A low-key musician, who has played with many high-profile artistes, Ian “Beezy” Coleman steps into the spotlight in February with the release of Ultimate Love, his first EP.

It has six songs which the veteran guitarist has meticulously crafted over the last five years. Coleman, best known for his 35-year association with the Marley family, also sings on the project which features several top musicians.

He told the Jamaica Observer that working with experienced vocalists like Ziggy and Stephen Marley, and Burning Spear, helped prepare him for his second crack at singing.

“Yuh learn over di years, especially working with somebody like Ziggy. I did some singing in di past, so it wasn’t like I was doing something new,” said Coleman.

Ultimate Love contains the title song, which is also the lead single, as well as Confusion and Solution.

Drummer Squiddly Cole, who played alongside Coleman in Ziggy Marley and The Melody Makers and Stephen Marley’s band, played on the EP. So too veteran bassist Devon Bradshaw of Burning Spear and Garnet Silk fame, keyboardist Winta James and guitarist Lamont “Monty” Savory.

Originally from Vere, Clarendon, Coleman got into music seriously during the mid-1980s when he moved to St Ann and began playing in hotels. While working that circuit, he met Rita Marley, who selected the band he was part of to tour with her group, The I-Three.

As Coleman established himself in St Ann music circles, he met engineer/producer Barry O’Hare with whom he worked as a session musician and artiste.

Praise Him and a cover of the The Mad Lads version The Impressions’ Ten To One were two of the songs he did for O’Hare as Beezy Coleman in the early 1990s. They were released by Dutch company RUNN Netherlands.