+1: Keith Richards-Wingless Angels
Okay, first thing, Nyabinghi is not reggae, which is why Keith Richards’ project is not in our main countdown. But binghi drumming is, in many respects, the spiritual heartbeat of reggae music, and Keith Richards’ venture into the form represents one of the most unique forays into Jamaican music by a non-Jamaican. Sir Keith, who bought a home on Jamaica’s North Coast after recording portions of the Rolling Stones’ Goat Head Soup album there in the ’70s, had for years been hosting regular sessions with Rasta musicians including ska pioneer Justin Hinds in his living room, when he gathered the crew for 1998’s Wingless Angels project. Years later (the project was released in 2010 but recorded a full half-decade earlier), Richards (who we interviewed about the project in 2010) reconvened the unit for a second session, Wingless Angels II, the last-ever recording to feature Hinds, who died of lung cancer in 2005.