| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| Mexxx |
Posted - Feb 07 2003 : 2:00:09 PM
Copied from the website http://robertnestamarley.free.fr/brazil/brazil19.html
<img src="http://robertnestamarley.free.fr/brazil/brazil19cesar.jpg">
Bob and World Cup Baller Paulo Cesar above
<img src="http://robertnestamarley.free.fr/brazil/brazil19football4.jpg">
Jacob Killa Dilla Miller, Nathalie Delon, bob, Jim Capaldi
Many more pictues from the Website - Mexxx
On Tuesday, March 18, Bob Marley, his guitarist Junior Marvin, Jacob Miller from the "Inner Circle" band, Chris Blackwell (the boss of Island Records) and his girlfriend Nathalie (Delon) boarded a private jet, ready for a long flight heading towards Brazil. Their destination: Rio de Janeiro. They were going there on purpose to promote the lauch of Ariola (a German record label that owned Island Records at that time) in Brazil. Bob Marley was in the process of recording his latest and last "Uprising" album when he was asked to go and help promote Ariola in Brazil, so the recording sessions were interrupted during at least 3 days.
During a 2 hours break in Manaus (a place lost in the middle of the Amazon forest) to refuel the plane with gas, the local authorities of the military government withdrew their work visas, but they were finally allowed to leave after negotiations. Their plane stopped a second time in Brasilia, but finally took off again to land in Rio De Janeiro. Upon their arrival at the Santos Dumont Airport at 6.30 pm, the group was immediately surrounded by journalists. The very first thing Bob declared to the TV reporters covering the event in the airport was: "We are very close. Reggae and Samba come from Africa, have the same roots!". To Paulo César's surprise(for those who do not know him, he is a famous football player), who was watching him on TV, Bob also declared that "he was fan of brazilian football and fan of me (Paulo César) too". After this long and exhausting travel, the group directly went to the Copacabana Palace Hotel to have some rest. Bob didn't go out on that day.
The next morning - Wednesday, March 19 - a busy day was awaiting Bob. First of all, the Ariola Director, Bob Marley, Chris Blackwell and Junior Marvin were ready to give an interview to the reporters of all the local news. At 10am they were all there waiting for the reporters, but Bob Marley went back to his room, tired of waiting in vain as nobody turned up (everybody got late as it was apparently raining). Only one person, an american journalist, was there early and talked with Bob. Later in the morning, Bob, Junior Marvin and Jacob Miller made some tourism and visited Rio de Janeiro, including the Rocinha shantytown which they found similar to the ghettos in Jamaica. Around midday, Bob was hungry and wanted to eat sushis, but the only restaurant that cooked sushis in Rio was closed (Bob had certainly tried sushis for the first time during his tour in Japan, in April 1979). So he went with Paulo César to a restaurant in Copacabana, went into the kitchen and explained the chef how to make sushis! This is what Paulo César himself remembers: "I was with Bob almost all of the time during his visit. We played football, went to the party. He was very funny. Once, we went to the "Real Astoria" restaurant on Leblon, and he was crazy about eating fish, just pure fish like sushi. At that time, there were no japanese restaurants here in Rio, so Bob went to the kitchen and he prepared his own food!"
They also made some shopping: they went to the Ipanema hippie market and bought lots of Gilberto Gil LP's. Actually, Bob Marley was most known at that time as the author of "No Woman No Cry", a song Gilberto Gil had successfully covered, selling a phenomenal 500,000 copies in Brazil! Bob probably wanted to hear what his "No woman no cry" sounded like covered by a Brazilian musician, and it certainly explains why his interest in latin/south american music grew. Later, they started looking for sporting goods stores. Bob's passion for football is a secret to no one, and he spent over 1,000 dollars in sports stores in Rio (a match was scheduled in the afternoon of the same day). During the beginning of the afternoon, they also bought several music instruments such as guitars, a mandolin, maracas, atabaques and cuícas (Brazilian percussion instruments). Gillie, Bob's cook, wasn't there to prepare I- tal food for them, and the only way they fed themselves was drinking fruit juices and almost nothing else. When they went in a bar, they ordered mango juice and loved it so much that Bob and Junior reportedly drank more than 20 glasses of it! Bob's favorite flavors were mango and passion fruit.
