March 3, 1927 – May 5, 1998
Tommy was a Jamaican saxophonist. A founding member of The Skatalites, he also directed the Supersonics for Duke Reid, and backed many sessions for Bunny Lee and with the Revolutionaries at Channel One Studios in the 1970s.
The death of McCook in 1998 passed by completely un-noticed by the mainstream press. Like his fellow Skatalites, Roland Alphonso and Jackie Mittoo, McCook never received the respect from the general media that his contribution to Jamaican music richly deserved. McCook was born in Havana, Cuba, and moved to Jamaica at about 6 years old, in 1933. He took up tenor saxophone at the age of eleven, when he was a pupil at the famed 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. It was there 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. Eventually he consented to record a jazz session for Coxsone Dodd, which was issued on album as Jazz Jamaica. His first recording was an adaptation of Ernest Gold’s “Exodus”, recorded in November 1963 with musicians who would soon make up the Skatalites.
Hits include:
- “Top Secret”
- “Horny Dub”
- “Reggae in Jazz”
- “Cookin’ Shuffl”
- “Blazing Horns”
- …and so many more