October 15, 2025
Bob Marley’s former supervisor, who was a former soccer star, died Sept. 9.
Stephen Marley, Beenie Man, Carlene Davis, and different reggae stars honored the lifetime of Jamaican soccer star and former Bob Marley supervisor, Allan “Ability” Cole at a Thanksgiving service held at Jamaica’s Nationwide Area on Oct. 11.
Cole died Sept. 9 at The College Hospital of the West Indies. He was 74.
Whereas he grew to become a hometown hero for his success as a world soccer participant, Cole performed a pivotal function within the progress of reggae music and the respect of Jamaica’s Rastafari neighborhood.
A number of Jamaican musicians attended the Thanksgiving service to honor Cole and supplied musical tributes, together with Herman ‘Bongo Herman’ Davis, Dean Frazer, and Denzil ‘Dipstick’ Williams, an in depth good friend of Cole, who delivered a rendition of Joe Higgs’ 1983 tune, “Ah So It Go.”
“I select this tune as a result of one in every of Bob Marley’s academics, Joe Higgs, he was the one that did that tune. It resonated with me a lot that I believed it will match the event,” Williams instructed the gang, in response to The Jamaica Gleamer. “I modified it as much as make it accommodating for this occasion, and the individuals liked it. I really feel actually good that I made a correct option to sing that tune, as a result of total, when all is alleged and accomplished, life has to go on.”
Williams mirrored on his lengthy friendship with Cole, which started throughout his upbringing in Jamaica’s Trench City—a neighborhood central to reggae’s early musicians. There, they had been influenced by figures like Mortimer Planno, Bob Marley’s mentor, a Jamaican Rastafari elder, drummer, and supporter of Marcus Garvey’s early-Twentieth-century Again-to-Africa motion.
Known as “the mecca of music,” Williams recalled Marley’s eagerness to spend time in Trench City and join with Cole, who later grew to become tour supervisor for Bob Marley and The Wailers within the Nineteen Seventies. Cole can also be credited on their Rastaman Vibration album for co-writing the 1976 tune “Conflict.” He launched Marley to lyrics from a speech by Haile Selassie, which he included on the tune.
Cole and Marley remained shut buddies till Marley died in 1981. In 1980, Cole caught Marley when he collapsed whereas jogging in New York Metropolis and carried him again to his resort.
The celebrated Jamaican can also be celebrated for his advocacy in opposition to discrimination towards the Rastafari motion, confronting radio stations that refused to play Bob Marley and the Wailers’ 1974 single, “Insurgent Music (3 O’Clock Roadblock).”
Cole is survived by his spouse, Sharon Cole, and 6 kids.
RELATED CONTENT: Shabba Ranks, Shenseea Be part of Damian Marley For Jamrock Reggae Cruise tenth Anniversary Lineup
