Cedric “Im” 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.

Brooks was a member of groups such as The Vagabonds and the Granville Williams Band in the early 1960s. He moved to Philadelphia in 1968, where he met Sun Ra's Arkestra and Sonny Rollins at the Combs College of Music, events that led him to blend experimental jazz into future compositions. 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. The duo released a series of instrumental singles for Clement "Coxsone" Dodd's Studio One label. Brooks also became a regular studio musician at the Brentford Road studio, playing on many recording sessions, and released several solo singles in the early 1970s.

In 1970 he first teamed up with Rastafarian drummer...

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