Super Heavy: Mick Jagger’s motley crew

PARIS:

Five stars from the worlds of rock, soul, pop, reggae and world music — Rolling Stones’ Mick Jagger, Eurythmics’ Dave Stewart, soulwoman Joss Stone, Bob Marley’s youngest son Damian and AR Rahman who scored the Slumdog Millionaire soundtrack — have brought their eclectic styles together for Super Heavy, a five-strong supergroup fronted by Jagger whose new album hits the stores this week.

Super Heavy was the brainchild of Dave Stewart, who said he was inspired by the mishmash of sounds he heard wafting through the window of his home above Saint Ann’s Bay in Jamaica. “It’s kind of the jungle, and sometimes I’d hear three sound systems all playing different things. I always love that, along with Indian orchestras,” Stewart told Rolling Stone magazine earlier this year. A few phone calls later and plans for the troupe — who together claim 11 Grammy Awards — were in the works, with a first jam session held in Los Angeles six months on, in early 2010.

“We didn’t know what the hell we were doing,” said the Eurythmics founder and co-writer of such 1980s hits as “Sweet Dreams” and “Talking to an Angel”. “We were just jamming and making a noise. It was like when a band first starts up in your garage. We might have a 22-minute jam, and it would become a six minute song.”

Jagger — who plays the guitar and harmonica, as well as singing on the album — has warned it is “a different kind of record than what people would expect”. “It’s not all weird and strange though,” he told Rolling Stone of the result, a concentrate of musical styles drawn from around the planet.

The rhythms and vocals of Damian Marley, who has worked with some of the top names in US hip-hop, leave a strong mark, along with AR Rahman’s Bollywood-tinged melodies, some of them sung in Urdu.

Joss Stone’s deep voice adds a touch of glamour and emotion.

The first single off the album, “Miracle Worker,” went on sale online on July 7 and the AZ record label, part of the Universal music group, aims to release the full album worldwide this week.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 20^th,  2011.