Raila Odinga with Tito Jackson in 2011.
If Tito Jackson had not broken a string of his father’s guitar, then probably one of the greatest musical family groups of all time may never have been formed.
When Joe Jackson, a disciplinarian, discovered the damage to his guitar while he was away at work in a steel factory, he was livid. He eventually cooled down, fixed the guitar and gave Tito an opportunity to show what he could do on the instrument.
Joe was so impressed with the young man’s playing that he gave him his own guitar and formed a band of his three sons, along with older brothers, Jermaine and Jackie.
Subsequently, they were joined by Marlon and Michael to form the Jackson 5 in 1964.
For a generation of music fans that grew up in the 1970s, the Jackson 5 were part of family. They knew the brothers by name and thanks to American music magazines like Right On and Ebony (which arrived in Kenya months after publication), fans were able to pin up posters of the heartthrobs on their bedroom walls.
That is why the death of Tito Jackson last Sunday at the age of 70 hit so hard among many fans of that era, like the shock of losing a member of the family.
Tito who was made an Honorary Citizen of Kenya by then Prime Minister Raila Odinga in 2011, was the chubby one among the boys.
He may not have been the flamboyant superstar like his younger brother Michael (much of the coverage of his death naturally made reference to “Michael’s brother”) or even family first-born Jermaine who was the first to pursue a solo career.
He was often the butt of jokes such as when basketball legend Charles Barkley said: “If Tito was not in the Jackson 5, would we miss him.” A comment that Tito later said hurt, especially coming from one of his favorite basketball players.
But Tito played an essential role in the Jackson 5 that could only be acknowledged among those with an intimate knowledge of the dynamics among the brothers.
In a social media tribute, his brothers described him as “selfless, kind, laidback, cool and always humble”.
As guitarist and background singer, Tito played a low-key yet crucial role in the set-up of the famous family group. His guitar playing was first limited to the live shows by the Jackson 5, as they were not allowed by their label Motown Records to write or play instruments on their records (that was the responsibility of the label’s in-house musicians and writers).
But Tito started adding guitar parts to their recordings when the brothers departed Motown for Epic Records in the mid-1970s and became the Jacksons (Motown owned the Jackson 5 name).
American TV, music and film producer Suzanne de Passe who developed the wardrobe for Jackson 5 eulogised Tito as the “quiet yet powerful guiding force of the group”.
She said “his dedication, both to the group and to his craft, shaped the incredible success they went on to achieve.”
It is not easy to accurately describe the Jackson 5 to a generation that never experienced the global frenzy of the brothers who overcame the adversity of poverty in their hometown of Gary, Indiana to become a pop phenomenon.
That was a different era from today when artists use the power of social media to transcend their craft and become multi-million-dollar commercial brands.
The Jacksons enjoyed four consecutive US pop number-one hits, I Want You Back, ABC, The Love You Save and I’ll Be There selling 150 million records worldwide.
Motown cashed in on Jacksonmania selling the group’s branded merchandise, from a board game to coloring books, while the cartoon series Jackson 5ive run on US TV for two seasons in 1971-72.
For a group of African-American boys to transcend the socio-economic barriers that bedeviled America as the country reeled from the turbulence of the civil rights movement, and attract crossover appeal, was simply staggering.Totiano Adaryll “Tito” Jackson was born on October 15, 1953 the third of nine children of Joe and Katherine Jackson.
It was at the family home, a two-bedroom bungalow at 2300 Jackson Street (the address was the title of their 1989 album), that 10-year-old Tito played his dad’s guitar while Joe was out working at a steel factory.
“We found music as a sport. That kept us grounded as did our father, who was a strong hand at keeping all his boys liable which kept us from joining gangs and other troubles that were surrounding us,” Tito told Consciousness magazine in 2011.
As the other Jackson siblings pursued their solo careers in the late 1970s and 80s, Tito focused on raising his three sons. Taj, Taryll and TJ Jackson, formed the group 3T in the early 1990s and were signed to uncle Michael’s MJJ record label on which they released their debut album Brotherhood.
The album released in 1993 at a time when the first FM radio stations had just opened in Kenya and songs like Anything, I Need You and Why, the latter featuring Michael Jackson, received heavy rotation on the playlists of the new stations from audiences excited at the introduction of phone-in requests.
In 2011, Tito was named the US Ambassador for the Jaramogi Oginga Foundation and Honorary Citizen of Kenya by Prime Minister Raila Odinga. The ceremony took place in Los Angeles during the launch of the Foundation offices in the United States.
Tito was to act as the US spokesman for the foundation and to create and develop projects and events to bring global awareness to the organiSation’s work. One of the planned events was an annual concert where Tito and his band were to perform, to raise funds for health initiatives and children’s programs.
In acknowledgement, Tito spoke about his honor with the appointment: “I look forward to tackling the important issues of health and education in this East African country. Kenya is battling a number of life-threatening diseases including HIV/Aids, which have always been an important cause for my family and me,” he said. It is not clear what became of that appointment because nothing further was heard of it.
At the age of 62, Tito Jackson was the last of the nine Jackson siblings to release a solo project when Tito Time came out in 2016, an album that included two collaborations with his sons.
In 2021, he released a second album, a blues collection titled Under Your Spell featuring guest artists Stevie Wonder, George Benson, Eddie Levert and his brother Marlon Jackson.
He also served as a judge on the BBC celebrity singing competition Just the Two of Us in 2006-07 and was executive producer of the 2009 reality TV show The Jacksons: A Family Dynasty.
Just five days before his death, Tito and his brothers, Jackie and Marlon visited a memorial for Michael Jackson in Munich, Germany, before performing at the Circus Krone, a venue where the Jackson 5 had performed in 1972.
He suffered a heart attack while driving from New Mexico to Oklahoma and was pronounced dead on arrival at a local hospital.
Tito Jackson will be remembered as the quietly influential member of one of the world’s most famous musical families who was happy to remain in the background as the spotlight shone on his siblings.
