Toots featured on music legend's webcast project

Howard Campbell, Gleaner Writer

Reggae legend Toots Hibbert is the latest act to be featured on 'Live From Daryl's House', a webcast project of singer/songwriter Daryl Hall, half of the American pop duo Hall and Oates.

The jam was recorded by Hall and his crew last month at the Ocho Rios, St Ann home of Jamaican music industry veteran Wayne Jobson, and broadcast for the first time on February 15.

Hall was in Jamaica for the Jamaica Jazz and Blues Festival on which he and longtime musical partner, John Oates, performed.

Hall, Hibbert, Hibbert's son Hopeton and singer Suzanne Couch jammed several of Hibbert's hit songs such as
Reggae Got Soul
,
Funky Kingston
,
Sweet and Dandy
,
Monkey Man
and
54-46
. They also did a rock steady version of the Hall and Oates hit,
You Make My Dreams Come True
.

Hall is quoted by the
Antimusic.com
website as saying hanging with Hibbert was a "memorable musical experience." He added: "Magical collaborations like this are why I started Live From Daryl's House."

June 2008 debut

'Live From Daryl's House' debuted in June 2008 and has had 28 episodes to date. Keyboardist Ray Manzarek and guitarist Robbie Krieger of fabled 1960s rock band, The Doors, were among Hall's recent guests.

Hall and Oates were one of the biggest acts in pop music during the late 1970s and early 1980s. Heavily influenced by the soul music in their hometown of Philadelphia, as well as Motown and Stax Records, they recorded a number of hits including
She's Gone
,
Sara Smile
,
Maneater
,
Private Eye
and
One on One
.

They have, however, experimented with Jamaican music before. In the early 1970s, the duo did a version of
Soldering
, a song originally done by Stanley Beckford and the Starlights.

Hall is the latest high-profile artiste to work with the resurgent Hibbert, a Clarendon-born singer who rose to fame in the 1960s. In recent years, Hibbert and his Maytals band have recorded or toured with Bonnie Raitt, Jeff Beck, Ben Harper, Sheryl Crow and James Blunt.