While some sources claim that McCook was born in Havana, Cuba, and moved to Jamaica in 1933, others claim that he was born in
Kingston
Kingston may refer to:
Places
* List of places called Kingston, including the five most populated:
** Kingston, Jamaica
** Kingston upon Hull, England
** City of Kingston, Victoria, Australia
** Kingston, Ontario, Canada
** Kingston upon Thames, ...
, Jamaica. He took up the tenor saxophone at the age of eleven, when he was a pupil at the Alpha School, and eventually joined Eric Deans' Orchestra.
In 1954, he left for an engagement in
Nassau
Nassau may refer to:
Places Bahamas
*Nassau, Bahamas, capital city of the Bahamas, on the island of New Providence
Canada
*Nassau District, renamed Home District, regional division in Upper Canada from 1788 to 1792
*Nassau Street (Winnipeg), ...
, 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
A record, recording or records may refer to:
An item or collection of data Computing
* Record (computer science), a data structure
** Record, or row (database), a set of fields in a database related to one entity
** Boot sector or boot record, r ...
. 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 1960s and 1970s, McCook recorded with the majority of prominent reggae artists of the era, working particularly with producer Bunny Lee and his
house band
A house band is a group of musicians, often centrally organized by a band leader, who regularly play at an establishment.
It is widely used to refer both to the bands who work on entertainment programs on television or radio, and to bands which ...
, 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 name.
When McCook was bandleader for The Supersonics, the band included bassist Jackie Jackson and drummer Paul Douglas, who became the rhythm section for Toots and the Maytals, when the era of reggae emerged from
rocksteady
Rocksteady is a music genre that originated in Jamaica around 1966. A successor of ska and a precursor to reggae, rocksteady was the dominant style of music in Jamaica for nearly two years, performed by many of the artists who helped establish ...
heart failure
Heart failure (HF), also known as congestive heart failure (CHF), is a syndrome, a group of signs and symptoms caused by an impairment of the heart's blood pumping function. Symptoms typically include shortness of breath, excessive fatigue, a ...
*''Top Secret'' - 1969 - Techniques
*''Horny Dub'' - 1976 - Grounation
*''Reggae In Jazz'' - 1976 - Eve
*''Cookin' Shuffle'' - Jamaica Authentic
*''Hot Lava''
*''The Authentic Ska Sound of Tommy McCook'' - Moon Records (1998)
*''Down On Bond Street'' - Trojan Records (1999)
*''Tommy's Last Stand'' - Creole - 2001
*''Blazing Horns - Tenor In Roots - 1976-1978'' - Blood & Fire (2003)
*''Real Cool - 1966-1977'' - Trojan Records (2005)
With The Skatalites
*Tommy McCook & The Skatalites - ''The Skatalite!'' - 1969 - Treasure Island
With Bobby Ellis
*''Green Mango'' - 1974 - Attack
*''Blazing Horns'' - 1977 - Grove Music
With The Aggrovators
*''Brass Rockers'' - 1975 - Striker Lee
*''Cookin' '' - 1975 - Horse/Trojan
*''King Tubby Meets The Aggrovators At Dub Station'' - 1975 - Live and Love
*''Show Case'' - 1975 - Culture Press (1997)
*''Disco Rockers'' (aka ''Hot Lava'') - 1977 - Dynamic Sound
*''Instrumental Reggae'' - RAS (1992)
With Yabby You
*''Yabby You Meets Tommy McCook In Dub'' - Peacemaker
*''Yabby You Meets Sly & Robie Along With Tommy McCook'' - Prophets
With Herbie Mann
*'' Reggae'' (Atlantic, 1973)
*''
Reggae II
''Reggae II'' is an album by flautist Herbie Mann recorded in 1973 and released on the Atlantic label in 1976 in New Zealand and Europe.976