With this week being the first anniversary of Michael Jackson’s death, it’s a convenient time for a Toronto businessman to claim that he has unearthed a slew of unreleased Jackson 5 master tapes. Howard Mann, a Toronto entrepreneur who bought a warehouse full of Jackson family paraphernalia reckons he has the masters to 273 unreleased Jackson tracks. The tracks include Michael solo, duets with superstars like Tina Turner, and some including the whole Jackson family. Many of them are from the 1975 CBS variety series which featured the whole family.
According to Mann, the Jacksons were briefly out of contract at the time they were made. “The recordings belonged to the Jacksons. I bought them with the contents of the warehouse,” he says. Naturally he sees the recordings as now belonging to him; no doubt eyeing off a chunk of the $US1 billion the Jackson estate is believed to have generated since the King of Pop’s death.