The football game was supposed to take place at 1 pm, but Bob, Junior and Jacob arrived 3 hours late, probably because they were having a really good time in Brazil and were enjoying themselves shopping music and sports stores, and drinking fruit juices. They finally arrived at 4 pm. The game was to take place at Chico Buarque's place, on Sernambetiba Avenue, and Bob was proudly wearing his brand new sports clothes, as well as a promo yellow Ariola tee-shirt. Incidentally, one of his best friends - Alan Skill Cole - used to play in Brazil's national football team and was a football star in that country. When they arrived, 2 teams were already playing against each other: one made of the Ariola people, the other one made of Brazilian musicians such as Chico Buarque himself, Toquinho and Alceu Valença among others. The teams were reorganized and became Bob Marley, Junior marvin, Jacob Miller, Toquinho, Chico Buarque and Paulo César against Alceu Valença, Chicão (from the Brazilian band Jorge) and 4 other people from the Brazilian recording scene. It seems that Jim Capaldi - from the Traffic band - who lived in Rio and a Traffic roadie also played in Bob's team. In the end, Bob's team won with a 3 to 0 score (Bob, Chico Buarque and Paulo César all scored a goal). Bob's favorite football team was Santos', and he was given a Santos (number 10) shirt that he wore proudly. As it was written in an article from that time: "César played in the 1970 World Cup and was greeted warmly by Marley who said, "I'm a fan of your playing", to which César replied, "And I, your music". Marley remarked about that world championship which had made a mark on the reggae island, "Rivelino, Jairzinho, Pelé.... Brazil is my team. Jamaica likes soccer because of Brazil."" After the match ended, everyone went back to the Copacabana Hotel and Bob reasonned about how high his chances would have been to become a professional football player (Junior once said that Bob would have liked to be a football player more than anything else, even music).
A journalist was fortunate enough to talk with Bob before the match and get the number of his hotel room. A few hours later, when he and 2 friends knocked on the door, Junior Marvin opened the door and took them to the real suite where Bob was staying. Bob opened the door with a big smile and a mandolin in his hands, a strong smell of ganja spreading around. Jacob Miller and Jim Capaldi were inside Bob's suite. Jacob made sure they would feel comfortable by offering them chairs and herb. The journalist remembers Jacob had told them: "Weed, papers, help yourself". They were really high and Bob was doing a mandolin jam with Jim Capaldi clapping his hands, Bob almost dying of so much he was laughing. During his stay, Bob wrote a lot of music in Brazil, with Jacob and Junior. As mentionned in the fanzine Distant Drums (issue 6), some of the tracks on the legendary "Bedroom tapes" (including "Pray for me", a bossa nova track) were probably recorded shortly after Bob came back from Brazil. I think that some could even have been recorded there, as Junior Marvin later said that Bob had indeed composed several songs in Rio that had not been finished.
The main reason why Bob, Jacob, Junior and Chris Blackwell were in Brazil was to promote Ariola, and that night they all went to a party organized by the label at the top of Urca Hill, with over 1,000 people in attendance. They all arrived at 10 pm and went to their table, Bob (wearing a tourist "Copacabana Rio Brasil" tee shirt) sitting between Jacob "Killer" Miller and Moraes Moreira. A woman called Marina and those who had played with Bob at the football match were also at their table. On the pictures from that party, as well as all the other pictures of his stay in Brazil, Bob seemed to really enjoy himself and be relaxed, away from all of what he had on his mind and all kinds of pressure. Some people were a bit disappointed as they were hoping and expecting Bob to perform, but he couldn't play as the work visas had been withdrawn and kept by the authorities in Manaus. This feeling was reinforced when Moraes Moreira went on stage to do his show, hoping Bob would join him, but Bob left the party shortly after, followed by numerous photographers and journalists.
