Page last revised: 1/20/18

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Background Information

Although Jamaica's recording industry was born with the release of 78 RPM mento singles in the early 1950s, albums from Jamaica collecting these singles were not far behind. First, these albums that were collections of 78 RPM singles assembled in one package. Then 33 RPM 10" and then 12" LPs followed. (Other than CD reissue, perhaps the best way to hear golden age mento is on these albums. They typically had far less noise and better overall fidelity than 78s and their surviving packaging was more interesting than a plain brown sleeve.) Later, non-Jamaican record companies began to release albums of 1950s mento.

Also know as
MOTL 102

Released prior
to 1956

1. She Pon Top - Baba Motta and his Orchestra. 
2. The Little Fly - Lord Fly and his Orchestra
3. Monkey Talk - George Moxey and his Calypso Quintet. Vocals by Hebert Porter
4. Donkey City - Lord Fly with Dan Williams and His Orchestra

Also know as
MOTL 103

Released 1956

1. Noisy Spring - Reynolds Calypso Band. Vocals: Boysie Grant
2. Dry Weather House - George Moxey and His Calypso Quintet. Vocals: Hubert Porter
3. Blu-Lu-Lup - Lord Fly with Dan Williams and His Orchestra
4. The Ole Man's Drive - George Moxey and His Calypso Quintet. Vocals: Count Lasher

Also know as
MOTL 104

Released 1957

1. Mango Time - Count Lasher's Seven
2. Reincarnation (Bed Bug) -  Baba Motta and his Orchestra. Vocals by Young Kitchner  
3. Jumbie Jamboree - The Brute Force Steel Band (Antigua)
4. Wheel and Turn Me - The Brute Force Steel Band (Antigua)

As told in Brian Keyo's excellent liner notes for the Roland Alphonso CD, "Something Special: Ska Hot Shots", the ska and reggae sax giant worked with Stanley Motta, beginning in 1952, and can be heard playing a solo on the Young Kitchner track on this volume of "Calypsos From Jamaica".

1. Take Her To Jamaica - Shaw Park Calypso Band. Vocals: Robin Plunkett
2. Sweet Charlie; Mattie Rag; Nobody's Business - Reynolds Calypso Band. Vocals: Boysie Grant 
3. Montego Calypso - George Moxey Quartet. Vocals: Clyde Hoyte
4. Donkey City - Dan Williams and His Orchestra. Vocals: Lord Fly

1. Linstead Market - Reynolds Calypso Clippers. Vocals: Boysie Grant. Tenor-banjo: Eddie Brown.
2. Solus Market - Reynolds Calypso Clippers. Vocals: Boysie Grant. Tenor-banjo: Eddie Brown.
3. Noisy Spring - Reynolds Calypso Clippers. Vocals: Boysie Grant. Tenor-banjo: Eddie Brown.
4. The Naughty Little Flea -  Reynolds Calypso Clippers. Vocals: Boysie Grant. Tenor-banjo: Eddie Brown.

Also know as
MOTL 105

Released 1957
or later

1. Car Park
2. Go Slow
3. Pen Pal
4. Me Dog Can't Bark

Also know as
LOML 503

Released 1957
or later

1A-  Medley of Jamaican Mento-Calypsos (Fan Me Solja Man Fan Me; One Solja Man; Yuh No Yeary Weh De Ole Man Sey; Slide Mongoose
1B-  Whai, Whai, Whai. 

2A-  Medley of Jamaican Mento-Calypsos (Linstead Market; Hol' Him Joe; Dog War A Mattuse Lane; Manuel Road)
2B-  Strike, Strike, Strike

When I first saw this album, I assumed that it was
the first album MRS had ever released.
The recordings are reputed to be old by MRS
standards. But this came into doubt when I
purchased a used copy that was for sale out
of Australia. Though the jacket, right, was
identical, the contents were different. In side
the six-sleeve album was three 78 RPM singles:

Lord Composer And His Silver Seas Hotel Orchestra on the MRS label:
"Gal A Gully; Matilda"    b/w    "Hill And Gully Ride; Mandeville Road"

Reynolds Calypso Clippers on the MRS label:
"The Naughty Little Flea"    b/w    "Noisy Spring"

