Five chapters of all new content on mento, plus the best of every style of reggae!
600 pages of great artists and great songs, telling the complete story of reggae.
Click here for more information. You'll love it!
|
|
10 years in the making, my book,
"The
Ultimate Guide To Great Reggae",
is out! Five chapters of all new content on mento, plus the best of every style of reggae! 600 pages of great artists and great songs, telling the complete story of reggae. Click here for more information. You'll love it! |
| Mento Video |
Page last revised: 5/12/18
|
|
|
It Can Happen to You is a 1956
production by the Jamaica Film Unit on the dangers of 'careless sexual
behaviour and its consequences, specifically syphillis'. Lord Power
and his band provide mento for the opening credits, and are seen playing
"Linstead Market" outside of a post office at 5:40. The film will also
be of interest to ska/Don Drummond fans, as it has a rare film
appearance by his ill fated girlfriend, the dancer Anita 'Margarita'
Mahfood. |
|
Here is a clip of a
folk/mento/Pocomania rendition of "Linstead Market" and "Sweetie Charlie".
The singers and dancers are backed by acoustic guitar and a three piece drum
section. It comes from an American movie originally called "Pocomania" and
later re-titled "The Devil's Daughter", a name it shares with several other
movies. From 1939, its the earliest video of Jamaican music I've
encountered. This scene opens the film. Colby Graham has IDed the location as Hope Botanical Gardens. Later in the movie, there is a Pocomania performance, somewhat bastardized, as its been repurposed into a scene of voodoo in service of the film's plot. Anyone curious to see it can purchase the film from Amazon very inexpensively. This was rediscovered by Dr. Leah Rosenberg (Florida State University) and Leonardo Vidigal (Federal University |
|
| of Minas Gerais - UFMG), Brazil, who brought this to my attention. He is the editor of a reggae Brazilian webzine called Massive Reggae. Leah's research has identified some of performers. Randolph Williams is joined by Nina Mae McKinney and Ida James. IT also shows that the picture was a produced and directed by Arthur Leonard from an original story by George Terwilllger and was to be called Pocomania. | ||
|
Courtesy of Peter Gittins
of Reggae Films UK (www.reggaefilms.co.uk)
here is a nice clip. First comes a series of soundless clips (from old home movies) of various mento bands performing at hotels, etc, as two people discuss the scene in the 1950s and 1960s. The fist, Peter has identified as:
The other is Dennis Syndrey. It's followed by a clip from 2002 of Lord Tanamo getting back to his mento roots at the Legends of Ska concert (featuring said Dennis Syndrey). See here for more on this historic show.
|
|
Here's a very brief clip (with
some documentary-style narration interrupting it) of an unknown mento band from the late 1970 (?) performing "Big Bamboo".
It comes courtesy of Peter Gittins |
|
Discussions about
the
1970s popular Canadian singer Anne Murray do not typically veer
towards mento or Jamaican folk music. So imagine
Dan Neely's surprise when browsing a budget bin of DVDs, his eye
was caught by one called, "Anne Murray in
Jamaica" and discovered that it included performance footage of "Come
to Jamaica" by the mento
band The Joy Makers and a complete performance of "Solas Market" by
The Jamaica Folk Singers. These can be
seen from the links below. The Joy Makers are not seen until the end of the clip.
Thanks for the heads up Dan!
|
|
|
This DVD of a 1978 television special includes other Jamaican music content.
The Jamaica Folk
Singers cover the Anne Murray song "Snowbird". The Jamaican
National Dance Theatre Company performing "The Cumina". Jamaican calypso
singer Lord Laro duets with Anne on "On and On" and performing a
solo calypso called "Imagine". And a middle-of-the-road calypso medley of
"Mama Look A Boo Boo", "Man Smart, Woman Smarter" and another song,
is sung by
Anne, Lord Laro, Valerie Harper and Ruth Buzzi. The program
concludes with Anne singing "Jamaica Farewell". |
|
|
|
|
Here's a very nice
performance, dating perhaps from the 1960s, by a fiddle-based mento group.
Although the band is unknown (as is the origin of this clip) the band-leader
fiddler is recognizable as Theodore Miller. Check out the hand he
gets for some fancy bow work. The video quality is not great, but the sound
is clear.
The performance is of the old folk/mento standard, "Nobody's Business", perhaps best known today from the Wailers' version with Peter Tosh on lead vocals. Theodore Miller can also be seen performing in the T. Miller Band in the video described below, and on the 1993 CD "Dance Music and Working Songs From Jamaica" by The Lititz Mento Band. |
There are other mento video clips on this site
to see. These are listed below:
|
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.
Go to the video on the following page: |
| Theodore Miller
and band can be seen performing again a decade or two later at the
conclusion of an 8.5 minute clip. This fine performance is preceded by
interviews (primarily with Louise Bennett) and other musical
performances. Go to the video on the following page: Edric Connor, Louise Bennett & Jamaican Folk
Or see the much shorter YouTube version
below
|
|
The Jolly Boys performs
in this video clip courtesy of The BBC from 2003. Though
only 46 seconds long and blurry, the clip still doesn't fail to delight.
Go to the video on the following page: |
| Lord Flea
performs two songs, dances and even speaks a line in this 7.5 minute
collection of clips from the 1957 movie, "Bob Girl Goes Calypso". Go to the video on the following page: |
| Sugar Belly
explains the construction of his bamboo sax and gives a brief performance in
this minute long clip.
Go to the video on the following page: |
Here is a round up of mento video clips found on YouTube:
|
Here is a nice 1970s (?) clip of The Pepper Mento Band performing a trio of songs.
|
|
Thanks to a heads up from Roger "Ras Rojah" Steffens, here are two songs by Gilzene & The Blue Light Mento Band: First is "Mento Party", a song adapted from "Hog In Me Minty":
Next is "Sly Mongoose" and a variation of "Matty Walla Lef":
|
|
|
| The trailer for the soon to be released
"Reggae in the Ruff" opens with a solo rendition of "Island In The Sun"
performed on rumba box and voice.
Thanks to Peter Gittins |
|
|
|
Courtesy of Valerio Marques here are The
Jolly Boys performing in Montreal, Canada in 2003: "Requimbine Song" (a.k.a.: "Requimbine" or "Rukumbine") This Clip is also posted on The Jolly Boys page. |
| Courtesy of Valerio Marques here are The
Jolly Boys performing in Montreal, Canada in 2003: "Requimbine Song" (a.k.a.: "Requimbine" or "Rukumbine") This Clip is also posted on The Jolly Boys page. |
| Also courtesy of Valerio,
The Jolly Boys from the same show performing a song whose title is
unknown. This Clip is also posted on The Jolly Boys page. |
|
| A digital-camera-brief clip of a melodic mento band performing "Hol' 'Im Joe" on the beach in Negril. David Badagnani of Kent, Ohio has identified this groups as the Sunshine Band. |
| The Jamaican Beat Box Boys performing a medley including "Stir It Up" and "Day-O", complete with audience participation at Sandals in MoBay. |
| Same band and place and getting laughs performing "Big Bamboo". |
| The Theodore Miller portion of the longer clip that can be downloaded above. |
| The Lord Flea clip that can be downloaded above. |
| The Sugar Belly clip that can be downloaded above. |
|
|
||
|
|
|
© 1999-2024 MentoMusic.com |
