Warlock

Recorded in Kingston in the early ska era, the track was cut for Justin Yap’s Top Deck operation and features Jackie Mittoo in the house-band milieu that also included members of the Skatalites. The Top Deck archive identifies it as a ca. 1963 recording and lists the session personnel among the Studio One, JBC Studio, and Federal Studio circles. The track captured Mittoo as one of the defining instrumental voices of Jamaican ska, with its tight organ-led rhythm and band arrangement placing it among Top Deck’s strongest sides. It later became one of the standout selections on archival ska compilations devoted to the label’s instrumental catalogue. Warlock remained part of the small canon of early Jamaican instrumental classics, resurfacing on reissue compilations and soundtrack placements. Its continued circulation helped keep Mittoo’s reputation as a foundational ska keyboardist and arranger in view.