Clyde Hoyte with George Moxey Quartet on MRS:
"Montego Calypso"    b/w    "Daphne Walkin'"

Then I heard from Nan Gerard of Minnesota, who also had a copy with different contents. Her version, found used in a thrift store, contained the following six 78s:

Harold Richardson on the MRS label:
"Glamour Gal"    b/w    "Don't Fence Her In"

Lord Fly on the MRS label:
"The Little Fly"    b/w    "Mabel"

The Jamaican Calypsonians on the Times Record label:
"Rum and Coconut Water"    b/w     "Not Me"

Marie Bryant on the Lyragon label:
"Tomato"    b/w    "Rhumboogie Anna"

Lord Kitchener on the Melodisc label:
"Wife and Mother"    b/w     "Mango Tree"

Lord Kitchener on the Lyragon label:
"Carnival In Town"    b/w    "Too Late Kitch"

With no song listing on the jacket, its impossible to know which of two possibilities is true:

(a) The album contained a set collection of discs, but the copies turning up 50 years later do not necessarily have the original discs still in the jacket, or...

(b) The hotel or store that sold this album stuffed what ever discs were on hand into the jacket.

Either way, the results were some pretty good albums!

Here's a strange artifact from MRS: mento played by the Jamaica Military Band! This 12" LP, called, An Afternoon at Hope Gardens with The Jamaica Military Band, c.1957. The first side starts with some typical marches and concludes with a medley, called, "cavalcade of famous songs".  The second side consists of popular mentos, or "folk songs", as the LP states, usually played in medleys. The sound is odd, as The Jamaica Military Band tries to convert into the Jamaica jazz big band! Put this down as an unusual chapter in the history of mento-jazz. To answer the question you were about to ask, The Jamaica Military Band was conducted by Staff Sgt. Major E. L. Stewart.

Sephardic Jews, originally from Spain and Portugal, had lived in Jamaica since the time the Spanish had occupied the island and the Mottas were a very old, established and highly regarded family of Sephardic Jews. Stanley Beresford Brandon Motta (5 October 1915 to 22 March 1993) was a member of the Kingston Chamber Of Commerce, The Jamaican Tourist Board, The Board Of The Bank Of Jamaica and President & Director of The United Congregation of Israelites on Duke Street in Kingston.

Brian Motta was born in 1937 and he remembers his father having the recording machine at his Bar Mitzvah (the Jewish traditional coming of age ceremony) in 1950/51 and that all the children present were singing into it.

The recordings were made by cutting on to blank acetates. If you played them more than a couple of times they began to wear out.  -Brian Motta

The record department in Motta’s sold records imported from North America and England and, although he advertised ‘U.S.A. Rhythm & Blues’, Stanley Motta was always a serious supporter of local music. When he sold P.A. Systems to the hotels “a lot of the time he would go round to install the equipment himself.”  It was while working on the P.A. installations that he heard the hotel bands and this was where the idea came to him for “recording these fellows” and the bands he had met while working in the hotels were the ones he first recorded.

In 1951 Stanley Motta built a small recording studio at 93 Hanover Street around the corner from his shop on Harbour Street. The credit for the first Jamaican record ever goes to a medley of Mento songs by Lord Fly.

Our recording studio was not what you’d call a recording studio now. It was a back room in the woodwork factory, twelve or fourteen feet square, with insulated soft ceiling boards. The band and the recording equipment were all in the same room and there was one microphone. All there was on the cutting machine was one volume control knob.  -Brian Motta

The music was cut directly on to acetate lacquers and, as there were no manufacturing facilities on the island, the lacquers were then sent to England for mastering and pressing by Decca Records in London. The finished fragile shellac 78rpm records would be then shipped back to Jamaica.

The original musicians had come from the hotels but it soon became known throughout the musical fraternity that Stanley Motta was making recordings:

Eventually local musicians would come to us saying ‘I have a tune’ and my father would have to decide whether to cut it or not depending on whether it could sell or not. We’d have to be careful that they’d written the songs as they were paid outright for the tunes. There were no royalties or publishing agreements.  -Brian Motta

Once the studio was properly established Frank Geoffrey was trained to run it. He would then make the decision if it was good enough and would decide whether to go ahead and press or not but “there were lots of things that never got past this stage.” The cutter was later replaced with a mono reel to reel tape recorder and the M.R.S label would go on to release over fifty 78’s, a handful of 45’s, five ten inch LPs and three twelve inch albums between 1951 and 1957. Stanley Motta also licensed a selection of his material to Hart’s in Montego Bay aimed directly at the tourist market.

