Tommy McCook

4 March 1927 – 5 May 1998
Founding member of The Supersonics. Very important jamaican saxophone player.

He was born in Havana, Cuba. When his father worked at Panama Canal, the familly moved to Jamaica in 1933. He went to Alpha School, which gave him a good musical eduction. His career started in 1943 when he performed in Eric Dean Orchestra, one of the best at that time on the whole island. Then he switched to Don Hitchman's sextet. This band was one of the first jamaican Bands ever got recorded (1952/1953). This happened at the first radio station in Jamaica, Z or Zed QI. In the early fifties, Tommy was a soloist in the greatest band to coalesce in Jamaica before The Skatalites, Roy Coburn's Blu-Flames featuring Revolutionaries. In 1983, Tommy started to reanimate the Skatalites, which worked out well and they as they saw that they could make out a living of touring, they restarted. He stopped playing around 1995, when his health condition got worse. He died on May 5, 1998 leaving his second wife, eight children and fourteen grand children.