Behind every good reggae song is usually a great bass man - that’s what they say. Actually behind most of the great songs there’s a great bass player. The bass line is the binding force between the rhythm (groove, beat) which is emphasized by the drummer and the harmony emphasized by the other players.That’s why often bass players are great producers - Bill Laswell, Marcus Miller, Les Claypool, John Paul Jones, that’s just few of them. In general, the rhythm section of a band (drums and bass) is the backbone of a good sounding band in almost every style of music. But when we speak about reggae it is more than that. The groove IS the song in reggae. The guitar takes over the metronome duties, while the bass remains free to explore the syncopes of the heartbeat. And that’s where one man dominates the genre - Aston “Family Man” Barrett.
He was the man behind Bob Marley’s sound. He invented the reggae beat that became popular in the rest of the world outside Jamaica through Marley’s music. Responsible for the overall arrangements on albums such as “Confrontations”, “Exodus”, “Uprising” etc., he was the machine that led the band to create the unique sound of The Wailers and to lay down the irresistible groove over which Marley sang some of the most exciting and elevating lyrics and melodies in popular music. Bob was the prophet, the visionary, there’s no doubt about it; but The Family Man’s wicked bass lines are the ones that make you jump up and down.
Of course, we mustn't forget his younger brother Carlton Barrett, one of the most influential drummers worldwide, man who popularized the one drop rhythm, one of the key characteristics of Marley’s sound. He was beside his brother, not only with The Wailers, but also with Lee "Scratch" Perry and The Upsetters, as well as with The Hippy Boys. But Aston was always the leader. He organized the band and everything around it, he was writing arrangements and songs, he was co-producing and engineering, so hence the name “Family Man” which he invented himself before he had any children of his own (by the way, he has fathered 41 children in his life). Aston Barrett still leads The Wailers and the fans praise and love him, despite his legal dispute with the Marley family. Ali Campbell, the frontman of UB40, once said that all “happened in about '69 when reggae as we know it was invented by the Barrett brothers”. And that’s probably true.
After more than 20 years of playing bass, I still find reggae the most challenging of all styles of music. I never could really feel when to hit the right syncope every time, without sounding as if I learned it from a book. But It’s OK for me, there are far more better players than myself that can’t quite “feel” the groove. I once watched a video school made by legends John Patitucci and Dave Weckl, explaining the basic grooves of different genres. And they tried it with reggae, smiling all the way through, but it somehow didn’t sound like reggae. I thought - hey Mr. Patitucci, you are a true great, a legend of the jazz bass, but that’s not the way to play reggae. What is the way, maybe he would have asked me if the TV was a two-way communication tube? I don’t know, I might have said, why don’t you ask Mr. Barret!?
Is there another recipe for getting a great reggae sound? Yes there is and it was given by the late John Lennon: “If they really wanted the right sound, they should go to Jamaica! Go to the same studio that Bob Marley used! Get down with the Rasta men and smoke ganja in big spliffs or hash in chillums. Then they could get that deep-down, super funky, bass-box sound that comes from Trenchtown. You couldn't get that sound in New York. No way!"
Exodus
