Julian Marley

It has been close to a decade since GRAMMY award-nominated Julian Marley delivered his critically acclaimed ''AWAKE'' album, and while fans and music lovers have been clamoring for another musical offering, the reggae star as announced the February 8th release date of his fourth full length-album ''As I Am''. Trodding on the footsteps of his iconic father Bob Marley's message to voice the grievances of the downtrodden through the vibrations of music, Julian is inspired by life and spirituality, and while remaining true to his reggae roots, the crooner transcends musical genres. The latter self-evident in ''As I Am''.

Following an assassination attempt in Kingston, Jamaica, in December 1976, Bob Marley and his band moved to London – in “exodus” from their home country – and recorded tracks for what became both the Exodus and Kaya albums. Marley’s Exodus, featuring the timeless tracks “Jamming,” “Three Little Birds,” “One Love/People Get Ready,” and the epic title song, came first, which led to early positive reviews, ten early dates around Western Europe and shows at the Rainbow Theatre in London’s Finsbury Park during release week. But an injury to Bob led to the abrupt cancellation of the rest of the Exodus tour, including expected U.S. breakthrough shows scheduled for late summer, leaving June 1-2-3-4 the final performances by the Wailers that year.

Aside from his tremendous powers of performance, Stevie Wonder stands as one of the greatest songwriters of the late 20th century, probing the joyous peaks and depressing valleys of love and relationships. The Motown tribute album Conception: An Interpretation of Stevie Wonder's Songs has its highs and lows as well; with Stevie himself in the producer's chair (along with new-era Motown exec Kedar Massenburg), the album certainly has a lot of promise. It boasts plenty of neo-soul balladeers – India.Arie, Mary J. Blige, Brian McKnight, Joe, Musiq – as well as mainstream stars like Eric Clapton and John Mellencamp, who took musical cues from classic Stevie Wonder LPs like Talking Book or Songs in the Key of Life.

A 40th anniversary edition of Bob Marley and the Wailers’ historic 1978 album Kaya will be released on 24 August by the Marley Family, Island Records and Ume. It marks a new celebration of the much-loved album that the group recorded in London in 1977, concurrently with the material that ultimately made up their Exodus release of that year. The new release of Kaya will feature new Kaya 40 mixes, by Bob’s son Stephen ‘Ragga’ Marley, of all ten tracks from the original album, as well as its original mixes. They will be available in 2CD and 2LP configurations, while the digital version will be a standalone release featuring Stephen’s mixes only.