Reggae Magic

1. Melody Maker
   2. Full Range
   3. Ghetto Organ
   4. Toronto Express
   5. Black Out
   6. Fireball Rock
   7. Tropic Island
   8. Sure Soul
   9. Taste Of Soul
   10. Soul Stew
   11. Reggae Magic
   12. West Of The Sun
   13. Hanging Tree
   14. Peenie Wallie
   15. Walk Don’t Run
   16. Ba Ba Boom
   17. Dark Of The Moon
   18. Full Charge

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.
These original Jackie Mittoo-driven tunes spread like a virus throughout Jamaican music; be they
the instrumental cuts to tunes such as Alton Ellis’ ‘Mad Mad’ , ‘I’m Just A Guy’, Larry Marshall’s
‘Mean Girl’, Slim Smith’s ‘Rougher Yet’,  and instrumentals such as Mittoo’s classic ‘Hot Milk’ or
‘One Step Beyond’, The Sound Dimension’s ‘Real Rock’, ‘Heavy Rock’, ‘Full Up’, ‘Drum Song’,
‘Rockfort Rock’ … and the list goes on. These tracks became a constant soundtrack to the island,
emitting from the ever-present sound of speaker boxes strung up around dancehalls.
This recycling travelled even farther afield; The Sound Dimension’s instrumental ‘Real Rock’,
updated by Willie Williams on his classic ‘Armageddon Time’ was in turn covered by The Clash.
Lily Allen sampled Mittoo’s debut solo single ‘Free Soul’ for number one hit ‘Smile’; Dawn Penn’s
‘You Don’t Love Me (No, No, No)’, accompanied by The Soul Vendors, was revived by Penn and
producers Steely & Cleevie in 1994, since covered by Rihanna, Ghostface Killah, Stephen Marley,
Damian Marley and Beyonce.
And so it goes; an endless time-leaping, continent-hopping diasporic musical map of the world with
all roads essentially leading back to one man – Jackie Mittoo.