Rita on a career high
Marley matriarch, Rita Marley, is planning a musical comeback in the coming months when she is expected to release her first album in five years. Marley, 57, told All Woman recently that work on the set was completed after over one year of recording.
“I’ve been recording in Paris, London and New York and did some of the songs in Jamaica,” said Marley who collaborated with Wyclef Jean, her son Stephen and Sly and Robbie. The yet-to-be-named set is her first album since 1996’s We Must Carry On which was nominated for a Grammy Award.
“I won’t say much more about it but there’s some big names on it,” said the Ghana-based Marley with a laugh. The album is likely to be distributed by the legendary American company, Motown Records, which the Marley family has a deal with through their Ghetto Youths label.
Marley was scheduled to close a short European tour with the I-Threes (which also includes Judy Mowatt and Marcia Griffiths). The trio performed in Italy and France.
After Bob Marley died in 1981, Rita Marley’s career has taken a backseat to her role as head of the family business. She has overseen the transformation of her husband’s estate — which was reportedly worth US$36 million at the time of his passing — to a powerhouse network said to be valued at over US$600 million.
During that period, Marley has enjoyed some noted hits including Harambee and the Grub Cooper-penned One Draw, cited as a statement song for marijuana smokers around the world.
Born Rita Anderson in Cuba, Marley’s career in music coincided with that of the Wailers in the early 1960s, and like them she recorded at producer Clement Dodd’s Studio One. She joined up with Mowatt and Griffiths to form the I-Threes in 1972. They would go on to back Marley on seven of his albums for Island Records.
The I-Threes first worked with Marley on the 1973 single Jah Live and on 1974’s Natty Dread album.