That destiny has its roots in Jamaica’s ska and rocksteady era-a time, in the mid 1960s, when the Supersonics’ Jackie Jackson, the Skatalites’ Lloyd Brevett, and the Heptones’ Leroy Sibbles were among the island’s bass rulers. “I’ve played before Bob, with Bob, and after Bob,” he says, “and along the way I create a whole new concept of bass playing. When I spoke to him in 2007, Family Man was in the middle of yet another tour with the latest incarnation of the Wailers - a band that has continued to perform through all manner of adversity, including Marley’s death from cancer in 1981 and Carly Barrett’s murder in 1987. “I’ve been on the road from 1969,” Barrett observes almost matter-of-factly. With an easy-handed and uncannily melodic approach to the instrument that reflects his love of upright bass as well as his ear for vocal harmonies, Family Man embodies the spirit and personality of reggae bass, as well as its staying power. Meanwhile Family Man, along with his brother Carlton “Carly” Barrett on drums, helped to shape the Wailers’ modern sound. Marley gradually became the undisputed king - the scion of the Lion of Judah, as his loyal Rastafarian brethren might describe him - of the reggae style, swagger, and mentality. His smooth baritone sounds just as round and full, one can imagine, as the vintage Fender Jazz he first plugged in with Bob Marley & the Wailers in 1971, right at the moment when Jamaican reggae was poised to go outernational. “When you play in that key, it makes you come to the center of the fretboard - you get a nice feel there, for sure.”Įven Barrett’s voice resonates with an earthen timbre. After a while, I realized the whole planet is tuned to Eb,” laughs Barrett. I decided to find out what key the earth tunes into. I always tried to grab that sound, even when I am playing the electric bass. “Lloyd Brevett was one of my favorite bass players from Jamaica, and he played upright bass. Back then he was a young bike mechanic and welder scratching out a living in Kingston, Jamaica. “I call it the earth sound,” chuckles Aston “Family Man” Barrett warmly as he describes what drew him to the bass all those years ago. Bob Marley and Aston 'Family Man' Barrett performing on stage (Photo by Ian Dickson/Redferns)
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