Winston Rodney - Burning Spear ____________ Winston Rodney OD (born 1 March 1945), better known by the stage name Burning Spear, is a Jamaican roots reggae singer and musician. Burning Spear is a Rastafarian and one of the most influential and long-standing roots artists to emerge from the 1970s Winston Rodney was born in Saint Anns Bay, Saint Ann, Jamaica. As a young man he listened to the R&B, Soul and Jazz music transmitted by the US radio stations whose broadcasts reached Jamaica. Curtis Mayfield is cited by Rodney as a major US musical influence along with James Brown. Rodney was deeply influenced as a young man by the views of the political activist Marcus Garvey especially with regard to the exploration of the themes of Pan-Africanism and self-determination. In 1969, Bob Marley, who was also from Saint Ann, advised Rodney to approach Coxsone Dodds Studio One label after Rodney sought his advice during a casual conversation His 1999 album, Calling Rastafari brought his first Grammy Award in 2000, a feat which he repeated with Jah Is Real in 2009. In 1980,[17] Rodney set up the Burning Music Production company, handling his own bookings, and in 2002, he and his wife, Sonia Rodney who has produced a number of his albums, restarted Burning Music Records, giving him a greater degree of artistic control. Since the mid-1990s, he has been based in Queens, New York. Burning Spear was awarded the Order of Distinction in the rank of Officer on 15 October 2007. His 2008 studio album, Jah is Real won the Grammy Award in 2009 for best reggae album. It was the third completely self-produced and independent CD released on the Burning Music label. The two previous CDs were the Grammy nominated Freeman from 2003 and Our Music which was released in 2005 to critical acclaim. Since establishing their own label, Winston and Sonia Rodney have released nearly forty singles, CDs, DVDs and vinyl albums on the Burning Music imprint. Many of these albums have been deluxe editions of albums previously available on other labels and often include bonus tracks and DVD footage. In this way, Burning Music is able to assure the quality of the Burning Spear music available in the market and guarantee that music from all phases of Burning Spears career is available for his listeners to hear. Burning Spear has recently completed a new CD No Destroyer that will be released soon on the Burning Music Imprint. Winston and Sonia Rodney have been shooting, editing, and compiling a documentary, I-Man; about the life, music, and influence of Burning Spear for the past several years now. When asked about when it will be completed, Winston Rodney confesses to being in no hurry, and assures his fans that the movie will be released when the time is right.
Posted on: Tue, 07 Oct 2014 23:48:44 +0000
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