Welcome
  News
  Contact

Brooklyn is now home to one of the bearers of the mento music tradition and the former leader of one of Jamaica’s premier groups: Carlton “Blackie” James, longtime singer and banjoist of the Rod Dennis Mento Band.

Carlton was born into a musical family in Springfield, St. Elizabeth in 1938. Both of his uncles (one a banjoist and the other a guitarist) were musicians and played in groups throughout the Parish – from Pisgah to Black River, New Market to Ginger Hill, Santa Cruz and beyond – and had quite an effect on the young man. When his uncles were away, young Carlton would fool around on their instruments and quickly decided that he should learn to play. Reflecting on these formative years, he fondly remembers how he learned “Hol’ Him Joe,” “Iron Bar,” “Banana” and “Linstead Market” from the older musicians in his district. “Those times,” he recounts, “we never hear about reggae, we hear about blues. But I don’t remember much of those blues at those times, mostly mento and quadrille. We play mento and quadrille still.”
 

Carlton James performing in NYC in 2006  and again in 2008.

Carlton James performing at 'Mento In May',
Kingston 2003. Photo by Daniel Neely.
(A larger image is not available.)

Before Carlton’s arrival, the Rod Dennis band had had a good track record. Likely formed in the late 1950s, the group started out under the name the “Red Devils.” By the mid 1960s, they were fairly prominent throughout their parish (St. Catherine) and in 1966 placed second in the National Festival Mento Band Competition. However, change was on the horizon.

In the late 1960s, they were playing in a competition in Mandeville when it was discovered that there was another group out there called the Red Devils. Not to cause confusion, the concert’s promoter rechristened the band “Rod Dennis.” Because it happened in competition, the group accepted the name and kept it.

Indeed, the Rod Dennis Band was looked upon favorably in the early 1970s, but with Carlton’s arrival in 1973 its stature quickly grew. The silver medal it won in the National Festival for the Arts that year was the second in two years, but only the third in nine. In the years to follow, however, the band became a fixture and perennial contender in the National Festival’s Mento Band Competitions. As it won gold, silver and bronze medals year after year, the band’s renown grew. Their success followed them throughout the 1980s and 1990s, with their most recent gold medal coming at the last mento band competition held, in 2003.