While justifiably lauded like most of his Studio One cohorts, within the pantheon of reggae greats, Jackie Mittoo rarely receives the same first-breath recollection of a Marley, a Toots, a Lee Perry or even a Winston “Burning Spear” Rodney, or Horace Andy. Ditching Jamaica for Toronto in the late 60s, the keyboardist, singer, one-time Skatalite, and Studio One music director missed the Island Records salad years of the late 70s and early 80s, but still put in work on nearly every seminal 60s release from Coxsone Dodd’s imprint, including Freddie MacGregor’s Sach O-approved, Bobby Bobylon. An untimely death from cancer at just 42, didn’t help matters either.
While driving home yesterday on the 101, adjacent to the sun and sand slanting between San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara’s vernal valleys, Mittoo was the appropriate soundtrack: California’s mild January logic meshing perfectly with Mittoo’s bright, bent pianos and stoned slink. I may have just been high, but I doubt it.
Download:
MP3:Jackie Mittoo-“Hang Em High”
MP3: Jackie Mittoo-“Grand Funk”
MP3: Jackie Mitoo-“Black Organ”
