The Meditations
Encyclopedia
The Meditations are a reggae
Reggae
Reggae is a music genre first developed in Jamaica in the late 1960s. While sometimes used in a broader sense to refer to most types of Jamaican music, the term reggae more properly denotes a particular music style that originated following on the development of ska and rocksteady.Reggae is based...

 vocal harmony group from Jamaica
Jamaica
Jamaica is an island nation of the Greater Antilles, in length, up to in width and 10,990 square kilometres in area. It is situated in the Caribbean Sea, about south of Cuba, and west of Hispaniola, the island harbouring the nation-states Haiti and the Dominican Republic...

 formed in late 1974. They have released several studio albums and are still performing in the 2000s and today.

History

The Meditations were formed in late 1974, when Danny Clarke left The Righteous Flames, recruiting Ansel Cridland (previously of The Linkers) and Winston Watson. After releasing singles credited to the individual members, they began recording as The Meditations in late 1976, shortly after which they released their biggest hit, "Woman Is Like a Shadow", which sold over 45,000 copies in its first month of release. They recorded in the mid-1970s for producers such as Dobby Dobson
Dobby Dobson
Highland "Dobby" Dobson is a Jamaican reggae singer and record producer, nicknamed 'The Loving Pauper' after one of his best known songs.-Biography:...

, Joseph Hoo Kim
Joseph Hoo Kim
-Career:Shortly after the Jamaican government banned gaming machines in the early 1970s, Joe Joe Hookim and his brother Ernest, abandoned their jobs as machine operators, and jumped into the music business. By 1973, the Hookims had opened their own studio, Channel One, with Joe Joe as its hands-on...

, and Lee "Scratch" Perry, their righteously Rastafarian style gaining comparisons with The Mighty Diamonds
The Mighty Diamonds
Mighty Diamonds are a Jamaican harmony trio, recording roots reggae with a strong Rastafarian influence. The group, which comprised Donald "Tabby" Shaw, Fitzroy "Bunny" Simpson, and Lloyd "Judge" Ferguson, was formed in 1969, and remains together as of 2010...

. Their first album, Message From The Meditations, was released in 1977.

The Meditations sang backing vocals on a number of Bob Marley
Bob Marley
Robert Nesta "Bob" Marley, OM was a Jamaican singer-songwriter and musician. He was the rhythm guitarist and lead singer for the ska, rocksteady and reggae band Bob Marley & The Wailers...

 songs, including "Blackman Redemption," "Punky Reggae Party," and "Rastaman Live Up", as well as providing backing for Gregory Isaacs
Gregory Isaacs
Gregory Anthony Isaacs was a Jamaican reggae musician. Milo Miles, writing in the New York Times, described Isaacs as "the most exquisite vocalist in reggae". His nicknames include Cool Ruler and Lonely Lover....

, Jimmy Cliff
Jimmy Cliff
Jimmy Cliff, OM is a Jamaican musician, singer and actor. He is the only currently living musician to hold the Order of Merit, the highest honour that can be granted by the Jamaican government for achievement in the arts and sciences...

 and The Congos
The Congos
The Congos are a reggae vocal group from Jamaica active on and off from the mid-1970s until the present day. They are best known for their Heart of the Congos album, recorded with Lee "Scratch" Perry.-History:...

 (on their Heart of the Congos
Heart of the Congos
Heart of the Congos is a roots reggae album by The Congos, produced by Lee "Scratch" Perry at his Black Ark studio with a studio band including Boris Gardiner on bass and Ernest Ranglin on guitar. The album was released in 1977...

album).

They appeared at the One Love Peace Concert
One Love Peace Concert
The One Love Peace Concert was a large concert held on April 22, 1978 at The National Stadium in Kingston, Jamaica.This concert was held during a political civil war in Jamaica between opposing parties Jamaican Labour Party and the People's National Party...

in April 1978, officially a commemoration of the 12th anniversary of Haile Selassie's state visit to Jamaica
Jamaica
Jamaica is an island nation of the Greater Antilles, in length, up to in width and 10,990 square kilometres in area. It is situated in the Caribbean Sea, about south of Cuba, and west of Hispaniola, the island harbouring the nation-states Haiti and the Dominican Republic...

