Jackie Mittoo, the "Keyboard King AtStudio One" and original member ofThe Skatalites, 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 website.

I picked The Money Makers up at a CBC sale without even knowing it was by Mittoo. 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, Ontario, 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 organ albums clogging up every garage sale and thrift store on the planet. If you like chilled-out roots and/or dub reggae, the odds are good that you're going to enjoy this album.

Gimme Little Sunshine
Disco Dub
I Hear You Madagascar
Nyah Red

Here are a few selections from Mittoo's 1975 CTL LP Let's Put It All Together, which, like Wishbone and The Money Makers, is more of a reggaefied instrumental pop LP than an out-and-out reggae album; hence its Paul Anka and Neil Sedaka covers. It should also be noted that Mittoo wasn't very happy about being known in Canada primarily for his easy-listening material instead of his reggae work;

"Meanwhile, in Toronto during the early 1970s, he is employed by theCanadian Talent Library and between the years 1971 and 1974 releases three easy listening albums for the project with 'Wishbone', 'Reggae Magic' and 'Let's Put It All Together', the title track from the first of these going on to become a local hit. In fact, he tells me that in Canada he is known only as an easy listening performer and for his contributions to reggae not in the least. And it is while living in Canada during the mid-1970s that Jackie meets up with Bunny Lee..."How he an' I actually start workin' now, he went to Canada an' he was there for a long time. I go Canada an' meet 'im again and say, 'Wait, wha' 'appen, Jackie! Wha' you up here a waste time, old man?' An' 'im was a very bitter man, because nobody mention 'im, an' all a these great work 'im do in a Jamaica."

Mittoo's misgivings aside, Let's Put It All Together definitely has its easygoing charms. It was recorded at Manta Sound in Toronto by engineer/mixer Andy Hermant, with arrangements by Mittoo and Rick Wilkins and backup musicians separated into two groups:

REGGAE RHYTHM SECTION:
Leader/keyboards: Jackie Mittoo
Guitars: Wayne McGhie & Carl Harvey
Bass: Brian Atkinson
Drums: Joe Isaacs, Everton Paul & Earl Leeder
Percussion: Dick Smith

SWEETENING SECTION:
Leader: Rick Wilkins
Flute: Moe Koffman
Saxophone: Eugene Amaro
Trombone: Rob McConnell
Trumpet: Guido Basso
Strings: Walter Babiak, Peter Schenkman, Albert Pratz, Berul Sugerman, Joe Sera, Frank Fusco, Maurice Solway & Stanley Kolt

All four of the songs I'm posting here are Mittoo originals ("The Rattler" was co-written with C. Alex Brown). "Drum Song" is definitely the funkiest of the bunch, but I really like the chilled extended fade-out on "The Rattler," too.

Ram Jam
The Rattler
Drum Song
Reggae Roots