Wailers percussionist Alvin ‘Seeco’ Patterson is dead
KINGSTON, Jamaica— Veteran percussionist and former member of the Bob Marley and the Wailers outfit, Alvin ‘Seeco’ Patterson is dead.
Patterson died on Monday night. The cause of his death has not yet been ascertained.
He was 90 years old.
Patterson was born in Havana, Cuba under the name Francisco Willie and migrated to Jamaica with his parents as a child. He took the moniker Seeco Patterson as a stage name. He became acquainted with the original Wailers (Bob Marley, Peter Tosh and Bunny Wailer) in the late 1960s and played the percussion on the early Wailers recordings Lyrical Satyrical I and This Train.
He became a full-fledged member of the band after the three icons parted musical company in the early 1970s and continued playing with Marley until his passing in 1981.
Patterson was a member of the band which was rehearsing at 56 Hope Road when gunmen invaded the premises and shot Marley, his wife Rita, and manager Don Taylor.
He remained a member of the Wailers band until he suffered a brain haemorrhage in 1990 and retired from the music scene.
