If you’ve ever spent lazy summer days digging classic Bob Marley cuts like No Woman, No Cry, Natty Dread and Revolution, you’ve feasted on the slow-burning, jazzy licks of Al Anderson.

With origins in New Jersey, he was born to create music. Looking back, he tells Guitar World: “My father was a bassist, and my mother played piano. And my father got a call once to sit in with James Brown for a few nights while James played in Northern New Jersey.

“I had good ears, and I could hear all the chords and the lines my mother would sing. My father said my uncle and cousin were great guitar players but weren’t into it. The first instrument I ever put in my hands was my father’s bass, and from there I was off and running.”