A self-taught musician with an inborn means for musical association and an distinctive sense of timing, Aston “Household Man” Barrett, who has died aged 77, performed an integral function within the worldwide acceptance of reggae because the bassist and bandleader of Bob Marley and the Wailers.
As a member of the studio band the Upsetters, Barrett produced meaty and melodious basslines that featured on the pivotal recordings the Wailers made for the producer Lee “Scratch” Perry in 1970-71. His youthful brother, Carlton Barrett, performed drums.
When the Wailers broke away from Perry to type their Tuff Gong label, Marley persuaded the Barretts to go away the Upsetters and retained them because the Wailers’ rhythm part, retaining them intact when the group subsequently signed to Island Data in 1972.
Made bandleader and musical arranger in 1974 throughout the recording of the Natty Dread album, Barrett and his bass offered the driving anchor of Marley’s well-known anthems, lending gravitas to No Lady, No Cry, from that album; a way of urgency to Exodus and playful enjoyable to Jamming (each 1977); and conjuring mournful remorse on So A lot Bother within the World (1979).
The group underwent many adjustments throughout the Island years, however Barrett was a relentless, stabilising pressure, his consummate command of his instrument and skilful onstage interaction the spine of the group’s electrifying performances, whereas Marley delivered his lyrics in a trance-like state.
An necessary a part of the rising dub subgenre of the mid-Seventies, Barrett additionally mentored youthful musicians such because the keyboardist Tyrone Downie and bassist Robbie Shakespeare.
Referred to as Household Man due to the various youngsters he fathered – he instructed the BBC in 2013 that he had 23 daughters and 18 sons – Barrett made his first bass from a curtain rod, being too poor to afford the actual factor. He joined membership act the Hippy Boys within the mid-60s, backing the singer Max Romeo at numerous Kingston dives, which led the producer Bunny Lee to convey Barrett to the studio in 1968, yielding Slim Smith’s hit adaptation of Buffalo Springfield’s For What It’s Value (retitled Watch This Sound).
The Barretts subsequently performed on reggae songs that reached the UK high 10 in late 1969, together with Romeo’s ribald Moist Dream and the organ instrumental The Liquidator. They toured the UK with the Upsetters that November, following the chart success of the instrumental Return of Django, regardless of not having performed on the document itself.
On his return to Jamaica, Barrett reduce one-off organ instrumentals for producers resembling Lee, Karl “JJ” Johnson, and Lloyd Patterson, earlier than forming the Youth Professionals, resident at a downtown striptease membership, which Downie joined whereas nonetheless in school.
The group backed Carl Dawkins’ well-liked Stroll a Little Prouder and some singles that includes deejay Charlie Ace earlier than morphing into Rhythm Drive, enjoying on Augustus Pablo’s early single Skanking Simple and 45s by the Ethiopians, Cornel Campbell, and Horace Andy.
Barrett then performed on Yabby You’s well-liked debut recording Conquering Lion and follow-up single Love Thy Neighbour, and co-produced work that Winston Jarrett and the Righteous Flames recorded for Brent Clarke, the previous highway supervisor for Johnny Nash who launched Bob Marley and the Wailers to Chris Blackwell; subsequent session work for Keith Hudson would function on Choose a Dub (1974), an influential early dub album, issued by Clarke within the UK.
Throughout a time wherein Barrett was a part of Lee’s in-house band the Aggrovators, he was additionally releasing self-produced work on the Fam’s and Cobra labels, the singles Distant Drums, Japanese Memphis and Cobra Type evidencing a particular method to instrumental music and dub B-sides, Rita Marley’s sentimental Lady in Love additionally bearing his stylistic hallmarks.
Alongside his duties in Bob Marley and the Wailers, Barrett performed on Peter Tosh’s Legalize It and Bunny Wailer’s Blackheart Man (each 1976), in addition to Burning Spear’s landmark releases Marcus Garvey (1975), Dry and Heavy (1977) and Social Residing (1978), and Pablo’s East of the River Nile (additionally 1978), although his session work slowed as soon as the Wailers’ touring schedule intensified.
Life with the Wailers had excessive highs and lows: current on the notorious 1976 rehearsal for the Smile Jamaica live performance that was infiltrated by gunmen, Barrett emerged unscathed, escaping the intense accidents suffered by Bob and Rita, and supervisor Don Taylor; in 1980, Barrett was delighted to make his first pilgrimage to Africa to carry out on the Zimbabwe independence celebrations, though subsequent gigs in Gabon had been marred by monetary irregularities attributed to Taylor.
The fourth of 5 youngsters born to Wilford Barrett, a blacksmith, and Viola (nee Marshall), Aston was raised in a big tenement yard on Beeston Road in downtown Kingston, the place the saxophonist Val Bennett additionally lived.
Throughout an itinerant childhood that noticed the household briefly at addresses within the Hannah City and Franklyn City districts, Barrett attended St Aloysius boys’ college, however after the household settled on Rollington City, Barrett’s grades slipped when he started attending Vauxhall college. He was despatched to the Cobbla Camp run by the Jamaica Youth Corps within the mountains of rural Manchester, the place Barrett joined a casual singing group.
Within the aftermath of Bob Marley’s dying in 1981, Barrett continued recording with Burning Spear, labored intently with Rita for a time, and produced a numerous artists album titled Juvenile Delinquent (1981), on which he performed many of the devices.
He and Carlton performed on the influential Jerusalem album, launched by Ivorian reggae star Alpha Blondy in 1986. Nonetheless, the next yr Carlton was murdered.
Barrett frequently toured and carried out with the Wailers Band into the 90s and sporadically thereafter. In 2006, he sued Common-Island and members of the Marley household for £60m in unpaid royalties however misplaced the case, leaving him with hefty authorized payments. Primarily based in Miami in later years, he was awarded the Order of Distinction by the Jamaican authorities in 2021.
