Jackie Mittoo - " The Keyboard King At Studio One "
Born in 148 in Kingston, Jamaica, Jackie Mittoo was a truly gifted pianist who by the age of 13 or 14 had already started to play music professionaly with his own band "The Sheiks" when he first met Clement Dodd, owner of Studio One. Dodd invited him to play piano on a Studio One Sessionm and Jackie Mitto was soon doing sessions on a regular basis. Shortly a number of the musicians doing sessions decided to form their own group, and "The Skatalites" were born. They were Lloyd Brevett (Bass), Lloyd Knibbs (Drums), Don Drummond (Trombone), Tommy McCook, Roland Alphonso and Lester Sterling (Sax), Johnny Moore (Trumpet), Jah Jerry (Guitar) and Jackie Mittoo (Piano). Between 1964/65 "The Skatalites" were the band in Jamaica recording many classic sessions for "Studio One" (Clement Dodd), "Treasure Isle" ( Duke Reid) and for "Top Deck" (Justin e Phillip Yap). In 1965 "the Skatalites" disbanded and Jackie Mittoo along with Roland Alphondo went to form the Soul Brothers who would record under their own name as well becoming the in-house band of Studio One. In 1966 Jackie Mitto had his first solo hit "Ram Jam" led Studio One relesing a string of LPs like "Now", "Macka Fat" "Evening Time" and "In London Keep On Dancing". as leader of the in-house studio bands variously known as "The Soul Brothers", "The Soul Vendors" and "The Sound Dimension" Mittoo would paly, write and arrange tunes for singers like Ken Boothe, Alton Ellis, Marcia Griffiths, Delroy Wilson, Heptones, Dennis Brown, etc. At the end of 1968 Mittoo emigrated to Toronto, Canadá were he continue recording and releasing music on his own label, eevn though he left for Canadá in many ways, musically, as if he never left Jamaica in the seventies. Two new trends in Jamaican music in the seventies, DJ and Dancehall were rhythms based on old backing tracks (sixties) some of them composed by Jackie Mittoo.He would continue to return to Jamaica during the seventies and maintained a close relationship with Clement Dodd as well with Bunny Lee. This is an "e-x-c-e-l-e-n-t-" compilation with 15 tracks recorded at Studio One, check out the real classics "Black Organ", Totally Together", Reggae Rock", Oboe" a bizarra "Drum Song" e ainda "Darker Shade Of Black".Jackie Mittoo has dead in 1990 with cancer.
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