By 1957 the popularity of Mento began to fade and “sales were not there anymore in Jamaica. All of the Motta’s stores had record departments but I can’t remember selling any Mento at all.”  Mento still continued to sell in England where Stanley Motta had set up a licensing deal with Emil Shallit’s Melodisc label and, by the time the decade drew to a close, interest in Mento was almost non-existent in Jamaica. As the sixties opened Emil Shallit would go on to found the hugely influential Blue Beat label licensing Jamaican Rhythm &Blues and Ska recordings for U.K. release.

We pressed some on 33 & a 1/3 rpm albums and some 45’s but by then we’d finished with the 78’s. We made some long playing records but they were put together in England using our original masters. The last recording we did was a twelve inch LP of the Jamaican Military Band. There were far too many of them to fit in the Motta’s Recording Studio so we rented the R.J.R. Studio and they did the recording. This was the last release on M.R.S…. I’m pretty sure it’s the last one we did.  -Brian Motta

The last album released on the Motta’s label was ‘An Afternoon At Hope Gardens, Jamaica, British West Indies with the Jamaica Military Band’ (MRS LOMLP 501) and the selections played by the band included interpretations of Mento favourites such as ‘Linstead Market’, ‘Brown Skin Gal’ and ‘Hold ‘Im Joe’. Stanley Motta stopped recording in 1957 although his electrical business continued to flourish until he retired in 1986 and sold it to its present owners Mussori Limited.

Other entrepreneurs followed Stanley Motta and began recording and releasing Mento records.

In this add from September 14, 1957 there are more American records than mento records. But it does indicate what mento singles were "New Arrivals" at the end of 1957.

Descriptions of the Times Store albums start below. This is followed with additional narrative on producer Ken Khouri and several  1950s advertisements from The Daily Gleaner for the record department of Times Store.

Below is the 10" LP, "Calypsos From Jamaica" (JAL.1001), on the Times Records label. Ken Khouri was the producer. Contrary to the cover graphics, all the tracks are polished dance band recordings by the smoothed voiced Hubert Porter and The Jamaican Calypsonians. A number of these tracks wound up on the Valmark CD releases. The back cover is blank.
 

1. Names of Funny Places
2. Millie   
3. Not Me
4. Rum and Coconut Water

1. Miss Daisy
2. Brown Skin Girl
3. Old Lady
4. Miss Goosie 

There are a number of significant and minor variants of this release. For example, to the left is minor variation of the original jacket and to the right is an all together different jacket, both courtesy of Dan Neely.

To the right is yet another jacket variation of JAL.1001.

1. Bargie
2. Mass Charley Bell
3. Mary's Lamb
   (Intro: The more we are together)

1. Mary Ann
2. Gal and Boy
3. Ten Penny Nail
4. Gimme More

Thanks to Jeremy Collingwood (www.Traxonwax.net) for this fantastic scan of another album of 78 RPM singles. Its on the Times Store label and is ubiquitously titled, "Calypsos From Jamaica". Though he's not credited on the cover, this is a Lord Flea collection. The tracks are:

1. Time so Hard; Old Lady b/w Solas Market; Water Comes From My Eye
2. Wheel and Turn Me b/w Mattie Rag; Brown Skin Gal
3. Run Mongoose; Linstead Market b/w Donkey City

Here's one more album that contained several 78s.

Ken Khouri was born in 1917 in the rural parish of St. Mary and grew up in Kingston. His mother was born in Jamaica of Cuban parents and his father was born in Lebanon. Although he was always musically inclined Ken Khouri actually became involved in the business “by accident” when he purchased a ‘disc recorder’ in Miami in 1949. He had taken his father to Miami “for his illness.” On their return to Jamaica he began to use the system based in his home to record people’s voices for thirty shillings (£1.50) a time but the demand for musical recordings became overwhelming and so he moved into a club at Red Gal Ring in the parish of St. Andrew which had the space required to record a band.  

