9. Cedric IM Brooks
Calling Brooks a jazz musician is something of an oversimplification–his music “ties together Sun Ra, Jamaican producer Sir Coxsone Dodd, [and] Fela Kuti,” as Pitchfork put it. An alum of Kingston’s famed Alpha Boys School, Brooks stayed in the city after graduating, first as a member of the Military Band, and then with the Granville Williams Orchestra alongside Ernest Ranglin, Tommy McCook, and Roland Alphonso.
Already firmly entrenched in Jamaican musical traditions, his studies at Philadelphia’s Combs College of Music helped foster his interest in jazz. In Philadelphia Brooks met Sun Ra and Sonny Rollins, both of whom influenced his sound and his philosophy. Brooks became heavily involved in reggae and Rastafarian music upon his return to the island in 1970, recording instrumentals at Studio One with Coxsone Dodd and eventually joining forces with Count Ossie for the 1973 album Grounation. With albums like From Mento To Reggae To Third World Music and The Light Of Saba, Brooks, who passed away last year at 70, gave Jamaican jazz and fusion its own distinct sound, pulling from all the island’s different cultural influences. He melded free jazz and traditional Jamaican music, bringing island jazz back to its spiritual core. Here he is live in Brooklyn below: