Mick Jagger announces new album – with fusion group Super Heavy

Mick Jagger, seen here performing at the 2011 Grammy Awards, will play harmonica for his new group
Super Heavy.
Lucy Nicholson/Reuters
Angela Hickman May 23, 2011
What do you call a secret series of jam sessions featuring Mick Jagger, Joss Stone, Dave Stewart, Damian Marley, and A.R. Rahman? Super Heavy, of course. The supergroup — kind of a modern-day Traveling Wilburys — has been a secret for 18 months, but now they’re ready to share what they’ve come up with, and their debut “fusion” album is coming out in September.
“It’s a bit odd,” Jagger told
Rolling Stone. “A different kind of record than what people would expect.”
To be fair, it’s hard to believe anyone would have been expecting a record from such a disparate group, so to suggest that it’s “different” is just the tip of the iceberg.
The brainchild of Stewart, a founder of the Eurythmics, Super Heavy — featuring three British musical heavyweights, Bob Marley’s youngest son, and India’s most famous film composer — certainly has a range of influences to draw upon, “from reggae to ballads to Indian songs in Urdu.” It doesn’t sound as if any of the influences include Jagger’s famous voice, though.
Instead, the rock ‘n’ roll machine will put his famous mouth to work in a different pursuit: the harmonica. Jagger, who also plays some guitar, decided to leave the singing to the others and work to provide some “high energy” mouth organ accompaniment instead.
The group has no plans yet for a tour, although Jagger has said the door isn’t closed to the idea. Maybe he’s thinking his new group would be a nice compliment to his old band. Although the Stones haven’t toured since 2007, next year marks the 50-year anniversary of their first concert in London, in July 1962, and Stones’ guitarist Keith Richards has already expressed a desire to tour.
The Rolling Stones featuring Super Heavy? That would be something to see.
National Post So Ms. Hickman has gleaned that Rolling Stones lead singer Mick Jagger will play harp and guitar in support of the other vocalists in Super Heavy.
Clearly on a vacuous roll, she also reckons that a commingling of his bands might be in order...