Cedric Brooks

Cedric Roy "Im" Brooks (27 April 1943 – 3 May 2013) was a Jamaican saxophonist and flautist known for his solo recordings and as a founding member of The Mystic Revelation of Rastafari, The Sound Dimensions, Divine Light, The Light of Saba, United Africa, and The Skatalites.

Biography Brooks became a pupil at the renowned Alpha Boys School aged 11, where he learned music theory and clarinet. In his late teens he took up tenor saxophone and flute. He returned to Jamaica in 1970, when he would find his first major commercial success, as part of a duo with trumpeter David Madden, Im & David.

In 1970 he first teamed up with Rastafarian drummer Count Ossie, releasing tracks such as "So Long Rastafari Calling", "Black is Black", and "Give Me Back My Language and Culture" as Im and Count Ossie. The pair would later form The Mystic Revelation of Rastafari, with Brooks acting as musical director and leader of the horn section. From this collaboration resulted the triple-LP set Grounation. Brooks left in 1974 to form a new band, the Divine Light (later called The Light of Saba). After a single, "Demauungwani", the group recorded their first album for the Institute of Jamaica, From Mento to Reggae to Third World Music, a collection exploring the history of Jamaican music, incorporating mento, junkanoo, ska, rocksteady, and reggae. The Light of Saba and The Light of Saba in Reggae, before Brooks left, again going solo with his 1977 album, Im Flash Forward, featuring Studio One rhythms from the early 1970s, and regarded as one of the greatest Jamaican instrumental albums.

Selected discography

Solo Im Flash Forward (1977), Studio One United Africa (1978), ARCO

Im & Dave Money Maker (1970), Coxsone (sometimes credited to Various Artists)

With Count Ossie and the Mystic Revelation of Rastafari Grounation (1973), MRR/Vulcan/Ashanti Tales of Mozambique (1975) One Truth

With The Light of Saba The Light of Saba (1974), Total Sounds From Mento to Reggae to Third World Music (1975), Doctor Bird The Light of Saba in Reggae (197?), Total Sounds

Compilations Cedric Im Brooks & The Light of Saba (2003), Honest Jon's

With the Skatalites Bashaka (2000) From Paris With Love (2002) The Skatalites in Orbit, Vol. 1 (2005) On The Right Track (2007)

Session work Negril (LP, 1975. Micron Music Ltd) (CD, 2003. 3D Japan)