Julian Marley – A Time And Place
Tuff Gong/Lightyear Records (#54610-2)

For years, Julian Marley has been the ugly duckling of Bob's offspring. He was geeky and awkward, painfully ill at ease on stage, and with no discernable talent beyond an ability to occasionally imitate his legendary father's voice. At best, "JuJu" seemed destined to sing a couple of cover songs at Bob Marley festivals. His disastrous first album, A Lion In The Morning, did nothing to dispel these impressions.

Now comes A Time And Place, and damned if the ugly duckling hasn't matured into a beautiful swan. Or at least an attractive parrot. A Time And Place marks Julian's quiet ascension to the ranks of creditable individual artists. It's a pretty good album.

As we've come to expect with second-generation Marley albums, A Time And Place is musically diverse, layering elements of Hip-Hop, R&B, and even Jazz on a basic Reggae skeleton. This musical grab-bag sounds better on A Time And Place, than it has on recent Steven Marley production efforts. "Where She Lay" is a beautifully quiet and airy love song that doesn't sound quite like traditional Reggae, but it sounds right. "Harder Dayz" samples Bob's "Natty Dread" over a Hip-Hop breakbeat to pretty-good effect, and songs like "Summer Daisies" sound positively jazzy. Surprisingly, A Time And Place is a very cohesive album, and all the disparate musical backgrounds seem don't clash with each other.

Julian does occasionally tackle some straight up Roots Rock Reggae tunes. "Build Together" is a powerful call for unity over a rhythm that would have done Bob proud. "Systems," one of the album's stronger tracks is a multilayered traditional Roots tune that licks out against the system with Julian's most convincing Bob Marley imitation. "Couldn't Be The Place" is a nod to the brighter, Pluto Shervington style of Reggae that competed with the darker Rasta sounds of the 70s and early 80s.

A Time And Place also showcases Julian's immeasurable growth as both a singer and songwriter. By and large, Julian's writing is blessedly understated and economical, and he doesn't underestimate his listeners by bludgeoning them with obvious or ordinary themes. Julian's vocal range is still quite limited, but his earnestness as a singer almost makes up for it. And when he intermittently hits that phrase just as Bob would have sung it, it's worth the occasional flat notes.

A Time And Place is a family affair, with Stephen and Julian handling production, and Damian, Ziggy and even Rohan showing up on various instruments (Ziggy's guitar work on A Time And Place is probably as close as he will get to a real Reggae album all year). In spite of the heavy presence of his brothers, and the inescapable shadow of Robert Nesta, Julian emerges as an artist with his own voice, and a bright future. Definitely an ugly duckling no more.

THE VERDICT: This is a quiet, unassuming album that is in no danger of setting the world on fire. But, start to finish, it's a good album, and a pleasure to listen to. Long after the hype rae-rae music has migrated from your playlist, A Time And Place has what it takes to maintain a spot in your music rotation. A Time And Place is a worthy addition to the Next-Gen Marley canon.