Interview:
Jay Douglas,
subject,
Graeme James Mathieson,
director,
Matt Sullivan,
president,
Light in the Attic Records,
"Play It Loud!
How Toronto Got Soul"
How long is too long for a highly regarded musician to receive the attention and recognition they so richly deserved? For The Cougars lead singer Jay Douglas, and other pioneering members of Toronto’s Jamaican-Canadian soul scene of the 1960s and 1970s, it took more than 30 years before a grateful nation celebrated the music they made in near-obscurity. But, as chronicled in director Graeme James Mathieson’s documentary Play It Loud! How Toronto Got Soul, the wait was worth it for the Jamaican-born soul man. With Play It Loud! How Toronto Got Soul, Mathieson chronicles the Jamaican-Canadian experience in Toronto through Douglas’ long and enduring singing career and the eventual discovery of the soul scene outside of the city decades after its heyday. Even then, as Mathieson examines, it took an American record label, Seattle’s Light in the Attic Records, to bring attention to what Douglas and his peers achieved through its compilation album “Jamaica to Toronto: Soul, Funk & Reggae 1967-1974.” Play It Loud! How Toronto Got Soul will screen at 9 p.m. July 31 during the Pan African Film Festival 2026 at the AFS Cinema. Graeme James Mathieson makes his feature-length directorial debut with Play It Loud! How Toronto Got Soul. He previously the documentary anthology series Sounds & Pressure: Reggae in a Foreign Land. Austin-based Matt Sullivan founded Light in the Attic Records in 2001 in Seattle. Jamaican-born singer Jay Douglas immigrated to Toronto in the 1960s as a teenager and, after joining The Cougars, he became one of the performers to lay the foundation for the city’s then-unheralded but beloved Jamaican-Canadian soul scene. Douglas continues to perform with his band The All-Stars.
Aired: July 29, 2026. Web site: https://www.austinfilm.org/screening/play-it-loud-how-toronto-got-soul/ https://www.playitlouddoc.com/ https://jaydouglasmusic.com/ https://lightintheattic.net/ https://www.paff.org/ |
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