It was the Burning Spear cut “Christopher Columbus” that sparked Daniel Wilson’s, aka “Magi’s” love of reggae. Those 3½ minutes of classic reggae criticize the Italian explorer, calling him out as a fraud and a liar, and it was enough inspiration for a young Magi to dig into reggae not only as a style of music to listen to, but to eventually perform. Fast forward to the present, and Magi has led a few reggae bands in the region, including his most recent band, The One Heart Orchestra.
Magi and the One Heart Orchestra, who are Wilson/Magi on guitar and vocals; Nuriya on backing and lead vocals; drummer “Redfoot”; lead guitarist “Joe Bummer”; and bass player “TZE,” will perform at 6 p.m. Saturday at 11th Street Station.
If you go
WHAT: Reggae with Magi and the One Heart Orchestra.
WHEN: 6 p.m. Saturday.
WHERE: 11th Street Station, 1101 Main Ave.
MORE INFORMATION: www.oneheartorchestra.com.
“I was watching the five-o’clock news on what was then called ‘Columbus Day’ when I was 12 years old, and they had a clip about Rastafarians, from what I can recall,” Wilson said. “And there was somebody singing the Burning Spear song, and it just resonated. I was like, ‘who are those guys?’”
That “who are those guys” moment was just one of many instances that were pushing Wilson into reggae music. The path for many who dig on reggae more than your average music fan may start with the commercial sounds of UB40, which then could lead into digging on “Legend: The Best of Bob Marley,” as those seem to be the gateway artists and album into the genre.
In addition to 12-year-old Wilson’s moment watching that news story, he was also lucky at one point to find himself in the presence of Roger Steffens, author, reggae archivist and owner of the world’s largest collection of Bob Marley memorabilia. If you’re going to dig into a style of music, you may as well go whole hog, which is what Wilson did; he wasn’t only listening to the music, he was doing what he could to study its history.
“I was in Canada of all places one winter, and Roger Steffens was at this bar giving a presentation on Bob Marley’s life. Then a band from Edmonton played,” he said. “So yeah, these different events just kept funneling me into writing reggae music.”
Then came learning the guitar at age 16, and the connecting the dots of reggae to folk music; these were more steppingstones in Wilson’s path to being a reggae musician.
“The ’90s grunge scene was a big thing for me at the time, and then I picked up the Nirvana unplugged album, and that drove me toward more acoustic stuff, and folk,” Wilson said. “Especially the Leadbelly tune they did on that record, ‘Where Did You Sleep Last Night.’ That got me stirred and wanting to listen to more folk music, and things like that. Then I started listening to the Grateful Dead a little bit after high school. It was an interesting trajectory.”
In October 2023, Magi released the CD “Words Not Written,” which also dropped on most streaming services earlier this year. That record was recorded in Austin, Texas, where Magi worked with Jeremy Carlson and Dane Foltin of the band Lion Heights, whom Wilson met at a reggae festival held at Tico Time in 2021. While it has the laid-back vibe that many dig about reggae, including slow and subtle grooves, its also a conscious effort, as reggae at its heart remains protest music; it’s a reggae record that fans of the original canon of the genre would surely dig.
While Wilson says his most prolific time of writing was a few years back, he’s currently looking toward another release.
“I’ve got a lot of material that is already written” he said. “Yeah, I’m plotting the next record for sure.”
Bryant Liggett is a freelance writer and KDUR station manager. Reach him at liggett_b@fortlewis.edu.
