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Tommy McCook - The Sannic Sounds

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Tommy McCook - The Sannic Sounds

Tommy McCook - The Sannic Sounds

By Erik Magni on Monday, October 19, 2015 - Comment

Brutal and beautiful on Tommy McCook’s The Sannic Sounds.

Sampler

Jamaican horn maestro and arranger Tommy McCook was one of the key architects behind ska, rocksteady and reggae. As part of the Skatalites at Studio One and The Supersonics at Treasure Isle he made some of greatest music ever made.

In the 70s he played on countless of roots records and also fronted a few of them. One of those – often rare items – was reissued today by Japanese acclaimed label Dub Store Records.

The Sannic Sounds is the title of the album. The title was advertised on the label of a 7" release of Determination Skank as The Sannic Sounds of Tommy McCook. The album was then released in 1974 in very scarce quantities as Tommy McCook Dub. Three years after it was picked up by a UK label and was released – again in scarce quantities – as Horny Dub.

In 2003 parts of the album was reissued by Blood & Fire Records as part of the magnificent compilation Blazing Horns – Tenor in Roots. But now it’s widely available as a single album.

And it’s great. As always when it comes to Tommy McCook. He certainly knows how to blow a horn, whether it’s an evergreen like the beautiful When I Fall in Love or the brutally militant Dirty Harry.

Glen Brown was the producer behind this set. And some of his productions are some of the heaviest to be put on wax. Dirty Harry, and its version Determination Skank, is one such production.

The Sannic Sounds is a varied, and sometimes dub-infused, instrumental album that deserved to be reissued.