A new album by The Maytals Band should be complete by late May, its bass player Jackie Jackson tells the Jamaica Observer’s Splash.
Jackson said the six-piece unit has recorded eight of 12 songs for the project which sees Roger Mendez making his debut as lead singer.
For years, Mendez was lead vocalist for the Hot Peppers Band which played the Ocho Rios hotel scene. He succeeds the legendary Toots Hibbert who died from COVID-19 complications last September at age 77.
The yet-titled set has several cover songs, but Jackson did not go into detail about them.
“They are songs we played on, so we said why not cover some of them,” he said.
Jackson, drummer Paul Douglas and guitarist Rad Bryan are original members of The Maytals Band which Toots formed in 1976. Guitarist Carl Harvey, who has been with them for 30 years and keyboardist Charles Farqhuarson, a veteran of 25 years, completes the line-up.
The Maytals Band recently received medallions from the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, after being nominated for Best Reggae Album with Got To Be Tough, Toots’s last studio album.
Released last August by Trojan/BMG Records, Got To Be Tough won the Grammy Award for that category in March.
“It means more than the first one because Toots is not here to help us celebrate. At the same time, it’s a happy occasion,” he said.
“The first one” was True Love which won the Grammy Award for Best Reggae Album in 2005.
Jackson said he and his colleagues will receive their Grammy trophies in May.
BY HOWARD CAMPBELL— Observer senior writer—-
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