Jackie Jackson

Clifton "Jackie" Jackson, the Jamaican session bassist whose lines powered Treasure Isle rocksteady classics and who spent more than half a century as a pillar of Toots and the Maytals, died on 23 September 2026 after a lengthy hospital stay. He was 79. The Jamaica Gleaner reported that he died that morning following nearly two months at Cornwall Regional Hospital in Montego Bay. He is survived by his wife, singer Karen Smith, and four daughters.

Born in March 1947, Jackson grew up in central Kingston. An uncle, musician Luther Williams, and aunt Mavis gave him early piano lessons before he switched to bass after watching Lloyd Brevett with the Skatalites. Motown records, especially James Jamerson, also shaped his ear. He played first with Ty and the Titans, then Lester Sterling's Cavaliers, and when the Skatalites split he joined Tommy McCook's Supersonics for about five years.

At Duke Reid's Treasure Isle studio in 1967 he played on Alton Ellis's "Girl I've Got a Date," often cited among the foundation stones of rocksteady. The same groove later echoed in Harry J Allstars' "The Liquidator" and the Staple Singers' "I'll Take You There." As a Treasure Isle and Beverley's All-Stars regular alongside Lynn Taitt, Hux Brown, Gladstone Anderson, Winston Wright and Winston Grennan, he cut sides for Pat Kelly and The Techniques, Harry Mudie, Dennis Walks and countless others. At Leslie Kong's Beverley's he played on Desmond Dekker's "Israelites," recordings by Ken Boothe, Bob Marley, Nicky Thomas and Toots and the Maytals, and the breakthrough Maytals hit "Pressure Drop." International credits included Paul Simon's 1971 "Mother and Child Reunion" and Jimmy Cliff's The Harder They Come soundtrack, plus later dates with Herbie Mann, Garland Jeffreys and Lee "Scratch" Perry.

From the early 1970s he was a core member of Toots Hibbert's touring band, opening for Linda Ronstadt and the Eagles and remaining a Maytals mainstay for decades. Younger bassists including Aston "Family Man" Barrett and Robbie Shakespeare cited him as an influence. In 2005 he shared a Grammy Award for Best Reggae Album as a member of Toots and the Maytals. In 2018 the Jamaica Reggae Industry Association honoured him for exceptional contribution to the reggae industry. His death closes another chapter in Jamaica's pioneering studio generation, a musician who worked often outside the spotlight while helping ska, rocksteady and reggae travel the world.