On the morning of the last day Bob spent in Brazil - Thursday, March 20 - a press conference was organized, probably because almost no one had turned up for the interviews the previous morning. But once again, the journalists were late and the press conference ended up being quite short. During this press conference he declared that "Musicians must be spokespeople for the oppressed masses. In our case, the responsibility is even greater because of our religious beliefs. The philosophy of reggae itself explains all of this. Reggae sprang from the ghettos and has always been loyal to its origins, bringing to the world a message of revolt, protest and a call for human rights". "The apocalypse is in the streets, in the daily life of everyone. It's my people that suffer, the man on the street, the poor, It's them that I speak of". Here are a few more excerpts from the press conference:
Q: "So, are you enjoying this trip? What do you think about Brazilian Music?"
A: "Well...I love Brazilian football you know, and we heard a lot about Brazil during the "World Cup". Brazil is always the first team that is mentionned on TV and in the news. Paulo César is my favorite (football player)."
Q: "Gilberto Gil sold 500,000 copies of "Não chores mais" (a rendition of "No woman, no cry") in Brazil. How do you explain that?"
A: "Well, it's easy to explain man. Reggae music has the same taste you know, the same roots and temperature that samba has. We are close."
Q: "Do you see Bob Marley as a rock superstar?"
A: "No man...that's a mistake you know. And I play reggae music...not rock!!!! (laughing). I'm... I'm not a "Mick Jagger", my music spreads another message. And reggae is not a moment music like Twist was. In England, the Ska is coming back on the radios, and those who are listening to it are the young generation, even white people. Reggae is growing man...just wait and see."
Q: "Bob, can you send a message to the Brazilian people?"
A: "Man, it's easy to see that the Brazilian people have rhythm, have bossa, not just in the way they move and talk, but in the interest they show for music, in all musical manifestations. I would really like to have the opportunity one day to have a deep relationship with this people. I have just spent 2 days here, but I have enjoyed all the time I have spent and I got the chance to know musicians that make a good work like Gilberto Gil. I played some football and I will come back in September to play here and get close with the people."
It is particularly interesting to hear Bob mention the Ska revival, as at the same time he was recording the Uprising album that features a Ska track ("Bad card") again, almost 15 years after he recorded a Ska track for the last time. He had also mentionned his interest to record Ska again in an interview in Paris in 1978. Bob, Jacob Miller, Junior Marvin, Chris Blackwell and Nathalie Delon left Brazil the same afternoon at 4 pm. To the last question - "What is the vision that Bob Marley has of Bob Marley?" - that a journalist asked him before he boarded his plane, Bob answered: "That he is a sufferer".
The next day, Bob Marley, Jacob Miller and Junior Marvin were interviewed (very high, and in a joyful mood) in the airport of Saint Martin, still on their way to Jamaica (click on the icon on the right to hear a sample). On March 23, Bob had been interviewed by the french journalist Hélène Lee earlier and was playing football in the Tuff Gong yard when Alvin "Seeco" Patterson stepped out of his car, shouting that Jacob Miller has just died in a car accident. The accident took place on Hope Road: Jacob was tired because of the trip to Brazil and lost his concentration when he was trying to take care of his children who were in the back of his car (he was still at Tuff Gong only 2 hours before it happened). And as everyone knows, Bob passed away a little bit more than 1 year later. Those are the 2 reasons why one of the most interesting projects never materialised. Bob had enjoyed Brazil so much that he was planning to organize a south american tour and play in Brazil after the european and north american legs of the Uprising tour, with Jacob Miller and Inner Circle opening the shows. But after only 5 shows in the USA, the Uprising tour had to be cancelled because of the advanced stage of Bob's cancer. And Paulo César can still remember another interesting project that Bob had: "Before Bob went back to Jamaica, he asked me to help him with a project he had. He wanted to create a "football school" in Jamaica, but Bob got sick and unfortunately I never saw him again."
Sources: Jornal do Brasil, O Globo, Folha de São Paulo, Jornal da Tarde, Estado de São Paulo, Domingo Magazine.
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| Karl |
Posted - Feb 08 2003 : 12:05:13 AM
Did Bob's passing prevent what would have been the first "Jamaican Football school"...an Academy? |
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