Mento
Encyclopedia
Mento is a style of Jamaican
folk music
that predates and has greatly influenced ska
and reggae
music. It has its roots in calypso
and other Jamaican folk music
. Mento typically features acoustic instruments, such as acoustic guitar
, banjo
, hand drum
s, and the rhumba box — a large mbira
in the shape of a box that can be sat on while played. The rhumba box carries the bass part of the music.
Mento is often confused with calypso
, a musical form from Trinidad and Tobago
. Although the two share many similarities, they are separate and distinct musical forms. In part, the differences stem from the differing colonial histories of the two West Indian Islands, as Jamaican music lacks the Spanish
influences found in other Caribbean
musical styles.
Mento draws on musical traditions brought over by Africa
n slaves. The influence of European music is also strong, as slaves who could play musical instruments were often required to play music for their masters. They subsequently incorporated some elements of these traditions into their own folk music
. The lyrics of mento songs often deal with aspects of everyday life in a light-hearted and humorous way. Many comment on poverty, poor housing and other social issues. Thinly veiled sexual references and innuendo
are also common themes. Although the treatment of such subjects in mento is comparatively innocent, their appearance has sometimes been seen as a precursor of the slackness
found in modern dancehall
.
Major 1950s mento recording artists include Louise Bennett, Count Lasher, Harold Richardson, Lord Flea, Lord Fly, Alerth Bedasse with Chin's Calypso Sextet, Laurel Aitken, Denzil Laing, Lord Composer, Lord Lebby, Lord Power, Hubert Porter, and New Yorker of Jamaican origin Harry Belafonte
, whose massive hit records in 1956-1958, including "Day-O (The Banana Boat Song)" and "Jamaica Farewell" were really mento songs sold as calypso. Previously recorded Jamaican versions of many Belafonte's classic "calypso" hits can be heard on the Jamaica - Mento 1951-1958 http://www.fremeaux.com/index.php?option=com_virtuemart&page=shop.livrets&content_id=5362&product_id=1176&category_id=128 CD released in 2010.
The golden age of mento was the 1950s, as records pressed by Stanley Motta, Ivan Chin, Ken Khouri and others brought the music to a new audience. In the 1960s it was overshadowed by ska
and reggae, but it is still played in Jamaica, especially in areas frequented by tourists. Lloyd Bradley
, reggae historian and author of seminal reggae book Bass Culture said that he felt Lee “Scratch” Perry’s 1976 album ‘Super Ape’ contained some of the purest mento influences he knew http://www.clashmusic.com/feature/mento-reggaes-forgotten-past. It was repopularized by the Jolly Boys in the late 1980s and early 1990s with the release of four recordings on First Warning Records/Rykodisc
and a tour that included the United States
. Stanley Beckford and Gilzene and the Blue Light Mento Band also revived rural mento in the 2000s.
Music of Jamaica
The music of Jamaica includes Jamaican folk music and many popular genres, such as mento, ska, rocksteady, reggae, dub music, dancehall, reggae fusion and related styles. Jamaica's music culture is a fusion of elements from the United States , Africa, and neighboring Caribbean islands such as...
folk music
Folk music
Folk music is an English term encompassing both traditional folk music and contemporary folk music. The term originated in the 19th century. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted by mouth, as music of the lower classes, and as music with unknown composers....
that predates and has greatly influenced ska
Ska
Ska |Jamaican]] ) is a music genre that originated in Jamaica in the late 1950s, and was the precursor to rocksteady and reggae. Ska combined elements of Caribbean mento and calypso with American jazz and rhythm and blues...
and 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...
music. It has its roots in calypso
Calypso music
Calypso is a style of Afro-Caribbean music that originated in Trinidad and Tobago from African and European roots. The roots of the genre lay in the arrival of enslaved Africans, who, not being allowed to speak with each other, communicated through song...
and other Jamaican folk music
Jamaican folk music
A notable year in the history of Jamaican music was 1907, when Walter Jekyll's was first published. The of this book include four parts entitled Anancy Stories, Digging Sings, Ring Tunes, and Dancing Tunes. Each part has an introduction, songs, stories, and melodies.Part 1: Anancy stories,...
. Mento typically features acoustic instruments, such as acoustic guitar
Classical guitar
The classical guitar is a 6-stringed plucked string instrument from the family of instruments called chordophones...
, banjo
Banjo
In the 1830s Sweeney became the first white man to play the banjo on stage. His version of the instrument replaced the gourd with a drum-like sound box and included four full-length strings alongside a short fifth-string. There is no proof, however, that Sweeney invented either innovation. This new...
, hand drum
Hand drum
A hand drum is any type of drum that is typically played with the bare hand rather than a stick, mallet, hammer, or other type of beater. The simplest type of hand drum is the frame drum, which consists of a shallow, cylindrical shell with a drumhead attached to one of the open ends.-Types:The...
s, and the rhumba box — a large mbira
Mbira
In African music, the mbira is a musical instrument that consists of a wooden board to which staggered metal keys have been attached. It is often fitted into a resonator...
in the shape of a box that can be sat on while played. The rhumba box carries the bass part of the music.
Mento is often confused with calypso
Calypso music
Calypso is a style of Afro-Caribbean music that originated in Trinidad and Tobago from African and European roots. The roots of the genre lay in the arrival of enslaved Africans, who, not being allowed to speak with each other, communicated through song...
, a musical form from Trinidad and Tobago
Trinidad and Tobago
Trinidad and Tobago officially the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago is an archipelagic state in the southern Caribbean, lying just off the coast of northeastern Venezuela and south of Grenada in the Lesser Antilles...