"That disc recorder that Ken Khouri bought in Miami was used to record our wedding ceremony. Ken took it to the church and set it up for the first time to do a wedding… even the Minister was confused."  -Ivan Chin

At first Ken Khouri also established a connection with Decca Records in London to manufacture 78rpm records from his acetates. Alec Durie of the Times Variety Store on King Street distributed and advertised the records and the pair started the Times Record label. The records sold “for between four and five shillings” (20 and 25 pence). But the success of his Mento recordings encouraged Ken Khouri to start actually manufacturing his own records and in late 1954, together with his wife Gloria, he opened Records Limited at 129 King Street with equipment brought down from California. In November of that year he began to manufacture “the first locally pressed records on the island.” Some of Ivan Chin’s later recordings were actually pressed at Records Limited. 

Ken Khouri’s first studio, built with the assistance of Australian recording engineer Graeme Goodall, was a “small wooden building with a zinc roof. Recordings were mainly done at night to avoid the daily noise of the traffic.” This was the first commercial studio in Jamaica and Graeme Goodall was employed as its first engineer. From these humble beginnings Ken Khouri moved to 220 Foreshore Road (later Marcus Garvey Drive) in the Hagley Park district of Kingston and Records Limited became a subsidiary of Federal Records. Over the next twenty years Federal continued to expand and would eventually be known as “the centre of Jamaica’s music business” until Ken Khouri sold the studio and the pressing plant to Bob Marley’s Tuff Gong organisation in 1981 and left the music business. 

In August 2003 Ken Khouri was belatedly honoured at Kingston’s annual Tributes To The Greats ceremony and in September the Institute Of Jamaica Historical Society awarded Ken Khouri its Musgrave medal. He died on the 20^th of September 2003. The proud father of six children his musical legacy continues through KK Mastering in Kingston and Florida run by his son Paul.

The first tracks Khouri recorded was were "Naughty Little Flea", "Mary Ann" and "Rum and Water" by Lord Flea. "Naughty Little Flea" may be the calypso-y version included on "Rookumbine: Authentic Calypsos and Mentos", a Ken Khouri released by his son Paul.

The man who
put the 'K' in
'Kalypso',
Ken Khouri
c. 1957

Ken Khouri's son Paul Khouri is a producer in his own right. I had an interesting conversation with him in April 2003 about his father. Paul believes that his father’s important role in starting Jamaica’s recording industry is largely unknown due to his modest nature. Ken Khouri began recording mento acts that were performing at the hotels not for fame or for money, but for a love of music.

He further told me that his father, at age 87, loves to play his records very loud and make his mother crazy. Ken is fond of saying that music is his first love, and his wife of 67 years is his second! 

Sadly, shortly thereafter, Ken Khouri's passed away at the age of 87. 

This Times Store ad above, from The Daily Gleaner from August 7, 1952 shows mostly non-Jamaican records, plus 4 Lord Flea releases on the Times Records label.

It would also be the basis of an LP on Fiesta in 1956, as seen below. "Sweet Charlie" and "Unity" are added to bring the number of tracks to the LP requisite ten. Unlike the EP and the original album, there is no lyric sheet, or for than matter, any indication of who sings lead on which tracks.

At some point, Rico released "Calypso" again with alternate cover art.

Miscellaneous Albums

Here is an obscure album of 78 RPM singles called "Get Jamaican Calypsos", from Depass Enterprises, 68 King Street. As listed below, of the six singles it contains, five are on the British Melodisc label, and The Jamaican Calypsonians record is on the British Times Records label. In spite of the name, the album contains just a 2 Jamaican singles, listed first below.

"Mango Walk-Mento" and "Me Donkey Want Water-Mento" by Tony Johnson

"Miss Goosie Medley-Calypso" and "Ugly Woman-Calypso" by The Jamaican Calypsonians

"Two Timing Josephine-Calypso" and "The Tongue Mopsie (Darling Get Up, My Grandmother Coming Twelve O'Clock)-Calypso" by Lord Kitchener

"Food From the West Indies-Calypso" and Kitch-Calypso" by Lord Kitchener

"Single Man-Calypso" and "Monkey-Calypso" by Young Tiger

"O Tic Tac Do Meu Coracao-Samba" and "Luna Lunera-Rhumba" by Hermandos Deniz Cuban Rhythm Band

