World of Jamaican Music

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An illustrated map of the creators of Jamaican music and how they are connected.

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Alvin "Seeco" Patterson

Artist. Ska, rocksteady, reggae

Active
1950s-present
Sunrise
December 30, 1930, Havana, Cuba
Sunset
November 1, 2021, Kingston, Jamaica

Alvin "Seeco" Patterson was the percussionist for Bob Marley and the Wailers and the man who arranged the group's first audition at Studio One.

He was born Francisco Aloysius Willie in Havana, Cuba, to a Jamaican father and a Panamanian mother, Celestina Hardin, and came to Jamaica as a child. The nickname "Seeco" is a shortening of Francisco. He took Alvin Patterson as a stage name and worked through the 1950s as a percussionist with the calypso singer Lord Flea and with mento and calypso combos, a repertoire considerably older than the one that would emerge in Kingston a decade later.

Patterson lived in Trench Town; some fifteen years older than Marley, he served as an informal mentor to him. He took Marley, Peter Tosh, and Bunny Livingston to Coxsone Dodd's studio for the audition that produced "Simmer Down." He kept working in the bauxite mines through the group's first years of success, until an explosion at the mine in 1966 injured a number of workers, after which Marley persuaded him to make music his living.

His earliest documented session with the group was in June 1967, producing "Lyrical Satyrical I" and "This Train" for the Wailers' own Wail 'N Soul 'M label. His role stayed small while Tosh and Livingston were still in the group, and he acted as roadie on the trio's 1973 tour of Britain. After that lineup dissolved he became a permanent member of the band Marley assembled under his own name, playing on the recordings and tours that followed until Marley's sunset in 1981. He was at 56 Hope Road in December 1976 when gunmen entered the property and shot Marley, Rita Marley, and manager Don Taylor.

The percussion parts are easy to overlook and hard to remove: hand drums, shakers, and found objects, including the struck bottle on "Jamming" and the call-and-answer figures on "Crazy Baldhead." Tomaz Jardim credits his inventive style with adding depth to Marley's records and calls him an anchor that kept the music grounded in the roots tradition, a role his years in mento and calypso bands had prepared.

Patterson continued to perform with the Wailers band after Marley's sunset and remained a presence in the Kingston music community into his eighties. He departed in Kingston on November 1, 2021, at ninety, having outlived Marley, Tosh, and Bunny Wailer.

