Music In The Family

Don't worry about a thing
'Cause every little thing gonna be alright
Singing' don't worry about a thing
'Cause every little thing gonna be alright

Rise up yest'day morning... Look at the daily news...
Three little birds sitting on the masthead... Celebrating the birthday of a Reggae legend
BOB MARLEY (1945-1981)

Was a national holiday in Jamaica yesterday to celebrate Bob Marley Day. In addition to being the icon of Reggae and spreading the sound of Jamaica throughout the world, Bob has passed the music down generations. Have liked the song by his son - Ziggy Marley - This Train (from the album Family Time) - this version has the voice of country legend Willie Nelson. This song was part of a winning sequence for a competition I had trained the boys of Our Own English School at Sharjah a few years back. 

Just a few days ago - 2nd Feb actually - Bob Marley's grandson Skip Marley signed up with Island Records and shared his first single - Lions.

Besides Bob Marley's birthday, yesterday was also the birthday of Natalie Cole (1950 - 2015). The daughter of jazz icon Nat King Cole who became as 'unforgettable' as him with the tribute to her dad, called 'Unforgettable'. Here's one of my favorites from both father and daughter - L.O.V.E. (You could check out my cover on my SoundCloud channel)

  

My blog content team (my two sons) had lined up an entire list of musicians and artists who celebrated their birthdays yesterday... including 

Axl Rose (Guns n Roses) - Sweet Child Of Mine is Kaniel's favorite lead rift.

Rick Astley - famous for 'Rickrolling' on Never Gonna Give You Up.

There's one more family that I need to mention in this post - nowhere as famous as the Marleys or the Coles. But the family celebrated the birthdays of not one - but two professional musicians from the extended clan... Just in case you're wondering, I'm referring to the Pinto clan - my own.

My eldest nephew - Keith Pereira has turned out to be quite a celebrity in the Country Music circles in New Zealand having performed at the Auckland Country Music Competition and having won honours at the New Zealand Gold Guitar Awards. This young Biomedical Engineer is going places. He just launched his Facebook Page (Keith Pereira Music) including this recent video - Shotgun that's piling on the likes. Keith also featured on the earlier post on this blog entitled Pure Country.

Didn't I say two? The other singer in the clan with a birthday yesterday has been active on the Mumbai advertising and jingle circles for years now in addition to jazz performances and more recently Bollywood background vocals. Bianca Gomes (Pinto by marriage to my cousin Neumann) is a member of the all star musical collaboration Ananthaal with the very talented composer and producer Clinton Cerejo and 'Jai Ho' Vijayprakash (the background vocalist). Check out my favorite from her repertoire - Manhattan from English Vinglish.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY KEITH 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BIANCA  

(though a day late)

LET THE MUSIC AND THE CREATIVITY SCALE TO NEWER HEIGHTS IN THE YEAR AHEAD