruments and musical notes, even in the endpapers. Marley and her family are Black, while the neighbors have skin tones that range from pale to dark.
A well-played serenade to the power of kindness and community. (Picture book. 4-7)
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2021 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Source Citation
Source Citation
MLA 9th Edition APA 7th Edition Chicago 17th Edition Harvard
"Marley, Cedella: MARLEY AND THE FAMILY BAND." Kirkus Reviews, 1 Dec. 2021, p. NA. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A684108322/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=27c79904. Accessed 3 Apr. 2022.
QUOTE: Marley “delivers a statement about social justice and bravery in an appropriately simple style that children can grasp.”
“message of empowerment and unity.”
Marley, Bob GET UP, STAND UP Chronicle (Children's Fiction) $16.99 9, 10 ISBN: 978-1-452-17172-2
A simple modification of famous lyrics to spread an anti-bullying message that is as necessary today as on the day the song that inspired it was released.
In her third picture book offering that uses one of her father's songs as inspiration, Cedella Marley (Every Little Thing, illustrated by Vanessa Brantley-Newton, 2012, etc.) touches on the topics of bullying and ostracism and on the courage it takes to combat them. She delivers a statement about social justice and bravery in an appropriately simple style that children can grasp. The result is a message of empowerment and unity: that standing up for yourself inspires others to do the same and may help to bring people together rather than continue a practice of exclusion and belittling. It is very much in keeping with the import of Bob Marley's words in the song of the same name. Vibrant illustrations from Cabuay show a diverse cast of children, which will certainly help with accessibility to children from all walks of life. He depicts children getting up and standing up at the bus stop and on the bus, on city streets, and in parks. The final joyous double-page spread finds a joyous, multiracial crowd joining a neighborhood festival above which flies a flag depicting the late musician and the legend "One Love."
Moral: It's never too early to learn to stand up for yourself or others in the face of injustice. (afterword) (Picture book. 3-8)
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2019 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Source Citation
Source Citation
MLA 9th Edition APA 7th Edition Chicago 17th Edition Harvard
"Marley, Bob: GET UP, STAND UP." Kirkus Reviews, 15 July 2019. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A593064606/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=8dd3b971. Accessed 3 Apr. 2022.
QUOTE: “sense of unsinkable community.”
Marley and the Family Band
Cedella Marley with Tracey Baptiste, illus. by Tiffany Rose. Random House, $17.99 (40p) ISBN 978-0-593-30111-1
Young Marley and her musical family have recently moved from Jamaica to Delaware, where they had plans to introduce themselves to the community with an outdoor concert—until rain calls off the gig. Marley applies her knowledge of hurricanes to the problem at hand: she and her siblings exchange bailing a leaky basement and other neighborly assistance for “a tarp, eight umbrellas, and three rain hats” to cover the stage. But when they discover another neighbor in dire need of rain gear, they gladly give it up—a good deed that, in authors Marley and Baptiste’s play-by-play text, inspires the neighborhood (whose brown-skinned characters have varying skin tones) to ensure that the show goes on. And Rose’s buoyant digital illustrations, in which kids in bright slickers walk amid silvery raindrops, convey a sense of unsinkable community. Ages 4–8. (Feb.)