Gordon Lightfoot Book, Music and More!

Mittoo was a founding member of The Skatalites and a legendary Studio One keyboardist who backed Bob Marley, Jimmy Cliff and others. His music played a crucial role in reggae’s foundation and he left a rich recorded legacy of his work in both Jamaica and Canada, where he lived through the 1970s and ’80s. This reissue of a rare album, recorded in Toronto in 1971, captures Mittoo at his best on gems like the majestic instrumental “Grand Funk” and the soaring, gospel-tinged reggae workout “Soul Bird.”

From Cream to the Travelling Wilburys, supergroups are nothing new. But SuperHeavy, Mick Jagger’s side project with Joss Stone and Dave Stewart, of Eurythmics fame, is worlds away from Crosby, Stills Nash & Young. Rounded out by Bob Marley’s son Damian and Bollywood’s A.R. Rahman, the group sounds like a hip United Nations soundtrack. Clearly, they’re having fun: the video for reggae track “Miracle Worker” features Jagger as a neon-pink-suited witch doctor promising “love and laser” cures.

Second only to Bob Marley in reggae popularity, Cliff’s legend was secured by his starring role in the movie The Harder They Come. His latest album, produced by Rancid’s Tim Armstrong, is a punky-reggae party, featuring a cover of the Clash’s “Guns of Brixton” and such vibrant originals as “One More” and “World Upside Down.”

Released as part of the Classic Album series, this excellent DVD tells the story of reggae’s breakthrough into the mainstream. Featuring interviews with Bunny Wailer, Island Records’ Chris Blackwell and others, plus rare footage of Marley and the band in the studio and on stage performing “Stir it Up” and “Concrete Jungle,” the documentary explains how Catch a Fire crossed over to a rock audience. Bonus footage includes a previously unseen, incendiary b&w performance of “Get Up Stand Up.” Crucial stuff

Reggae music, product of the shantytowns of Jamaica, has often echoed the turbulence of its Caribbean birthplace. When reggae star Peter Tosh, 42, was gunned down in his Kingston home on Sept. 11 during an attempted robbery, his murder added yet another violent chapter to the history of The Wailers, the celebrated band that Tosh and Bob Marley founded in 1963 with Bunny Livingstone. No Nuclear War (Capitol), a new collection of Tosh's protest songs, arrived in record stores just a few weeks before his death. Although none of the material matches the standard of "Get Up, Stand Up," the classic anthem Tosh coauthored with Marley, the album does serve as a fitting postscript to his provoca...