Burning Spear

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In the shadow of Bob Marley - who set a course for his career - Winston Rodney aka Burning Spear is one of the most influential reggae musicians of the 1970s, alongside Toots & The Maytals and Jimmy Cliff. He has released over two dozen albums, Burning Spear has been nominated for a Grammy twelve times and won America's most important music award in 2000 and 2009. The reggae scene reveres him as a pioneer, preacher and original rasta man.

Influenced by US R&B stars such as James Brown and Curtis Mayfield, Rodney emerged on the Jamaican music scene at the end of the 1960s. Marley, whom he knew from his home town of Saint Ann's Bay, introduced him to the producer and sound system operator Coxsone Dodd - one of the two founders of the Jamaican music industry, which had its origins in the sound systems: mobile discos that took place outdoors in the poor neighborhoods of Kingston from the 1950s onwards. Dodd released Rodney's first Jamaican hit with the single “Door Peep”, followed in 1972 by his breakthrough with “Joe Frazier (He Prayed)”.