Jackie Mittoo, The Money Makers - Part One

Today's post features the second non-Canadian citizen in a row on FBOBT; Jackie Mittoo, the "Keyboard King At Studio One" and original member of The Skatalites. However, Mittoo was one of a number of Jamaican musicians who moved to Toronto to escape the political and social unrest that engulfed Jamaica during the '70's, and he lived here for most of his remaining years until he died of cancer in Toronto in 1990. On the back cover of this record it states "This album contains Canadian Content," and if it was Canadian enough for the CRTC, it's Canadian enough for this blog.



I picked this album up at the CBC sale last fall without even knowing it was by Mittoo, and didn't realize I had a bona-fide find on my hands until I looked it up on Popsike. It's rare enough that no-one even seems to know exactly when it was recorded, although there's a sticker on the back cover that says it was entered into the CBC's collection in June of 1978. I can say that it was recorded at Masters Workshop in Rexdale, and independently produced and distributed by Mittoo. Special thanks on the back cover go to Doug McKenzie (?), Willie Williams, Joe Isaacs, Jacek Sobotta, and the Steve Kennedy Harmony Affair. The album is almost entirely instrumental, with background singers adding a little flavour here and there, and all in all it's like a really cool version of those campy solo organ albums clogging up every garage sale and thrift store on the planet. If you like roots and/or dub reggae, the odds are good that you're going to enjoy this.

Gimme Little Sunshine
Disco Dub

Note: These songs have been archived at It Came From Canada.