World of Jamaican Music

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

Remembering Derrick Harriott (1939-2026), rocksteady singer and producer. Read his story →

Tommy McCook

Artist. Ska, rocksteady, reggae

Active
1954-1998
Sunrise
March 1927, Havana, Cuba (of Jamaican parents)
Sunset
May 5, 1998, Atlanta, Georgia
Also known as
The Dean of Jamaican Music, Tommy McCook & Supersonics, The Supersonics, Tommy McCook and the Supersonics

Thomas Matthew McCook was a tenor saxophonist, bandleader and arranger, the leader of the Skatalites and then of Tommy McCook and the Supersonics, Duke Reid's house band at Treasure Isle. Between the two he is on a larger share of Jamaican records from 1964 to 1980 than almost anyone.

He was born in Havana to Jamaican parents, and the family moved to Kingston in 1933. At eleven he was enrolled at Alpha, where he studied theory, flute and tenor saxophone for four years alongside the generation that included Don Drummond, Johnny "Dizzy" Moore, Rico Rodriguez, Bobby Ellis and Vin Gordon. By 1942 he was playing saxophone in the Eric Deans Orchestra.

Through the 1950s he played jazz: with Don Hitchman's sextet and Roy Coburn's Blu-Flames, and with Count Ossie at Wareika Hill. He spent most of the decade from 1954 in the Bahamas and did not settle again in Jamaica until May 1962, which put him back on the island exactly as ska took hold.

He recorded a jazz session for Coxsone Dodd, issued as Jazz Jamaica, and in November 1963 cut "Exodus," an adaptation of Ernest Gold's theme, with the musicians who were about to become the Skatalites. Lloyd Knibb suggested that he organize the top session players into a band, and he is usually credited with naming it. The band played until August 1965, opening at the Hi-Hat Club in Rae Town, and in its short life it backed most of the island's singers and produced the instrumental catalog on which ska rests. McCook's own contribution was the jazz arranging: "Latin Goes Ska" is built on the mambo "Pachito Eche," and the band's repeated returns to Mongo Santamaria came in part through him.

When ska slowed into rocksteady he became musical director, with the alto player Herman Marquis, of Duke Reid's house band, billed as Tommy McCook and the Supersonics. The Supersonics are on most of what Treasure Isle issued in its best years: Alton Ellis, Justin Hinds and the Dominoes, the Paragons, Phyllis Dillon, the Melodians and the Techniques. The band included McCook and Herman Marquis on saxophones, Jackie Jackson on bass, Winston Wright on organ, Lynn Taitt or Ernest Ranglin on guitar and, later, Paul Douglas on drums. In rocksteady, the Rough Guide says, the starring role moved from players such as McCook to the singers; Steve Leggett hears under them his "steady sax work, thick and solid, but never willfully intrusive."

The Supersonics' riddims became the foundation of a second career for the studio when U-Roy toasted over them in 1970. McCook stayed in demand as reggae arrived: "Lock Jaw" with Lee Perry in 1969, sessions for Bunny Lee with the Aggrovators, work with Yabby You and the Prophets, and horn parts for the Revolutionaries at Channel One. His own albums for Bunny Lee include Cookin' (1974), Brass Rockers (1975) and Hot Lava (1977); he made a dub album for Glen Brown in 1976 and Blazing Horns with Bobby Ellis in 1978.

He reformed the Skatalites in 1983 and recorded and toured with the band until 1995. A heart attack that year ended his touring, and triple bypass surgery kept him off the 1997 album. He was awarded the Order of Distinction in 1975.

McCook departed at a hospital in Conyers, Georgia, on May 5, 1998, aged seventy-one; the causes were pneumonia and heart failure. A thanksgiving service was held at the National Arena in Kingston on May 17.

