“Peetah” Anthony Morgan was a well-known figure as the lead singer of the reggae band Morgan Heritage.
This star tragically passed away on Sunday, February 25, 2024.
Who was ‘Peetah’ Anthony Morgan?
Peter “Peetah” Anthony Morgan was known as the lead singer of the reggae band Morgan Heritage, and he was the son of the late Jamaican reggae star, Denroy Morgan.
According to The New York Times, he co-founded the successful band in 1994 with seven of his siblings, which later evolved into a quintet known for their varied influences and tight vocal harmonies.
The quintet included Peter, Roy “Gramps” Morgan, Una Morgan, Nakhamyah “Lukes” Morgan, and Memmalatel “Mr. Mojo” Morgan, as reported by The Associated Press.
Morgan Heritage achieved a significant milestone by winning a Grammy Award for Best Reggae Album for Strictly Roots in 2016 at the 58th Annual Grammy Awards.
Strictly Roots, the album that won them the Grammy, was released on March 31, 2015.
Back in 1999, according to a report by the Hartford Courant, Peter and some of his siblings attended school in Springfield, Massachusetts, where their grandmother resided, while their father lived in New York.
“We’d go to school during the week, then on Friday night come to New York and rehearse with my father all weekend, come back up on Monday in time for school,” Memmalatel “Mr. Mojo” Mojo shared with the outlet.
Roy “Gramps” made a move to Tennessee with the aim of introducing reggae to Nashville, as per The Associated Press.
He explained in 2018, “If you follow reggae music and country music, it’s a lot of storytelling. In reggae we tell the story of people suffering.”
AllMusic highlighted Morgan Heritage’s blend of roots reggae, lovers rock, soul, R&B, calypso, gospel, and more, over the three decades they’ve been active.
The group embarked on tours in the early 1990s, as reported by The New York Times.
The Homeland, their most recent album released in 2023, highlighted reggae’s African roots and involved collaborations with artists from Jamaica and Africa.
Kaboom Magazine revealed that the band commenced work on the album around 2018 after being inspired by their time in Africa and the similarities between African and Jamaican cultures.
