Tommy McCook (1927 - 1998)

Tenor Saxophone, Flute

Tommy McCook was born on March 3, 1927 in Havana, Cuba (along with Roland Alphonso and Laurel Aitken) and moved to Jamaica in 1933 at the age of 6. He took up the tenor saxophone at the age of eleven, when he was a pupil at the Alpha School, and eventually joined Eric Dean’s Orchestra.

In 1954 he left for an engagement in Nassau, Bahamas, after which he ended up in Miami, Florida, and it was here that McCook first heard John Coltrane and fell in love with Jazz. McCook returned to Jamaica in early 1962, where he was approached by a few local producers to do some recordings. Eventually he consented to record a jazz session for Clement “Coxson” Dodd, which was issued on the album as “Jazz Jamaica”. His first ska recording was an adaptation of Ernest Gold’s “Exodus”, recorded in November 1963 with musicians who would soon make up the Skatalites.

During the 1960ʹ′s and 1970ʹ′s McCook recorded with the majority of prominent reggae artists of the era, working particularly with producer Bunny Lee and his house band, The Aggrovators, as well as being featured 

prominently in the recordings of Yabby You and the Prophets (most notably on version sides and extended disco mixes), all while still performing and recording with the variety of line ups under the Skatalites or Supersonics names.

McCook died of pneumonia and heart failure, aged 71, on May 5, 1998. 

Click this link to read Brian Keyo's liner notes for 'A Tribute to Tommy McCook' (1999)