Marley Family

What makes a family? In Bob Marley's case, music and groove count as much as blood and bone: While not every family member shares his name, they all share his vision. Rebel spirit and former Wailer Peter Tosh amped-up Marley's activist and political views to the blazing point with the confrontational, gauntlet-flinging title track from Legalize It, his debut solo album. Another Marley alum, Bunny Wailer, glides out of your speakers with the hushed menace of an alligator cruising a mangrove swamp in "Rockers." And on "Tomorrow People," the Melody Makers, led by eldest son Ziggy (with help from three-quarters of the Talking Heads), buff out a rock 'n' reggae world-beat ballad to a high-gloss sun splash sheen.

Speaking of Ziggy Marley, in Next Steps we'll hear more from him and other artists who literally have Bob in their blood.

Bob Marley was nearly as prolific producing a second generation of Marleys as he was creating music; no fewer than seven of his offspring have designated the studio as a second home. With steel drums punching through the horn section and vocals exploding in light like a bottle rocket, Ziggy Marley & The Melody Makers' four-minute carnival party, "Give a Little Love," goes down with the bracing tang of an ice-cold ginger beer under the noontime sun. In Damian and Stephen Marley's genre-bending "All Night," James Bond meets James Brown for a backyard barbecue at Fatboy Slim's house. And Damian steered down a more traditional reggae groove, using the lion as a metaphor for Rastafarians and their messiah, on half-brother Julian's debut, "Lion in the Morning."

In Deep Cuts we'll hear from some of the women in Bob Marley's life.

Beyond his wife, Rita, three women occupied center stage in Bob Marley's musical saga. Cedella Marley Booker, a dynamo in a do-rag whose alto voice booms out with a matriarch's authority, sings "Brown Girl in the Ring," a Jamaican folk song her son Bob probably first heard hanging on her apron strings. And two members of Marley's post-Wailer backup vocal group, the I-Threes, reach into the Wailers' back pages for inspiration: Marcia Griffiths warily treads the tightrope between hope and desperation in "Trenchtown Rock," while Judy Mowatt's "Down in the Valley" thrusts a defiant fist in the face of her people's longtime oppressors, sounding the liberation siren. And although we've singled out the women for special recognition, there are still some surprises that await you.

Not only did Bob Marley bequeath his audience a musical strongbox packed with gorgeous melodies and lyrics resounding with a prophet's insight, but he also left behind an extended family. These musicians and poets, some of whom bear his genes, others who just shared his presence, carry a musical torch passed to them when Marley's own light was extinguished more than a quarter-century ago. Like Marley himself, they spice their reggae-rich brew with elements of hip-hop, funk, rock, folk, jazz, and just a hint of that powerful juju that's wound its way through his legendary career. Come along with us and explore two generations of a family tree whose roots wrap around Jamaica like the sea, but whose branches extend to every continent where music is played.