. Although the two share many similarities, they are separate and distinct musical forms. In part, the differences stem from the differing colonial histories of the two West Indian Islands, as Jamaican music lacks the Spanish
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
influences found in other Caribbean
Caribbean
The Caribbean is a crescent-shaped group of islands more than 2,000 miles long separating the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea, to the west and south, from the Atlantic Ocean, to the east and north...
musical styles.
Mento draws on musical traditions brought over by Africa
Africa
Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...
n slaves. The influence of European music is also strong, as slaves who could play musical instruments were often required to play music for their masters. They subsequently incorporated some elements of these traditions into their own folk music
Folk music
Folk music is an English term encompassing both traditional folk music and contemporary folk music. The term originated in the 19th century. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted by mouth, as music of the lower classes, and as music with unknown composers....
. The lyrics of mento songs often deal with aspects of everyday life in a light-hearted and humorous way. Many comment on poverty, poor housing and other social issues. Thinly veiled sexual references and innuendo
Innuendo
An innuendo is a baseless invention of thoughts or ideas. It can also be a remark or question, typically disparaging , that works obliquely by allusion...
are also common themes. Although the treatment of such subjects in mento is comparatively innocent, their appearance has sometimes been seen as a precursor of the slackness
Slackness
Slackness refers to vulgarity in West Indian culture, behavior and the music. It also refers to a subgenre of dancehall music with straightforward sexual lyrics performed live or recorded. Its form and pronunciation varies throughout the Caribbean....
found in modern 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,...
.
Major 1950s mento recording artists include Louise Bennett, Count Lasher, Harold Richardson, Lord Flea, Lord Fly, Alerth Bedasse with Chin's Calypso Sextet, Laurel Aitken, Denzil Laing, Lord Composer, Lord Lebby, Lord Power, Hubert Porter, and New Yorker of Jamaican origin Harry Belafonte
Harry Belafonte
Harold George "Harry" Belafonte, Jr. is an American singer, songwriter, actor and social activist. He was dubbed the "King of Calypso" for popularizing the Caribbean musical style with an international audience in the 1950s...
, whose massive hit records in 1956-1958, including "Day-O (The Banana Boat Song)" and "Jamaica Farewell" were really mento songs sold as calypso. Previously recorded Jamaican versions of many Belafonte's classic "calypso" hits can be heard on the Jamaica - Mento 1951-1958 http://www.fremeaux.com/index.php?option=com_virtuemart&page=shop.livrets&content_id=5362&product_id=1176&category_id=128 CD released in 2010.
The golden age of mento was the 1950s, as records pressed by Stanley Motta, Ivan Chin, Ken Khouri and others brought the music to a new audience. In the 1960s it was overshadowed by ska
Ska
Ska |Jamaican]] ) is a music genre that originated in Jamaica in the late 1950s, and was the precursor to rocksteady and reggae. Ska combined elements of Caribbean mento and calypso with American jazz and rhythm and blues...
and reggae, but it is still played in Jamaica, especially in areas frequented by tourists. Lloyd Bradley
Lloyd Bradley
Lloyd Bradley is a British music writer.Born in London, Bradley discovered Jamaican music in his teenage years, while going out in the North London based sound systems and created his own named Dark Star System in the end of the sixties.He worked on several in their early years Q Magazine and...
, reggae historian and author of seminal reggae book Bass Culture said that he felt Lee “Scratch” Perry’s 1976 album ‘Super Ape’ contained some of the purest mento influences he knew http://www.clashmusic.com/feature/mento-reggaes-forgotten-past. It was repopularized by the Jolly Boys in the late 1980s and early 1990s with the release of four recordings on First Warning Records/Rykodisc
Rykodisc
Rykodisc Records is an American record label. It is owned by Warner Music Group, operates as a unit of WMG's Independent Label Group and is distributed through Alternative Distribution Alliance.-Company history:...
and a tour that included the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. Stanley Beckford and Gilzene and the Blue Light Mento Band also revived rural mento in the 2000s.
Vintage Mento on CD
- Jamaica - Mento 1951-1958 (Frémeaux et Associés)
- Mento Madness : Motta’s Jamaican Mento 1951-56 (V2)
- Boogu Yagga Gal: Jamaican Mento 1950s (Heritage)
- Take Me to Jamaica: Story of Jamaican Mento (Pressure Sounds)
Further reading
- Floyd Jr, Samuel A (1999). "Black Music in the Circum-Caribbean". American Music, Vol. 17, No. 1 (Spring, 1999), pp. 1-38.
- Neely, Daniel (2001). "Long Time Gal! Mento is Back!". The Beat, December 2001, vol. 20, no. 6: 38-42. Available in pdf format at New York University homepages.
- Neely, Daniel (2007). "One of mento's great voices silenced". "Jamaica Observer, March 18, 2007,
- Neely, Daniel (2007). "Calling All Singers, Musicians and Speechmakers : Mento Aesthetics and Jamaica’s Early Recording Industry." Caribbean Quarterly, Vol. 53, No. 4. (December 2007), pp. 1-15.ok
Films
- 1984 - Caribbean Crucible. From Repercussions: A Celebration of African-American Music series, program 6. Directed by Dennis Marks and Geoffrey Haydon.
External links
- http://www.fremeaux.com/index.php?option=com_virtuemart&page=shop.livrets&content_id=5362&product_id=1176&category_id=128 Jamaica-Mento 1951-1958 - CD booklet online - English version at the bottom of the page)
- Jamaica - In Calypso: A World Music, a site created by Historical Museum of Southern Florida about calypso and mento
- Jamaican Mento Music - site created by Michael Garnice (comprehensive information on the history and the musicians who made the music)
- Ivan Chin - Mento music's pages on mento pioneer Ivan Chin