Last updated November 5, 2026

Connections

Notes

  1. The Rough Guide says no group was "more central to the ska age than the Skatalites" and that the rocksteady session band at Treasure Isle "was one of the greatest ever assembled." Steve Barrow and Peter Dalton, The Rough Guide to Reggae, 3rd ed. (London: Rough Guides, 2004), 42, 64.
  2. Wikipedia notes that some sources have him born in Havana to Jamaican parents and moving to Jamaica in 1933, and others in Kingston. "Tommy McCook," Wikipedia, accessed October 5, 2026, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tommy_McCook.
  3. The Rough Guide says that "in 1938, Tommy McCook's mother entrusted him to the staff at the school." Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 8. Bradley names McCook, Vin Gordon, Bobby Ellis and Rico among Alpha's old boys. Lloyd Bradley, This Is Reggae Music: The Story of Jamaica's Music (New York: Grove Press, 2001), 101.
  4. The Rough Guide: "by 1942 he was playing saxophone in the prestigious orchestra run by Eric Deans, an instructor at the school who picked his most promising pupils for his band." Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 8. Wikipedia dates his joining Deans to 1943, from the graduating class. "Tommy McCook."
  5. Wikipedia names Don Hitchman's sextet and Roy Coburn's Blu-Flames. "Tommy McCook." Augustyn names McCook among the musicians who came to Count Ossie's groundations in the Wareika Hills: Heather Augustyn, "The Drums of Count Ossie," SkaBook (blog), March 27, 2016, https://skabook.com/2016/03/27/the-drums-of-count-ossie/.
  6. The Rough Guide says Dodd had been asking McCook to lead a band "ever since McCook had come back from a long-term engagement in Nassau in 1962." Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 37. Wikipedia dates his departure for Nassau to 1954. "Tommy McCook." The Star of May 13, 1962, reprinted by Augustyn, says McCook had "returned last week from engagements in Nassau," and was to play a jazz session at Lucas Inn with Don Drummond: Heather Augustyn, "This Man Is Back," SkaBook (blog), September 28, 2015, https://skabook.com/2015/09/28/this-man-is-back/.
  7. Wikipedia calls "Exodus" his first ska recording. "Tommy McCook." The Rough Guide, however, says that since his return in 1962 he "had already cut impressive early ska sides such as 'Ska Ba', 'Adams Apple' and 'Below Zero' for Dodd, as well as titles for Reid," and pairs "the newly returned Tommy McCook" with Stranger Cole's independence record "Out Of Many One." Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 37, 40. It notes that "Exodus" was used as a dubplate in the 1964 dancehalls. Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 44.
  8. The Rough Guide says Lloyd Knibb suggested McCook organize the top players, and that when Knibb proposed "Satellites," McCook "is said to have replied: 'No, we play ska - the Skatalites.'" Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 37, 42. The books disagree on when the band formed: Bradley places it at Brentford Road in 1963, the Rough Guide in June 1964. Bradley, This Is Reggae Music, 100; Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 42. A Star profile of June 1964, reprinted by Augustyn, says McCook "organised his fellow musicians and formed a new Group called the SKATALITES": Heather Augustyn, "Skatalites Go Into Orbit," SkaBook (blog), January 29, 2016, https://skabook.com/2016/01/29/skatalites-go-into-orbit/.
  9. The Rough Guide dates the farewell to just after Independence Day 1965, and lists the Orange Bowl, the Bournemouth Beach Club and the Blinking Beacon among the band's venues. Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 42. The band's own history names the Hi-Hat in Rae Town as its first show. "History," The Skatalites, accessed October 5, 2026, https://skatalites.com/history. Bradley says many of the band's instrumentals "were arranged by saxophonists Tommy McCook and Roland Alphonso, or keyboard 'man' Jackie Mittoo." Bradley, This Is Reggae Music, 102.
  10. The Rough Guide lists "Latin Goes Ska" among the tracks on Tribute to Tommy and notes that Perez Prado and Mongo Santamaria "were regularly covered" in ska. Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 43-44. A Skatalites discography describes it as "based on an old mambo called Pachito Eche." "Latin Goes Ska," Geocities (Skatalites discography), accessed October 21, 2026, https://www.geocities.ws/perollas/LatinGoesSka.htm. Riddimsworld lists "Latin Goes Ska" among the 1964 Treasure Isle cuts of the "Pachito E'Che" riddim. "Pachito E'Che Riddim," Riddimsworld, accessed October 21, 2026, https://riddimsworld.com/pachito-eche-riddim-treasure-isle/.
  11. The Rough Guide names "saxophonists Tommy McCook and Herman Marquis" as key players in Reid's session band, with "McCook's deft flute voicings." Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 64.
  12. The Rough Guide names Ranglin, Taitt, McCook and Marquis, and Bradley names Winston Wright as "one of Tommy McCook's Supersonics." Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 64; Bradley, This Is Reggae Music, 201. Wikipedia names Jackie Jackson and Paul Douglas. "Tommy McCook." Katz says McCook recruited Jackie Jackson for the Supersonics late in 1966: David Katz, "Jackie Jackson Obituary," Guardian, October 1, 2026, https://www.theguardian.com/music/2026/oct/01/jackie-jackson-obituary.
  13. The Rough Guide says that in rocksteady "the starring role was moving away from the musicians - such as Roland Alphonso, Tommy McCook and Jackie Mittoo - to the new wave of vocalists." Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 56.
  14. Steve Leggett, "Jamaican Cool," AllMusic, February 16, 2009, https://www.allmusic.com/blog/post/jamaican-cool.
  15. Bradley: "Throughout 1970, Duke Reid dusted off a series of his classic rocksteady and early reggae rhythms... and dubbed U-Roy's dancehall fashion on top of them." Bradley, This Is Reggae Music, 298.
  16. The Rough Guide credits "Lock Jaw" as "actually a Lee Perry production," lists McCook among the Aggrovators and the Revolutionaries, and describes his sax versions for Yabby You. Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 98, 153, 157, 166. Bradley also places him in the Channel One horn section. Bradley, This Is Reggae Music, 358.
  17. Wikipedia lists Brass Rockers (1975), issued in Britain as Cookin', and Hot Lava (1977); it dates The Sannic Sounds of Tommy McCook, on Glen Brown's South East Music, to 1974 (UK, as Horny Dub, 1976), and Blazing Horns to 1977. "Tommy McCook." The Rough Guide reviews Brass Rockers and Blazing Horns. Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 155, 167.
  18. The band's history says that "in 1983 most of the members reunited." "History," The Skatalites. Wikipedia, citing Mark Deming's AllMusic history, says he withdrew from touring with the reformed band "after a heart attack in 1995." "Tommy McCook," Wikipedia.
  19. Wikipedia says a heart attack in 1995 made him withdraw from touring, permanently from 1996, and that triple-bypass surgery kept him from the Ball of Fire (1997) sessions. "Tommy McCook."
  20. Wikipedia: on Heroes' Day 1975, at the rank of Officer. "Tommy McCook."
  21. Wikipedia gives pneumonia and heart failure, Conyers, Georgia, and a funeral at the National Arena on May 17. "Tommy McCook."

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