68:. Their mother died when Winston was young, and their father, Val Blake, began supplementing his income by selling radios and amplifiers, establishing his Mighty Merritone sound system in 1950. After Val Blake died in 1956, Winston and his brothers Trevor, Tyrone, and Monte began operating the sound system, and increasingly started competing with the larger sound systems from
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As a club owner and personal manager, Blake remained a central figure in the
Jamaican music industry, and travelled widely around the world promoting Jamaican music. From 1990, he organised annual Merritone Reunion festivals, and also arranged Merritone Family Fun days in various US cities. In 1997
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Winston Blake said: "We were here before reggae, when R&B records were played alongside calypso, mento and country and western, that's what filled
Jamaica's dance floors back then... When rock and roll came in, R&B dried up in the U.S. that's when Jamaica started making its own music." He
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for his contributions to
Jamaica's entertainment industry, and, after his wife's death in 1999, he organised a series of memorial concerts in her honour, featuring some of the island's top musicians. He was a founding member of the Jamaica Association of Vintage Artistes.
72:. The four Blake brothers moved to Kingston in 1962, and the popularity of Merritone grew, developing a reputation for being able to cater for all social classes.
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The Blake brothers opened the
Turntable Club in Kingston in 1972, and it became known as the hub of the "Merritone sound". The album
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organised talent competitions, and started producing locally successful records by artists such as
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owner, promoter, and occasional recording artist, working under the pseudonyms
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245:"Winston 'Merritone' Blake, Jamaican Sound System Pioneer, Dead at 75"
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in
Kingston in February, aged 75, as a result of complications from
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and others, and also recorded himself with producers including
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He suffered a stroke in
January 2016 and died in the
25:(19 November 1940 – 27 February 2016) was a
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219:Biography
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113:Big Youth
42:Blake Boy
38:nightclub
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