Elder Patriarch Carl Livingston Summons Bunny Wailer Family, Maxine Stowe To ‘Family Meeting’

Carl Livingston, the brother of the late Reggae icon Bunny Wailer, has summoned the Livingston family and manager/entertainment executive Maxine Stowe to a ‘family meeting’ to discuss arrangements for the artist’s funeral rites.

Wailer, or Jah B as he was known, passed away at age 73 at a Kingston hospital on March 2.

“Carl Livingston has called for a family meeting to address the immediate concerns of how to treat with Jah B’s passing, the interment and other important and necessary arrangements, particularly during this period of transition. I am sure that the family, in their meeting, will also discuss recent unfortunate comments made and carried through some media,” attorney-at-law Roderick Gordon, who is representing Carl Livingston, told DancehallMag.

“I would therefore ask time for the meeting and consideration and discussion to happen, and the family, through Carl, will communicate a further position, relative to concerns raised.”

With Jah B’s death, Mr. Carl Livingston is the senior patriarch of the Livingston clan and the man that Bunny Wailer trusted to ensure his wishes were executed.

According to attorney-at-law Roderick Gordon, five years ago, Jah B determined how he wanted to manage his affairs while alive and after he passed, and Carl Livingston is named as the executor of his estate, alongside, Bunny’s son, Abijah Asadenaki Livingston.

However, Abijah issued a statement on Facebook where he denounced Bunny’s current manager, Maxine Stowe.

Asadenaki, who is himself, a singer, said the stress of Jean Watt’s disappearance caused Bunny to suffer a second stroke in July 2020, which according to him, left the legendary artist “medically incapacitated”.

“This harsh reality has not stopped Maxine Stowe from making decisions without my consent or that of my siblings. On Friday, February 26, 2021, I was forwarded an article from website dancehallmag.com alerting me of a re-launch of my father’s solo-catalogue,” he said in the statement.

Last week, Stowe had told DancehallMag of plans to make Bunny Wailer’s Solomonic Productions catalog — which has been off the market for at least two decades — available on all the digital service providers. “BunnyWailerMusic.com will anchor this digital campaign. This is an integrated merchandising platform, where Bunny uniquely owns all his intellectual property in his album covers, masters, and publishing. This is proving to be one of his greatest assets allowing for a seamless storytelling and promotion,” Stowe had said at the time.

But now that move seems to be in limbo given the tone and tenor of Abijah Asadenaki Livingston’s letter. Asadenaki claimed that these plans were never finalized with his father, himself, or any of Bunny’s other children.

“This is something my father, Maxine and I have discussed for years that somehow was never finalized while my father was still functioning,” Asadenaki stated.

Asadenaki also lobbed a number of other accusations of impropriety at Stowe, claiming that he has had lost all confidence in her stewardship.

These are some of the issues which may be ventilated in today’s planned meeting.