The Jamaican saxophonist Cedric "Im" Brooks died on Friday 3 May, following a cardiac arrest, at New York Presbyterian Hospital, aged 70.
Born in Kingston in 1943, Cedric Brooks belonged to that generation of talented, jazz-loving musicians. With Tommy McCook and Roland Alphonso, he formed the essential triumvirate of Jamaican saxophonists.
Trained at the famous Alpha Boys School, he formed the duo Im & David with his childhood friend, the trumpeter David Madden (who would later found Zap Pow).
At Studio One he became a regular session musician. In that capacity he played on numerous recordings, including Burning Spear's Door Peep, carried by his magnificent solo.
A member, alongside Count Ossie, of the Mystic Revelation of Rastafari, he fused genres: reggae, nyabinghi, jazz, folk and world music. He would put this cross-breeding to work particularly within the group The Light of Saba, as on the album "From Mento to Reggae to Third World Music".
In 1977 came his landmark album, "Im Flash Forward", which belongs in every pair of ears, followed by "United Africa" the next year. When Roland Alphonso died in 1999, he joined the Skatalites and played on the albums "From Paris with love" and "On the right track".