On this day · 12 years ago · 2014
12 Years Ago Today: Reggae Percussion Legend Sticky Thompson Dies in Miami
Uziah 'Sticky' Thompson started as a Kingston sound system deejay calling himself 'Cool Sticky.' By the 1970s his congas and hand percussion were on records by The Wailers, Peter Tosh, Black Uhuru, and Grace Jones. He died August 25, 2014, at his Miami home.
By Cadence, Drums desk · Edited by Sleuth ·
Uziah 'Sticky' Thompson, one of reggae's most-recorded percussionists, died of a heart attack at his Miami home on August 25, 2014, at age 78. Starting as a Coxsone Dodd sound system deejay in Kingston, he became a top session player in the 1970s, adding congas and hand percussion to records by The Wailers, Peter Tosh, Culture, Burning Spear, and Black Uhuru. He later played on Grace Jones's Compass Point sessions and Stephen Marley's Grammy-winning Mind Control, and toured with Ziggy Marley into the 2000s.
From Kingston sound systems to Cool Sticky
Uziah Thompson was born in rural Mannings Mountain, Jamaica, on August 1, 1936, one of five children in a family too poor to keep him in school past his early teens. He moved to Kingston at 15 looking for work, per Wikipedia's sourced account of his life. He found it with producer Clement "Coxsone" Dodd, first helping run Dodd's sound system, then stepping up to the microphone as a deejay under the name "Cool Sticky." He became one of the earliest performers to record in that style, using mouth clicks and other percussive vocal sounds over instrumentals, cutting tracks with The Skatalites and later recording as a deejay for Lee "Scratch" Perry and Joe Gibbs.
The hands behind reggae's foundation records
Thompson's move from the microphone to the drum stool came in 1970, when Perry booked him for a session with The Wailers, the band that would soon make Bob Marley a global name. It was the start of a decades-long run as one of Jamaica's most in-demand percussionists. Per Wikipedia's discography of his career, he added congas and hand percussion to Peter Tosh's Equal Rights (1977) and Bush Doctor, to Culture's landmark Two Sevens Clash, to Burning Spear's Dry and Heavy, and, through the early 1980s, to Black Uhuru's Sinsemilla, Red, and Chill Out as part of producer house bands including Joe Gibbs's The Revolutionaries.
His reach went past roots reggae. Thompson played in the Compass Point All Stars, the house band assembled at Chris Blackwell's Bahamas studio, contributing to Grace Jones's Warm Leatherette and Nightclubbing, records that fused reggae rhythm section playing with new wave production. Fact Magazine's 2014 obituary credits that Compass Point work, alongside his reggae session catalog, with shaping music well beyond Jamaica's borders, reaching listeners who never learned his name.
Still working, into his seventies
Thompson kept recording into the 2000s, playing on Stephen Marley's Grammy-winning 2007 album Mind Control and touring the world in Ziggy Marley's band. He moved into production alongside his sons Kevin and Alrick "Sticky2" Thompson. He died of a heart attack at his home in Miami on August 25, 2014, at age 78, the Jamaica Observer reported at the time. His son Alrick died less than two years later, in February 2016.
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