The Charmer - All Day All Night-Marie-Ann
Hubert Porter - The Big Bamboo
The Charmer - Fire Down De [aka Fire Down Below]
unknown - Solas Market [aka Come Buy Banana]
The Charmer - Brown Skin Girl
The Charmer - Take Me Down To Los Iros [aka Don't Let Mama Know]
Eric Hayden - Give Her The No. One
Lloyd "Prince" Thomas - Bed Bug [aka Reincarnation]
Tony Johnson - The Mango Walk
Eric Hayden - Come To Montego Bay
The Charmer - Me Donkey Want Water [aka Hold Her Joe]
The Charmer - Ugly Woman <lyrics not provided>

Golden Age Albums released on Non-Jamaican Labels

Thanks to Dan Neely for these scans of the rare collection from Japan of golden age mento tracks, Jamaica Before Ska.

I do not know if this is a legitimate release or a pirated collection, but the line up is strong.

1. Linstead Market - Louise Bennett and The Caribbean Serenaders
2. Bongo Man (Jamaican Christmas Song) - Louise Bennett and The Caribbean Serenaders
3. Hill and Gully Ride; Mandeville Road- Lord Composer and The Silver Seas Hotel Orchestra
4. Gal A Gully; Matilda - Lord Composer and The Silver Seas Hotel Orchestra
5. Swine Lane Gal; Iron Bar – Lord Fly and Dan Williams and His Orchestra
6. When Mi Look Upon Janie So; Ada; Time So Hard - Lord Fly and Dan Williams and His Orchestra
7. Strike, Strike Strike - Lord Fly and Dan Williams and His Orchestra
8. Healing In The Balmyard – Harold Richardson and The Ticklers
9. Sam Fi Man – Count Lasher and His Calypso Quintet
10. Mango Time – Count Lasher’s Seven
11. Calypso Cha Cha Cha - Count Lasher and His Calypsonians
12. Jamaica Talk - Baba Motta and His Orchestra
13. Blu-Lu-Lup - Lord Fly and Dan Williams and His Orchestra
14. Give Her Banana - Tony Johnson and His Carousel Band
15. It All Began With Adam And Eve - Lord Flea and His Calypsonians
16. Not Me (Man Smart, Woman Smarter) - Ben Bowers with Bertie King’s Royal Jamaicans
17. Lets Do It - Lord Power and The Trenton Spence Quartet
18. Penny Reel - Lord Power and The Calypso Quintet
19. Chambolina - Lord Power and The Calypso Quintet
20. Sweet Chariot - Lauren Aitken
21. Nebuchnezer - Lauren Aitken
22. Baba Kill Me Goat - Lauren Aitken
23. Tribute To Collie Smith - Lauren Aitken and The Boogie Cats

From this LP Ritmo also also spawned a similarly packaged EP, though the label on this disc was different, as seen on the More Golden Age Singles scans page.

This same collection of material can be inexpensively purchased on a CD of the same name released on the Valmark label. See the Can I Buy Mento? page for a song listing.

Courtesy of Matthias Münchow of Hamburg,  Germany is the Marie Bryant LP, "Don't Touch My Nylons" on the  Melodisc label. This album was also released in the UK on the Fab label. For more on Marie Bryant, visit the More Golden Age Single scans page.
 

Courtesy of Frédéric Pecqueur of Montivilliers, France, here is the "Mister Calypso" LP as released in France.

Re-released one again, with a new title, "Calypso Carnival", and cover art. On the Legacy/Electra label.

  Here also is a French Lord Foodoos EP, called, "Folklore"
  on the Versailles label.  It consists of four from the above LP:

   Mathilda
   Marianne
   Lady Trelalay
   Jamaica Farewell

   And finally, to the right is a
   1958 Electra LP called
   "The Electra Folk Sampler 5",
   which includes "Day-O"
   by Lord Foodoos.

See Also:

For more more label and jacket scans and song clips, also see this site's:

• Can I Buy Mento? page for scans of mento releases that you can buy today.

• The individual artists' pages 

• The More Artists and Favorite Song Clips page 

• The "More Golden Age Single scans" page

• The "More Middle Period Album scans" page

• The "More Middle Period Single scans" pages

• The "More Resurgence CD scans" page