WINSTON ‘Merritone’ Blake, a giant of Jamaica’s music industry, died yesterday at age 75.

His friend and neighbour, Michael Hall, told the Jamaica Observer that the legendary sound system man died at the University Hospital of the West Indies (UHWI).

Hall said Blake suffered a stroke in January and was recuperating at home. On Wednesday he was admitted to the UHWI after feeling ill.

Doctors there said he ‘took a turn for the worst’ on Friday and died at 5:30 am Saturday.

The Blake family is synonymous with the Merritone sound system, which was started by father Val Blake in 1950 in St Thomas. While still at Kingston College, Winston and his older brother Trevor took over operations of the ‘set’ in 1956 when their father died.

Initially Merritone played the rural areas, but became a force throughout Kingston during the 1960s. They played the most popular venues, such as Wembley Sports Club, Glassbucket and Little Copa.

Fellow sound system operator and close friend, Bunny Goodison, said Blake was ‘matchless’ when it came to connecting with an audience.

“He had a great ear for music, an excellent taste in selections. There was a time when I couldn’t miss a Merritone dance…it was an experience,” Goodison told the Sunday Observer.

The Blake brothers (which also included the younger Tyrone and Monty) launched the Turntable Club along the Red Hills Road strip in the early 1970s. It quickly became a meeting spot for the hip crowd.

Winston Blake was also a music producer and promoter of talent contests that helped to launch the careers of his wife Cynthia Schloss and Beres Hammond.

He produced several of Schloss’s hit songs, including Love Forever and Surround Me With Love. She died in 1999.

In recent years, he was a founding member of the Jamaica Association of Vintage Artistes, and continued to play Thursdays at the Waterfalls club in St Andrew.

Blake — who was awarded the Order of Distinction from the Jamaican Government in 1995 — is survived by brothers Trevor and Monty (Tyrone died in 2012), children and grandchildren.