Jackie Mittoo

Jackie Mittoo’s ‘Reggae Magic’ is a new collection from the great Jackie Mittoo. The album features a mixture of classic tunes and rarities from the period 1967-74, when Mittoo was at the height of his musical powers.

Mittoo’s solo career began after the end of The Skatalites in 1965. He began pushing new musical boundaries, creating a uniquely identifiable organ-led funky reggae sound that owed as much to Booker T and The MGs, Jimmy Smith, Stax and Motown as to the post-ska and emergent rocksteady island rhythms of Kingston, Jamaica.

His solo work at the legendary Studio One spanned seven albums and hundreds of singles. Aside from producer and founder Clement ‘Sir Coxsone’ Dodd, it’s hard to think of anyone more central to the sound and success of Studio One than Mittoo; keyboard player extraordinaire, songwriter, arranger, musician, truly the Keyboard King at Studio One.

Jackie Mittoo had been the youngest founding member of The Skatalites (at age 16), probably the most important group in Jamaican music. After they split, he became leader of the three pivotal groups at Studio One - The Soul Brothers, The Soul Vendors and Sound Dimension. He also became musical director for Studio One helping create countless hits for singers Ken Boothe, Bob Andy, The Wailers, John Holt, Delroy Wilson and more – unforgettable tunes like Alton Ellis’ ‘I’m Still in Love with You,’ Marcia Griffiths’ ‘Feel Like Jumping’, The Heptones’ ‘Baby Why’ and others.

Between 1965 and 1968, many of the tunes created at Studio One can be attributed to Mittoo. Timeless instrumental tracks, recorded either under his own name or those of The Soul Brothers, Soul Vendors and Sound Dimension, that have become the basis for literally 1000s and 1000s of Jamaican songs over many decades, giving the music an unsurpassed longevity.

The endurance of his music was as a direct result of significant developments in Jamaican music in the 1970s, namely the creation of three important new styles; Dub, Deejay and Dancehall. In the early 1970s Mittoo’s instrumental tracks were used as the musical source for a series of classic Studio One dub albums. At the same time Deejays at Studio One including Dillinger, Prince Jazzbo and Dennis Alcapone began toasting over these same popular rhythms to create their own new songs.

In the mid-70s, a new generation of Studio One singers and deejays including Sugar Minott, Freddie McGregor, Johnny Osbourne, Michigan & Smiley and others began once again creating new melodies over these original instrumentals, signalling the birth of a new Jamaican style that became known as ‘dancehall’. As dancehall swept across the island, rival producers copied these now classic rhythms.