Danny Clarke, an original member of the roots-reggae group The Meditations has died. Clarke died in Clarendon on July 27. Ansel Cridland, his former colleague confirmed his death in an interview.
He said Clarke, who suffered several strokes in recent years, died in a nursing home. The singer was in his early 70s.
“Him was a cool bredrin, quiet bredrin. Him teach mi a lot about singing… him was very unique when it come to playing him guitar,” said the New York-based Cridland, who last saw Clarke in June when he visited Jamaica.
Cridland, Clarke and Winston Watson met in 1973 while living in Majestic Gardens, a Kingston community popularly known as ‘Back To’. The following year, they cut a trial song that became Woman is Like A Shadow, a massive hit for them when released two years later by the Channel One label, which sold over 45,000 copies in its first month of release.
They recorded in the mid-1970s for producers such as Dobby Dobson, Joseph Hoo Kim, and Lee “Scratch” Perry, their righteously Rastafarian style gaining comparisons with The Mighty Diamonds. Their first album, Message From The Meditations, was released in 1977. Robert Christgau called it “a nice one” in Christgau’s Record Guide (1981), highlighting the “island chauvinism” of songs like “Running from Jamaica”, which “gets on those who emigrate to Canada, Britain, the States, and Africa”.
The Meditations sang backing vocals on a number of Bob Marley songs, including “Blackman Redemption”, “Punky Reggae Party”, and “Rastaman Live Up”, as well as providing backing for Gregory Isaacs, Jimmy Cliff and The Congos (on their Heart of the Congos album).
Stand in Love, released in 2002 by their Meditations Music label, was the last album to feature Clarke who returned to Jamaica 12 years ago. Watson died in New York in March 2019.
Danny Clarke is survived by seven children (he was pre-deceased by one) and several grandchildren.
