[msb-alumni] Aston Barrett, Wailers' Bassist And Musical Director, Dies at 77
- From: Steve <pipeguy920@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: <msb-alumni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 9 Feb 2024 16:54:23 -0500
BlankAston Barrett, Wailers' Bassist And Musical Director, Dies at 77. By Clay
Risen.
Known by his nickname, Family Man, he was the group's musical director,
crafting the
hypnotic rhythms and melodies that elevated reggae to global acclaim.
Aston Barrett, who as the bass player and musical director for the Wailers --
both with Bob
Marley and for decades after the singer's death in 1981 -- crafted the hypnotic
rhythms and
complex melodies that helped elevate reggae to international acclaim, died on
Saturday in
Miami. He was 77. The cause of death, at a hospital, was heart failure after a
series of
strokes, according to his son Aston Barrett Jr., a drummer who took over the
Wailers from
his father in 2016.
Mr. Barrett was already well known around Jamaica as a session musician when,
in 1969, Mr.
Marley asked him and his brother, Carlton, a drummer, to join the Wailers as
the band's
rhythm section. More than anyone else, the collaboration between Mr. Marley and
his bassist
turned both the Wailers and reggae itself into a global phenomenon during the
1970s. Mr.
Marley wrote and sang the songs and was the band's soulfully charismatic
frontman. Mr.
Barrett arranged and often produced the music. He also kept the band organized
during its
constant touring, earning him the nickname Family Man -- or, to his close
friends, Fams.
'Family Man was a genius,' Wayne Jobson, a reggae producer, said in a text
message. 'As the
architect and arranger of Bob Marley's songs, he took reggae to the
stratosphere. And that's
to say nothing about his playing. He provided the uniquely melodic bass on all
the Wailers'
biggest hits, including 'Jammin',' 'Three Little Birds' and 'I Shot the
Sheriff,' and in
doing so he helped make laid-back yet complex bass lines a staple of the reggae
sound.
[Video: Watch on YouTube.] Some people called Mr. Barrett a 'ninja' bassist for
his ability
to jump around unexpectedly, playing slow and brooding on one song and light
and playful on
the next. He got his unique sound from playing a Fender jazz bass, with
stainless steel
flatwound strings that were custom made for him by Fender. 'It's almost like a
fire in the
hearth on a cold night,' Vivien Goldman, a music journalist who wrote about Mr.
Barrett for
years, said in a phone interview. 'It just draws you in. Mr. Barrett served as
a mentor for
generations of reggae bassists, including, most notably, Robbie Shakespeare,
who went on to
team up with the drummer Sly Dunbar to form one of the most respected and
prolific session
duos in the world. (Mr. Shakespeare died in 2021.) Mr. Barrett kept the Wailers
going after
Mr. Marley died of cancer at 36. The band continued to play its greatest hits
from the
Marley years, but with an evolving sound rooted in Mr. Barrett's musical
innovations. He
held the group to a rigorous schedule; until he retired in 2016, he was playing
up to 200
shows a year. 'When I'm playing the bass, it's like I'm singing,' he told Bass
Player
magazine in 2007. 'I compose a melodic line and see myself like I'm singing
baritone. And
when I decide to listen deep into the music -- to all the different sections
and instruments
playing -- I realized that the bass is the backbone, and the drum is the
heartbeat of the
music. Aston Francis Barrett was born in Kingston, Jamaica, on Nov. 22, 1946,
the older son
of Violet (Marshall) and Wilfred Barrett. His father was a blacksmith, a trade
that Aston
also plied before committing to music full time. He and his brother were unable
to afford
store-bought instruments, so they made their own. To craft a bass guitar, Aston
took a
two-by-four piece of wood and attached it to a square of plywood; down the neck
he strung a
curtain cord, with a wooden ashtray as the bridge. Carlton took a similarly
D.I.Y. approach
to his drums, scavenging old buckets and tin plates for his kit. The brothers
practiced in a
basement, where they could take advantage of the reverberations off the
concrete walls. As
soon as they had paying gigs, the two traded up their instruments, with Mr.
Barrett playing
for a time on a H'fner, the same brand favored by Paul McCartney. They played
in a band
called the Hippy Boys and were soon providing rhythm for the reggae innovator
Lee (Scratch)
Perry and his band, the Upsetters. Mr. Barrett and Mr. Marley built their
relationship on
mutual admiration. Mr. Barrett first heard the Wailers when someone played
their song
'Simmer Down' at a party. He was transfixed. 'Well, I tell you, I listened to
that music so
deep, I feel like I was a part of that group and that it was me and my brother
who do that
song,' he said in an interview for 'Wailing Blues: The Story of Bob Marley's
Wailers'
(2009), by John Masouri. Mr. Marley likewise heard the Barrett brothers playing
and sought
them out. They began backing the Wailers in 1969 and soon left Mr. Perry's band
to join the
Wailers exclusively. When two of the original members, Peter Tosh and Bunny
Wailer, left the
band in 1973, Mr. Marley and the Barretts reformed the band around themselves.
The band
continued to tour and release albums after Mr. Marley's death, though ticket
and record
sales declined. Legal troubles followed. In 2001, Mr. Barrett sued the Marley
family and
Island Records, the Wailers' longtime label, for approximately $115 million in
royalties. A
court dismissed the suit, ruling that he had signed an agreement for a one-time
payment of
$500,000 in 1994; the decision left him with almost $4 million in legal bills.
Mr. Barrett
continued to tour, insisting that there were no hard feelings. He brought on
his son as
drummer in 2009 and eventually gave him control of the Wailers when he stepped
down as
musical director in 2016. Aston Jr. plays his father in the movie 'Bob Marley:
One Love,'
set to be released on Feb. 14. Along with his son, Mr. Barrett's survivors
include his wife,
Angela; two other sons, Floyd and Kevin; three daughters, Novelette Lindsay,
Shadona Barrett
and Ramona Barrett; and his sisters, Narma, Cherry and Winsome Barrett. His
brother,
Carlton, was murdered in Kingston in 1987. Mr. Barrett claimed to have more
than 35 other
children, as well as many grandchildren and great-grandchildren, though he did
not maintain
relationships with all of them. He moved to Miami in 2001, but he retained a
home in Jamaica
and returned there frequently. Though he was long revered in the reggae
community as a
founding father, recognition outside it was late in coming. In 2020, Bass
Player magazine
put Mr. Barrett at the top of its list of '20 legendary players who shaped the
sound of the
electric bass. That same year, Rolling Stone ranked him 28th on its list of the
50 greatest
bassists of all time. And in 2021, he was made a commander in the Order of
Distinction, one
of Jamaica's highest civilian honors, for rendering 'outstanding and important
services' to
the country.
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