Peter Anthony Morgan, the lead singer of the reggae band Morgan Heritage, a Grammy Award-winning group formed by the sons of singer Denroy Morgan and who became known for its varied influences and tight vocal harmonies, died on Sunday.
He was 46, The Associated Press reported. Mr Morgan’s family confirmed his death in a statements on the band’s social platforms. The statement did not mention his age or provide a cause of death.
Mr Morgan, known as “Peetah”, founded Morgan Heritage seven of his brothers in 1994. The band later became a quintet.
For some of the early albums, including “Protect Us Jah” (1997) and “Do not be afraid” (1999), Morgan Heritage worked with Bobby Digital, one of Jamaica’s most influential producers. Before a show at New York’s Irving Plaza in 1999, a New York Times music critic wrote that the band “maintains ’70s reggae traditions of smooth singing and thoughtful messages.”
But Morgan Heritage was more than a throwback to reggae’s past. AllMusic.com described his sound as a blend of “elements of roots reggae, lover rock, soul, R&B, calypso, gospel, dub, and occasionally funk and dancehall.”
Several Morgan Heritage albums have had success on the Billboard reggae charts. One of them, “Strictly Roots” won best reggae album of the year at the 2015 Grammy Awards. The band’s album “Avrakedabra” won the same award two years later, but lost to “Stony hill” by Damian Marley, son of Bob Marley.
Information about Mr. Morgan’s survivors was not immediately available. His family’s statement described him as husband, father, son and brother.
Peter Anthony Morgan was one of more than two dozen children of Denroy Morgan, a reggae star born in Jamaica who died in 2022. Peter Morgan and some of his siblings studied in Springfield, Massachusetts, where their grandmother lived, the Hartford Courant newspaper reported in 1999. Their father was living in New York at the time.
“We would go to school during the week, then on Friday nights we would come to New York and rehearse with my dad all weekend, come back on Monday in time for school,” Peter Morgan’s brother, Mojo, told the Courant.
Morgan Heritage began touring in the early 1990s and released its first album, “Miracle”, on MCA Records in 1994. according to VP Recordsa reggae label that released many of the band’s other albums.
Their latest album, “The Homeland,” released in 2023, highlighted reggae’s African roots and featured collaborations with musicians from Jamaica and Africa. The project came about after the band played a show in Kenya in 2015 and began spending time there and in Ghana, and realized how connected Jamaica remained to Africa, Peter Morgan said Kaboom magazine. He said he hoped the album, delayed by the pandemic, would burnish the band’s legacy.
“The body of work, the catalog — you want to be remembered as the best music ever created over the years,” he said, adding that he hopes the music “inspires generations to come.”