, but more famous for the handshake between Michael Manley
Michael Manley
Michael Norman Manley ON OCC was the fourth Prime Minister of Jamaica . Manley was a democratic socialist....

 and Edward Seaga
Edward Seaga
Edward Philip George Seaga ON PC was the fifth Prime Minister of Jamaica from 1980 to 1989 and Leader of the Jamaica Labour Party from 1974 to 2005. He served as leader of the opposition from 1974 to 1980 and again from 1989 until January 2005...

 when they joined Bob Marley
Bob Marley
Robert Nesta "Bob" Marley, OM was a Jamaican singer-songwriter and musician. He was the rhythm guitarist and lead singer for the ska, rocksteady and reggae band Bob Marley & The Wailers...

 on stage.

The Meditations 1983 album, No More Friend was produced by Linval Thompson
Linval Thompson
Linval Thompson is a Jamaican reggae and dub musician and record producer.-Biography:Thompson was raised in Kingston, Jamaica, but spent time with his mother in Queens, New York, and his recording career began around the age of 20 with the self-released "No Other Woman," recorded in Brooklyn, New...

 and featured The Roots Radics, and saw them adapting to the prevailing dancehall
Dancehall
Dancehall is a genre of Jamaican popular music that originated in the late 1970s. Initially dancehall was a more sparse version of reggae than the roots style, which had dominated much of the 1970s. In the mid-1980s, digital instrumentation became more prevalent, changing the sound considerably,...

 sound.

Cridland left the group, leaving Clarke and Watson to record 1988's For The Good of Man without him, but they were reunited for 1993's Return of The Meditations.

They have subsequently toured the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 and Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

. All three members are now based in the US - Clarke in Phoenix, Arizona
Phoenix, Arizona
Phoenix is the capital, and largest city, of the U.S. state of Arizona, as well as the sixth most populated city in the United States. Phoenix is home to 1,445,632 people according to the official 2010 U.S. Census Bureau data...

, Watson in Seattle, Washington
Seattle, Washington
Seattle is the county seat of King County, Washington. With 608,660 residents as of the 2010 Census, Seattle is the largest city in the Northwestern United States. The Seattle metropolitan area of about 3.4 million inhabitants is the 15th largest metropolitan area in the country...

, and Cridland in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

.

Albums

  • Message From The Meditations (1977) Wild Flower (JA) / United Artists (US)
  • Wake Up (1978) Third World (UK) / Double-D (US/JA)
  • Guidance (1979) Tad's/Guidance
  • No More Friend (1983) Thompson Sound/Greensleeves
    Greensleeves Records
    Greensleeves Records & Publishing is a record label specialising in dancehall and reggae music. The company was founded by Chris Cracknell and Chris Sedgwick and started as a small record store in West Ealing, London, in November 1975 and is based in Britain....

  • For The Good of Man (1988) Greensleeves
  • Return of The Meditations (1993) Sonic Sounds/Heartbeat
    Heartbeat Records
    Heartbeat Records is an independent record label based in Burlington , Massachusetts. The label specializes in Jamaican music. Founded by reggae music enthusiasts Bill Nowlin and Duncan Brown, the label's first release was a vinyl LP reissue of Linton Kwesi Johnson's Dread Beat an' Blood...

  • Ghetto Knowledge (1999) Easy Star
  • I Love Jah (2002) Wackies
    Wackies
    Wackies is an American independent record label specialized in reggae and dub music.Founded in the 1970s by Lloyd Barnes, as the Wackie's House Of Music based on White Plains Road in New York, the name Wackies also include a record shop and a studio...

     (recorded 1982)
  • Stand In Love (2004) 2Good / Meditations Music (US)

Compilations

  • Greatest Hits (1984) Shanachie
    Shanachie Records
    Shanachie Records was founded in 1976 by Richard Nevins and Dan Collins. According to Harvey Pekar , it is one of the largest independent record labels in the world, and is currently distributed by E1 Music. Starting as a label that specialized in fiddle music, they began releasing work by Celtic...

    /Greensleeves
  • Deeper Roots: The Best of The Meditations (1994) Heartbeat/Greensleeves
  • Reggae Crazy: Anthology 1971-1979 (1997) Nighthawk

External links

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