Marley's bassist ????

[Abluesbassist]

who was he and what did he play ?? i love his tone and his grooves are sick. also any pics?

 

[j-raj]

who was he and what did he play ?? i love his tone and his grooves are sick. also any pics?

Aston "Family Man" Barrett

...feel like I have answered this question somewhere before.

Google for images of him.

 

[loendmaestro]

Aston was fantastic. Coupled with his brother - what a fantastic rhythm section. He was money.

 

[the_vza1]

he also had sort of a solo carreer

 

[ErikP.Bass]

Check out "Catch A Fire - The Original Jamaican Recording", the second disc on the Deluxe Edition two disc set.

 

[reggaeman]

he also had sort of a solo carreer

Yes I. Check out his album "Familyman In Dub"... Downright killer.

 

[BurningSkies]

He mostly played Fender Jazz basses and Acoustic heads. If you like his grooves you should check out:

Lloyd Brevett (gave Familyman his first bass & taught him)
Robbie Shakespear (Familyman gave HIM his start)
Earl Flabba Holt (the other heavyweight Jamaican bassplayer)


There are a pile of others, but you could get pretty far with just those four to start.

 

[BurningSkies]

Aston was fantastic. Coupled with his brother - what a fantastic rhythm section. He was money.

Sadly, like quite a few good and important reggae players, he was murdered...


These days he playin' with Peter, Jacob, Bob, Dennis, and being mixed by Tubby...

 

[ErikP.Bass]

Sadly, like quite a few good and important reggae players, he was murdered...

This initially confused me. Family Man is still alive, his brother Carlton was murdered - may he rest in peace.

 

[BurningSkies]

This initially confused me. Family Man is still alive, his brother Carlton was murdered - may he rest in peace.

Sorry..in my mind I had made a comment about Carly...it just never made it to my keyboard...it's been a very long day.

It would have been in the vein that Aston's playing has never been as good as when Carlton was with him...

 

[JamesM]

theres a couple of live bob marley dvd's out, even though they hardly ever show 'familyman', the shows are killer. the wailers nail the groove.

 

[BurningSkies]

Yeah, I've checked most of those out...pretty good stuff. I'm very much partial to 73 tour shows and 75-76 era shows...I find that 77-80 is too much of a much and I prefer the stripped down quicker earlier stuff.

 

[screwball]

The Catch A Fire video/DVD is well worth watching. It's really interesting to see how such an influential album was put together.

 

[FunkKing]

Amazing player. Locking into the groove and laying it down. They called him 'Familyman' because he had many illegitimate children while touring (alledgedly).

 

[reggaeman]

Amazing player. Locking into the groove and laying it down. They called him 'Familyman' because he had many illegitimate children while touring (alledgedly).

I believed they called him familyman because he was the 'father' figure to all the band mates. According to familyman he was/is the musical director of the wailers.