http://http://www.mentomusic.com News from mentomusic.com http://www.mentomusic.com/news.htm A brand-new (yet old) digital single of Christmas mento is now available from The Jolly Boys. http://www.mentomusic.com/foreign.htm A new page has been added to desribe mento recordings orignating from outlide of Jamaica. http://www.mentomusic.com/news.htm A new page has been added to fully describe the discovery of an old, truly one-of-a-kind mento album. Lots of pictures and some sound clips are included. http://www.mentomusic.com/news.htm The unstoppable Blue Glaze Mento Band has a new CD with guests familiar to reggae fans, including Toots, Bunny Wailer, Stranger Cole, Sticky Thompson, Dean Fraser and Lee Jaffe. http://www.mentomusic.com/news.htm A good new mento CD by The Tallawah Mento Band has been released. http://www.mentomusic.com/news.htm 36 photos of The Jolly Boys February 24, 2011 NYC gig at the Hiro Ballroom have been posted. news.htm "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. news.htm How s this for Jolly Boys news: A new CD, a new direction, a European tour and headlining a big mento show that will be filmed. news.htm "Sweet Sweet Jamaica" a new mento CD has been released by Gilzene and The Blue Light Mento Band. buy.htm#soundman 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. news.htm The Jamaica Association of Vintage Artistes and Affiliates (JAVAA), has announced its a second group of ten inductees into its Hall Of Fame 5scans.htm#BGvideo 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. flea.htm#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". stanley.htm#video 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. news.htm Lord Flea and Louise Bennett were an inaugural honorees, along such stellar company as Bob Marley and the original vocal Wailers, Count Ossie, Sister Mary Ignatius Davies, Vere Johns, Coxsone Dodd, Duke Reid, Don Drummond, Roland Alphonso, Tommy McCook and "Jah Jerry" Hinds. shirt.htm#cfj A new mento t-shirt is available. It features an illustration of mento musicians taken from a vintage 1950s Jamaican album jacket. samManning.htm#Lords 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. news.htm "Monty Alexander, who is a revered public figure in his native Jamaica as well as a renowned jazz musician in this country, brings together an ensemble of musicians from neighboring islands and cultures to celebrate the musics of the Caribbean. The first 30 minutes of the set will focus on Trinidad/Calypso, with guest appearances by leading exponents of the form. The second 30 minutes will focus on Jamaica/Mento and will include a 4-man singing group who play banjo, guitar, rumba box and maracas." Amongst the performers will be Joseph Bennett of The Jolly Boys, Albert Morgan of The Happy Smilers, reggae's Dean Fraser, Pluto Shervington, and many others. video.htm A mento/folk video clip from 1939 (!) has been added. knibbs.htm A new page for Arthur Knibbs with scans, song clips and a photo has been created. thejollyboys.htm#2006 A new CD by former Jolly Boy Allan Swymmer has been released. chins.htm#cd6 A sixth (and probably final) CD volume of Chin's Calypso Sextet has been released by Ivan Chin. Stanley.htm I am very sad to report that Stanley Beckford has lost his battle with throat cancer. flea.htm#photos A photo and mention of Lord Flea from a 1957 issue of Life magazine has been added. news.htm On March 5, 2007 Alerth Bedasse, lead singer of Chin s Calypso Sextet, died of a stroke. He was 79. tanamo.htm#dashsingle 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. 1scans.htm#get A jacket scan and a description of an obscure album of 78 RPM singles called "Get Jamaican Calypsos", has been added. lasher.htm#pick A scan and description of another golden age single has been added: "Pick Your Choice" backed with "Shepherd Rod". chins.htm#sleeve A scan of the rare 50 year old paper sleeve from a Chin's Calypso Sextet single has been added. index.htm http://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 Chins 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 http://www.mentomusic.com and enjoy it as much as I have. shirt.htm#love A new I Love Mento shirt design has been added to the Mento Shirts page. covers.htm 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. chins.htm 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. edricConner.htm#frats Some recollections about The Frats Quintet from the folk singers last surviving member, Wilfred Warner, have been provided by his daughter and son. 4scans.htm#mentosweet2 A scan and description of a good single, "Mento Sweet", by Denzil Laing, has been added to the mento-reggae section of this page. 2scans.htm#marieB 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. 3scans.htm#jamaicamagic 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. 3scans.htm#calypsoJoe A hotel LP by the middle-period urban mento band, Calypso Joe, has been added to this page. stanley.htm#news Information has been added for anyone who would like to contribute money to Stanley Beckford's mounting medical bills. stanley.htm#news Bad medical news for Stanley Beckford has been reported by The Daily Gleaner. Elsewhere on this page, scans and a description of an additional single, "Hold My Hand" have been added. 4scans.htm#King_Barou Pictures of a third label variation of the King Barou single "Calypso Cha Cha" / "Shame and Scandal In The Family" have been added. Antics.htm#harder Though not of great quality, pictures of the Lord Antics and the Boys LP, "Harder Than You" have been added. 4scans.htm#EPs_and_Picture_Sleeves Scans and a description of a picture sleeve 4 song EP by one Peter Ricardo have been added. 2scans.htm#mapletoftSynco A single by Mapletoft Poulle and His Orchestra on the unusual Synco label has been added. covers.htm#reggae Another reggae great has been added to the list of artists that have covered mento songs. The Congos track, The River Beng Come Down, quotes from two folk/mento songs, "River Ben Come Down" and "Hold 'Im Joe". video.htm#ann A rural mento video clip and a Jamaican folk music video clip have been added to the Mento Video page. From the 1978 television special, "Ann Murray in Jamaica", comes a performance of "Come To Jamaica" from hotel band The Joy Makers. Though the group is heard, the video at first is of Ann Murry s arrival in Jamaica. The Joy Makers are seen the end of the song. The performance of "Solas Market" by The Jamaica Folk Singers is completely focused on the group. naaman.htm#worldisanswer A scan for the mento voiced reggae single "World Is Answer" by Naaman Lee has been added. Antics.htm#anticsTooHot A fifth cover variation has been posted for the Lord Antics and the Merry Boys LP, "Calypsos Too Hot To Hold". isnt.htm#clock Inconsequential photographs of an irrelevant "mento" model clock has been added to the "What Mento Isn't" page. Covers.htm#reggae George Fullwoods s reggae cover of "Rucumbine" has been added to the list, along with a low resolution label scan. chins.htm#notGuilty Courtesy of Ivan Chin, label scans for the 78 RPM single, "Not Guilty" backed with "Give Her Love" has been added. wailers.htm#2000s In 2004, a Wailers lineup that included Al Anderson, Tyrone Downie and Family Man participated in an obscure Wailers LP that included 8 songs associated with mento, including a mento cover of the Jolly Boy s Take Me To Jamaica . sticky.htm#reggae A label scan for "What Goes Up Must Come Down" has been added. chins.htm#unreleased A small revision has been made to the Unreleased On CD section, as a copy of the lost 78, "Not Guilty" backed with "Give Her Love" has been discovered. News.htm All entries made on the "Mento News and What's New To This Site" page will also be made available here as a RSS feed.