Lord Tanamo was liked by the Tawaris and they had encouraged him to help unite the musicians that had been playing on all these hits. It was owned by The Tawari family who owned many theatres and were offering shows to the band if they formed a band. In early 1964, a meeting was held with all the would-be Skatalites at The Odeon Theatre. Don Drummond has two tunes on Jazz Jamaica and McCook has one, 'The Answer'.

In 1963, he released Jazz Jamaica From the Workshop (Port-O-Jam/Studio One), on which McCook played for the first time since returning to Jamaica. In 1962, Dodd released I Cover The Waterfront (Port-O-Jam) with Roland Alphonso and Don Drummond, who did the solo and brass sections. Tommy McCook heard some ska, but initially resisted Dodd's offers to record and to lead a studio group, because he was a committed jazzman. Record producer Coxsone Dodd searched for jazz players around Kingston and was impressed by McCook's playing. He returned to Jamaica in June 1962, and began playing regular jazz sessions around Kingston. He left Jamaica in 1954 for a jazz gig at the Zanzibar Club in Nassau, Bahamas. Though McCook was the first in the band to record, he did not participate in the recording sessions with the other nine musicians. Rolando Alphonso was one of the first to record with him, probably in 1954. Soon after that, sound system pioneer Stanley Motta began to operate his studio, where he recorded calypso and mento that were released on 78s. Archie Lindo asked Hitchman to play a few tunes for his pioneer radio station, 'ZQI', on their new equipment.

Tommy McCook was the first member of the band to record, though not for commercial release: he played with Don Hitchman's Group in 1953. These musicians started to play together from 1955, when Kingston's recording studios started to develop. The founders of the Skatalites were musicians Tommy McCook (died 1998), Rolando Alphonso (died 1998), Lester Sterling, Lloyd Brevett (died 2012), Lloyd Knibb (died 2011), Don Drummond (died 1969), Jah Jerry Haynes (died 2007), Jackie Mittoo (died 1990), and Johnny Moore (died 2008). History Before the Skatalites: 1954–1964

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