Derrick Harriott died at home about 1am Saturday, ending the career of a pioneering ska, rocksteady and reggae singer and record producer whose work stretched across generations. Dorrel Mattocks, the operator of the Derrick Harriott Music Store, said he drove straight to the house after getting the call.
Mattocks said Harriott “was sick and was in and out of hospital.” He added, “He recently came out of hospital and was back home. When I got the call I drove straight to the house,” giving the clearest account yet of the final hours around his death.
Kingston to Crystal
Born in Kingston on February 6, 1939, Harriott’s career began in the late 1950s and moved quickly from group work to solo releases. He co-founded The Jiving Juniors in 1958, and that group scored early local hits such as Lollipop Girl and Over the River before he launched his solo career and his own record label, Crystal, in 1962.
That run matters because Harriott was not just a singer with a long discography; he was a builder of records and a feeder of talent. He released I Care and The Loser, recorded early sessions at King Tubby’s studio, and produced tracks for Dennis Brown, Big Youth, The Ethiopians, Keith & Tex and The Kingstonians.
Order of Distinction in 2009
Harriott’s place in Jamaican music was later marked with the Order of Distinction in 2009 and the JaRIA Lifetime Achievement Award in 2019. Those honors tracked a career that moved from the ska era into rocksteady and reggae without losing commercial weight or influence.
For listeners and the wider Jamaican music community, the immediate question is the cause of death, and that is still not stated in the account of his final hours. What is clear is that his death came after a period of illness, a recent hospital stay, and a return home that ended with a call Mattocks took straight to the house.