Last updated November 1, 2026

Connections

Notes

  1. On his birth in Havana as Francisco Willie and his move to Jamaica with his parents as a child, "Wailers Percussionist Alvin 'Seeco' Patterson Is Dead," Jamaica Observer, November 1, 2021, https://www.jamaicaobserver.com/2021/11/01/wailers-percussionist-alvin-seeco-patterson-is-dead/. Wikipedia gives his full birth name and his mother's name and explains the nickname, citing Stephen Davis, Bob Marley: Conquering Lion of Reggae (1985), 37: "Alvin 'Seeco' Patterson," Wikipedia, accessed October 1, 2026, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alvin_%22Seeco%22_Patterson.
  2. On Lord Flea, Tomaz Jardim, "Fly Away Home, Seeco," Jamaica Observer, November 7, 2021, https://www.jamaicaobserver.com/2021/11/07/fly-away-home-seeco/; Wikipedia, citing Davis, Conquering Lion, 38, adds "other mento-calypso combos": "Alvin 'Seeco' Patterson," Wikipedia.
  3. Jardim writes that Seeco met "a teenaged Marley in Trench Town" and encouraged him in music: Jardim, "Fly Away Home, Seeco." Roger Steffens, quoted by Campbell, says Seeco and Joe Higgs "were both jazz buffs and helped form Bob's broad tastes in the early 60s": Howard Campbell, "Wailer Seeco Patterson Dead at 90," Jamaica Observer, November 2, 2021, https://www.jamaicaobserver.com/2021/11/02/wailer-seeco-patterson-dead-at-90/. The Observer's first report, by contrast, says he became acquainted with the Wailers "in the late 1960s": "Wailers Percussionist Alvin 'Seeco' Patterson Is Dead."
  4. Barrow and Dalton write that Seeco "knew of Coxsone's auditions at Brentford Road, and one morning in late 1963 the Wailers turned up at one," and that "Simmer Down" was released at the end of December 1963: Steve Barrow and Peter Dalton, The Rough Guide to Reggae, 3rd ed. (London: Rough Guides, 2004), 38; Bradley also dates "Simmer Down" to 1963: Lloyd Bradley, This Is Reggae Music: The Story of Jamaica's Music (New York: Grove Press, 2001), 94. Jardim dates the audition to July 1964, as does Wikipedia, citing Roger Steffens and Leroy Jodie Pierson, Bob Marley and the Wailers: The Definitive Discography (2005), 1-3: Jardim, "Fly Away Home, Seeco"; "Alvin 'Seeco' Patterson," Wikipedia. Steffens, quoted by Campbell, says Seeco "took Bob to his audition for Coxson Dodd and made sure that the producer heard Simmer Down": Campbell, "Wailer Seeco Patterson Dead at 90." Katz also dates the audition to July 1964: David Katz, "Cherry Green," Guardian, November 20, 2008, https://www.theguardian.com/music/2008/nov/20/popandrock.
  5. Jardim says he "worked as a bauxite miner into the mid-1960s" until an explosion in the mine canteen: Jardim, "Fly Away Home, Seeco." Wikipedia, citing Steffens and Pierson, Definitive Discography, 27, dates the accident to 1966 and says Marley persuaded him to turn to music: "Alvin 'Seeco' Patterson," Wikipedia.
  6. Wikipedia, citing Steffens and Pierson, Definitive Discography, 27: "Alvin 'Seeco' Patterson," Wikipedia. The Observer confirms that he played percussion on these two records: "Wailers Percussionist Alvin 'Seeco' Patterson Is Dead."
  7. Wikipedia, citing Chris Salewicz, Bob Marley: The Untold Story (2009), 220: "Alvin 'Seeco' Patterson," Wikipedia. Campbell writes that he "became an essential Wailers band member after Bunny and Peter left to pursue solo careers": Campbell, "Wailer Seeco Patterson Dead at 90."
  8. Campbell writes that he is "credited as percussionist on all albums by The Wailers and Marley, distributed by Island Records throughout the 1970s up until Marley's death": Campbell, "Wailer Seeco Patterson Dead at 90."
  9. Barrow and Dalton date the attack to early December 1976 and name Marley and Taylor as wounded: Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 454. On Patterson's presence and the wounding of Rita Marley, "Wailers Percussionist Alvin 'Seeco' Patterson Is Dead." Wikipedia, citing Timothy White, Catch a Fire (1983), 288, says he was rehearsing with Marley at the time: "Alvin 'Seeco' Patterson," Wikipedia.
  10. Jardim describes him striking a milk bottle "sitting on the floor" with a stick on "Jamming," and on "Crazy Baldhead" using four percussion instruments in "a 'conversation' with each other" during the drum and bass breakdown: Jardim, "Fly Away Home, Seeco."
  11. Tomaz Jardim, "Alvin 'Seeco' Patterson, Bob Marley & The Wailers' Percussionist, Passes Away," Reggaeville, November 2, 2021, reposted at The Wailers, https://www.thewailers.com/?p=4305.
  12. The Observer's first report says he stayed with the band until a brain haemorrhage in 1990, after which he retired from performing: "Wailers Percussionist Alvin 'Seeco' Patterson Is Dead." Wikipedia calls it a "partial retirement": "Alvin 'Seeco' Patterson," Wikipedia. Campbell notes that he played, with Aston Barrett, on Andru Branch's 1998 album What If I Told You: Campbell, "Wailer Seeco Patterson Dead at 90."
  13. Campbell gives his age as 90 and the place of death as the University Hospital of the West Indies: Campbell, "Wailer Seeco Patterson Dead at 90." The Observer's first report says he died on the night of Monday, November 1: "Wailers Percussionist Alvin 'Seeco' Patterson Is Dead."

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