Search - Kymani Marley :: Many More Roads

Ky-Mani is another of Bob Marley's talented children, half brother to Ziggy and siblings. He is a multitalented performer who has already collaborated with Wyclef Jean and is well on his way to becoming a movie star. He and his band are Jamericans, or American-reared people of Jamaican birth or ancestry. Not surprisingly, his songs travel between a roots-oriented aesthetic and bottom-heavy dance-hall grooves, but are also lightly touched by a sleek R&B/pop sensibility that was probably absorbed during his Miami boyhood. However, whether his agile, rough-edged tenor is inexorably focused on the beat or diffused like ganja-scented smoke rings, the lyrics adhere to conscious Rastaman concepts and lessons. The band is similarly by the book, featuring an ornate, melodic bass, a suavely empathetic female back-up choir, honking sax lines, and a rhythm section that could pulverize solid granite. --Christina Roden