Jackie Jackson, bassist behind landmark reggae recordings, remembered in obituary

An October 1 obituary in The Guardian has revisited the career of Jackie Jackson, the Jamaican bassist who died in Montego Bay on September 23 aged 79. For more than five decades he played with Toots and the Maytals, while his session work helped underpin recordings that carried rocksteady and reggae far beyond Jamaica.

Jackson’s death was reported on September 23 by the Jamaica Observer and The Gleaner. The Observer said he had recently been admitted to Cornwall Regional Hospital in St James; The Gleaner reported a lengthy hospitalisation. Neither report established a cause of death. The October 1 account by music writer David Katz is an obituary of his life and work, published after his death.

How Jackie Jackson entered Jamaica’s recording studios

Born Clifton Jackson in Kingston in 1947, he learned piano before turning to bass as a teenager, according to The Guardian. Katz writes that hearing Lloyd Brevett of the Skatalites play upright bass helped prompt the change. Jackson later took up electric bass, the instrument on which he became a familiar presence in Jamaican recording studios.

His early professional route led through local groups to Duke Reid’s Treasure Isle studio. Tommy McCook recruited him for its house band, the Supersonics, in 1966, The Guardian reports. Jackson’s first session there was Alton Ellis’s I Have Got a Date, later released as Girl I’ve Got a Date. The Jamaica Observer also lists the Supersonics’ Little Nut Tree by the Melodians and Queen Majesty by the Techniques among recordings on which he played.

The Guardian also names sessions for Jimmy Cliff, the Wailers, Bob and Marcia, and Keith and Tex among Jackson’s work. The Observer reports recordings with Cliff, Paul Simon and Toots and the Maytals. These reported credits show the reach of his session work across Jamaican groups and singers, as well as beyond the island.

One connection carried that studio sound into an American pop recording. The Guardian says Cliff’s Vietnam inspired Paul Simon to work with Jackson and other Jamaican musicians on Mother and Child Reunion in 1971. It also places Jackson on Cliff’s The Harder They Come, a recording associated with the 1972 film of the same name.

Jackie Jackson’s decades with Toots and the Maytals

Jackson began playing regularly with Toots and the Maytals in 1968 and by 1973 had cut back on other session work to concentrate on the group, according to The Guardian. The Observer says he toured with the Maytals for 50 years and identifies Pressure Drop, Funky Kingston and Sweet and Dandy as songs featuring his bass. His long association with singer Toots Hibbert made him part of the band’s continuing sound.

The 1972 film The Harder They Come provides one record of that period. Katz says Jackson appears among the players backing Jimmy Cliff on the title track and Toots and the Maytals on Sweet and Dandy. Pressure Drop also appears on the soundtrack, with Jackson’s playing heard on the recording, according to the obituary.

The Guardian says Jackson stepped away from touring and recording in late 1982, then rejoined the Maytals in 1995. It reports that he remained on the road with the group until live music was restricted during the Covid-19 pandemic. His career thus spanned the early studio sessions of the 1960s and decades of performances with one of reggae’s best known groups.

Recognition and his family’s recollections

In 2012, Jamaica awarded Jackson the Order of Distinction for his contribution to the country’s music, according to both the Observer and The Gleaner. At a bassists’ event in February 2026, he told the Observer that mentoring younger musicians was important and that the music he had played could inspire future generations. His remarks reflected a continuing interest in passing on reggae’s history.

The Gleaner’s interviews with Jackson’s daughters offer a view of how he worked late in life. They said he continued to practise bass and, in a studio, would count in players and direct a session. Daughter Courtni recalled his understated answer when asked about the early recordings: “We were just having fun.” The paper reported that he performed with Courtni at a bassists’ concert during Reggae Month in February 2026.

Jackson’s wife, singer Karen Smith, died in 2021. He is survived by four daughters, according to The Guardian and The Gleaner. The latter identified them as Courtni, Jheanell, Jhanine and Marie. Their recollections sit alongside the recorded work: a musician whose playing can be traced across Jamaican releases and whose family still saw him practising and making music in his later years.