Not All ‘Marley’ Matches Legacy

It’s just one brief shot in a two-hour show--looking into the audience from behind singer Erykah Badu, a light rain backlighted by the spotlights as she and Jimmy Cliff sing “No Woman No Cry,” Bob Marley’s poignant hymn of brotherhood and fortitude. Their singing is so exquisite and the image so resonant that the rain seems to become tears from heaven.

It’s the only moment in “One Love: The Bob Marley All-Star Tribute” that’s truly worthy of the honoree’s mythic stature.

The concert, taped two weeks ago in Jamaica, has more watchable performances than the standard pop music television event, but Marley--who, beyond putting reggae music on the map, rekindled the concept of popular music as an instrument of social and political change--is such a larger-than-life figure that only a gathering of the most significant artists would do him justice.

“One Love” doesn’t do badly in its A-list attractions. Lauryn Hill and Badu, saluting the legacy that contributes so much to their own musical visions, are thoroughly commanding and charismatic, with Hill’s acoustic “Redemption Song” with Ziggy Marley challenging the Badu-Cliff duet as the show’s high point. Another young hip-hop star, Eve, makes a strong impression with her rap-inflected version of “Rat Race.”

Two of Marley’s contemporaries, Cliff and Toots Hibbert, also bring power and passion to the stage, but Chrissie Hynde seems oddly tentative singing “Waiting in Vain,” and the roster is watered down with such singers as Ben Harper, Black Crowes’ Chris Robinson and Hootie & the Blowfish’s Darius Rucker.

But with three members of Marley’s original Wailers helping provide the music, with the I-Threes singing backing vocals, with Marley’s widow, Rita, presiding and a swarm of Marley children singing and dancing, “One Love” is more about legacy than star turns, and it finally manages to transmit the spirit of embracing community at the core of that legacy.

* “One Love: The Bob Marley All-Star Tribute” can be seen Sunday at 8 and 10 p.m. on TNT.