Mento artists and groups
Artists or Bands
Count Owen(5) - Gilzene and The Blue Light Mento Band(1)[video] - Stanley Beckford(3) - Sugar Belly Combo(1) - The Jolly Boys(7)[text] -
News : Mento artists and groups
My book, "The Ultimate Guide To Great Reggae", is out!.
"The Ultimate Guide To Great Reggae" covers the entire history of reggae by focusing on hundreds of its greatest songs. It's the first reggae book that has extensive content on mento and puts it into proper perspective in the story of reggae. You'll love it! (mentomusic.com) |
News: A new page has been added to this site.
A new page has been added to desribe mento recordings orignating from outlide of Jamaica. (mentomusic.com) |
News: The Jolly Boys New CD
"Great Expectation", the new Jolly Boys CD, is now available. And it's a chart success! Read more about it here, and then be sure to visit their new website. (mentomusic.com) |
New release: Sound Man Shots (The Caribou and Downbeat 78s Story)
A new compilation, "Sound Man Shots" on the Complete Roots label, gives us 19 mento sides on CD -- more than half not available elsewhere -- plus more. (mentomusic.com) |
News: A video clip by Blue Glaze has been posted
Courtesy of Dan Neely, video of a June 2009 performance of Toots And The Maytals' "Sweet And Dandy" by The Blue Glaze Mento Band has been posted to the "More Resurgence CD Scans page. (mentomusic.com) |
News: Lord Flea's LP finally released on CD
More than 50 years after its release, Capitol Records finally released Lord Flea's "Swingin' Calypsos" LP (along with its follow-up single) as bonus material on a Harry Belafonte CD called "The Early Years At Capitol Records". (mentomusic.com) |
News: Mento Videos
Video of five songs from a live 2003 performance by the late Stanley Beckford with The Blue Glaze Mento Band (featuring the late Vincent Price) have been added to the Stanley Beckford page. (mentomusic.com) |
News: A new mento shirt design is available
A new mento t-shirt is available. It features an illustration of mento musicians taken from a vintage 1950s Jamaican album jacket. (mentomusic.com) |
News: Monty Alexander delivers the mento and much more
There was jazz, calypso-jazz, mento-jazz, reggae-jazz, acoustic rural mento (small combo and big band), jazz renditions of Bob Marley music, nyabinghi drumming and more at Monty Alexander's Lords of the Caribbean show in NYC last night. (mentomusic.com) |
News: Additional video [corrected]
A mento/folk video clip from 1939 (!) has been added. (mentomusic.com) |
News: Arthur Knibbs
A new page for Arthur Knibbs with scans, song clips and a photo has been created. (mentomusic.com) |
News: Jolly Boys
A new CD by former Jolly Boy Allan Swymmer has been released. (mentomusic.com) |
News: Chin's Calypso Sextet
A sixth (and probably final) CD volume of Chin's Calypso Sextet has been released by Ivan Chin. (mentomusic.com) |
News: Stanley Beckford
I am very sad to report that Stanley Beckford has lost his battle with throat cancer. (mentomusic.com) |
Page Update: Lord Flea
A photo and mention of Lord Flea from a 1957 issue of Life magazine has been added. (mentomusic.com) |
Page Update: Lord Tanamo
Scans of a 1978 single of Lord Tanamo's reggae cover of the Count Lasher/ Chin's Calypso Sextet track, China Man From Montego Bay have been added. (mentomusic.com) |
Page Update: More Golden Age Album Scans
A jacket scan and a description of an obscure album of 78 RPM singles called "Get Jamaican Calypsos", has been added. (mentomusic.com) |
Page Update: Count Lasher
A scan and description of another golden age single has been added: "Pick Your Choice" backed with "Shepherd Rod". (mentomusic.com) |
Page Update: Chin's Calypso Sextet
A scan of the rare 50 year old paper sleeve from a Chin's Calypso Sextet single has been added. (mentomusic.com) |
4th anniversary of www.mentomusic.com
www.mentomusic.com started its 4th year on the web on January 31. At 4, it's officially a big boy, with over 1 million hits. The last year was a good one for uncovering, collecting and posting information about mento music. The following new pages were added: A page for vintage and current mento-related souvenirs from Jamaica, a page the now NYC-based Carlton James and The Rod Dennis Mento Band, a page for mento pioneer Lord Fly. Many more label and jacket scans, song descriptions, sound clips, video downloads and artist photos, were added, as was information of all kinds. For example, information about the first Jamaican recording artist, Lord Fly, provided by his descendants, has been added. And the names of the band members of Chin's Calypso Sextet have been rediscovered. The past year has also seen reviews of two new mento compilation CDs, two new mento t-shirt designs for sale, the "Bob Marley and The Wailers and Mento" page becoming the basis of a well-received article in The Beat magazine's annual Bob Marley issue, and the addition of an RSS news feed. Also, by the end of the month I will have finished the less than fun project of scrubbing out all the typos from the site that have crept in as I constantly alter the text as information is uncovered.Why any of this? Because mento music is great music, and historically important, but under-documented. My hope is that reggae and ska fans will discover mento through www.mentomusic.com and enjoy it as much as I have. (mentomusic.com) |
Page Update: Mento Shirts
A new "I Love Mento" shirt design has been added to the Mento Shirts page. (mentomusic.com) |
Page Update: Cover Versions of Mento and Jamaican Folk Songs
What do contemporary jazz great Sonny Rollins and 1950s doo wop group The Ink Spots have in common that has to do with mento? Both have covered the old mento song, "Hold 'Em Joe", as added to the cover versions listing. (mentomusic.com) |
Page Update: Chin's Calypso Sextet, Alerth Bedasse, Everart Williams and Ivan Chin's label
Two updates have been made to the Chin's Calypso Sextet page: First, the names of all the band members have finally been uncovered and posted. Second, pictures of this week's reunion between Ivan Chin and Alerth Bedasse have been posted. (mentomusic.com) |
Page Update: Edric Connor, Louise Bennett and Jamaican Folk Music
Some recollections about The Frats Quintet from the folk singers' last surviving member, Wilfred Warner, have been provided by his daughter and son. (mentomusic.com) |
Page Update: More Middle Period Single Scans
A scan and description of a good single, "Mento Sweet", by Denzil Laing, has been added to the mento-reggae section of this page. (mentomusic.com) |
Page Update: More Golden Age Single Scans
The first photo that I've found of Marie Bryant has been added to this page, along with a scan of her most popular single, released on red vinyl. (mentomusic.com) |
Page Update: More Middle Period Album Scans
The description of the Lloyd Wilks LP, "Jamaica Magic" has been expanded with more text, scans of a jacket variation and lyrics to four popular Jamaican songs: "Day-O", "Yellow Bird", "Jamaica Farewell" and "Island In The Sun". This LP features backing vocals of a Soulettes line-up that includes Rita Marley and Nora Dean. (mentomusic.com) |
Page Update: More Middle Period Album Scans
A hotel LP by the middle-period urban mento band, Calypso Joe, has been added to this page. (mentomusic.com) |
Page Update: Stanley Beckford
Information has been added for anyone who would like to contribute money to Stanley Beckford's mounting medical bills. (mentomusic.com) |
Page Update: More Middle Period Singe scans
Pictures of a third label variation of the King Barou single "Calypso Cha Cha" / "Shame and Scandal In The Family" have been added. (mentomusic.com) |
Page Update: Lord Antics
Though not of great quality, pictures of the Lord Antics and the Boys LP, "Harder Than You" have been added. (mentomusic.com) |
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