"Stir It Up - Aotearoa's Tribute to Bob Marley" (Various Artists)

STIR IT UP – AOTEAROA’S TRIBUTE TO BOB MARLEY OUT LAST FRIDAY

‘GET UP STAND UP’ AND ‘COULD YOU BE LOVED’ ARE AVAILABLE ON ALL STREAMING PLATFORMS

No other individual artist has had a greater impact on New Zealand music than Bob Marley.

As the figurehead of reggae, Rastafarianism and self-assertion politics, Marley made such a powerful impact in this country in the 70s that all these aspects of his personality and music resonate with us even now, in the second decade of the 21st century.

Reggae is one of the bloodlines of popular music here — so much so we consider it our roots music — and Marley's politics of “Get up, stand up, stand up for your rights” struck a chord which we still embrace.

On ‘Buffalo Soldier’ Marley sang, “If you know your history, then you know where you come from,  [and] you wouldn't have to ask me who the heck do I think I am.” If you pause to think of the simplicity of that statement but also its depth, you can understand how that was heard by Maori and migrant Pacific peoples in Aotearoa at the time.

We here understood Marley's messages — the one love as much as the strength of identity — so it is little wonder his music sounds as fresh and vital today as it did all those decades ago.

This specially commissioned collection allows 15 local artists the opportunity to connect with the spirit of Marley and his music, but each adds their own distinctive — and often identifiably South Pacific – take to these important songs.

And look at how diverse these artists are, from House Of Shem, one of the original, morehu reggae artists from the 70s, with Carl Perkins (who supported The Wailers on their New Zealand tour in 1987) at the helm, and deep roots musicians like Unity Pacific and David Grace (formerly of the seminal reggae bands Dread Beat and Blood, Survival and now Injustice) through reggae loyalists Tomorrow People to soulful singers such as Aaradhna, Hollie Smith and Vince Harder.

Bob Marley's music and personality shaped the music of Katchafire but also reached across to Bic Runga and Drax Project, all of whom also appear on Stir It Up.

Here is Tiki Taane offering a hefty, electronica-influenced ‘Get Up Stand Up’ (with samples from Marley's interview in Auckland with the late Dylan Taite) alongside Trinity Roots' seductive ‘Waiting in Vain’, Anika Moa's delightfully exotic ‘Three Little Birds’ in the same company as Thomas Oliver's airy, almost spiritual ‘Is This Love’. And Laughton Kora's unique reinvention of ‘I Shot The Sheriff’.

Stir It Up – wrapped in a striking cover portrait by Askew One capturing Marley's humanity and which incorporates previously unseen photos by Graham Hooper shot at the '79 concert in Auckland's Western Springs – is a heartfelt tribute to a legendary musician whose work, 35 years after his passing, still reaches across time and distance to be affecting and important.

Welcome to his world. And yours.