Trojan Us
2005
Real Cool
About This Album
Tenor saxophone player Tommy McCook was a pivotal member of Jamaica's legendary Skatalites in the mid-'60s, a band that, although they were together for only 14 months, completely defined the instrumental template for ska, mixing in big band jazz sensibilities with Latin and samba rhythms and buru drumming to create the first of Jamaica's many distinct pop styles. But McCook's influence on the island's music doesn't end with the disbanding of the Skatalites in 1965. He moved quickly on to Duke Reid's Treasure Isle studio, where he assembled the the Supersonics, a session band that had a big hand in slowing down ska and morphing it into Jamaica's next rhythmic phase, rocksteady, which is where this two-disc anthology picks up the story in 1966. Membership in the Supersonics, as with most of the island's studio aggregations, was loose and fluid, but generally included guitarists Lyn Taitt and Ernest Ranglin, organists Winston Wright and Neville Hinds, pianist Gladstone "Gladdy" Anderson, drummers Hugh Malcolm and Arkland "Drumbago" Parks, bassist Clifton Jackson, plus the best horn men the island had to offer, all led by McCook on tenor sax (and sometimes flute).
Track List

Disc 1 (try tracks 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18 and 19)

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Disc 2 (try tracks 1,2,4,5,7,8,9,10,11,13,16,17,18,19,20,21 and 22)

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