03/06/2026
❤️ 💛 💚 One Love flowing btw Saratoga Springs & Kingston ... not Kingston, NY, but Kingston, Jamaica!
File this under 'S' for "small world!" ...
Unfortunately, I'm not at liberty just yet to fully divulge the spectacular 'what's and why's', but now that the 'where' has at least been established, well, check it, yo!
At a soul-satisfying gathering of kindred spirits yesterday afternoon at the Bob Marley Museum, the Zankel Music Fund had the absolute pleasure and privilege of joining its superstar changemaker friends for a meeting with a particularly righteous Kingston couple. She, a sharp, savvy — and cool AF — American businesswoman, now retired; he, a lovely Trenchtown born-and-raised local legend professional musician whose uncle was none other than iconic "Godfather of Rocksteady," Alton Ellis.
Since musical tradition and family heritage are so very deeply
rooted in Jamaican culture, positive vibrations surely ring loud each and every time this beautiful couple heeds the call of humanitarianism, and especially when this man — Aston Ellis — lends his prodigious talents to next-gen Trenchtown youth by teaching FREE music lessons and distributing instruments!
Early into our meeting, we casually learned from them that they had only recently settled down in Kingston following a loooooong period living stateside, specifically "upstate NY" in the town where she was raised.
🤔
"Where upstate?" I queried.
"A town called Saratoga Springs."
OMFG! 🤯
I immediately exclaimed "Skidmore College, Class of '92!"
And there we sat in a state of jaw-dropping astonishment-turned-s**t-eating-grins under the cool shade of the ripened mango trees in the courtyard of the home where Bob Marley lived, directly adjacent to the lawn where he played soccer every day with the Wailers, and ten steps from the residence's front door, behind which sits the original Tuff Gong studio where they recorded "Rastaman Vibration," "Survival," and "Uprising!"
But we had business to attend to and that we did...
About 45 minutes into our conversation, however, and only after we had drilled down on everything we came to discuss, we found our way drifting back to Saratoga talk ... and taking a reverential deep dive into late 80s lore. And that was precisely when Aston disclosed that his band used to play up and down Broadway and its side streets. The Ellis's then threw out some club names on Caroline St. and the collectively warm vibes began to swell with a lustrous nostalgic glow. Then, I mentioned "The Broadway" and suddenly the mercury shot straight out of the thermometer. Alton's eyes twinkled with pixie as he told me that he played at The Broadway all the time!
"Wait!" I shouted. "Were you in Motherless and the Merry Knights?"
"Yah mon, dat was mi band!"
"NFW! I used to see you every single weekend of my freshman and sophomore years! You were my gateway to live reggae music! Holy s**t! We've known each other for 38 years!!!!!"
Talk about a redemption song Skidmore College Alumni!
Special thx to the irrepressibly unstoppable, dynamo sparkplug, Mensch-in-Chief, and ED of the Marley brothers' Ghetto Youths International , Inc. charitable arm, Ghetto Youths Foundation, for having curated such a magical and mystical couple of days in Kingston for our crew. Forever indebted 🫶
