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!  




 

 Welcome
  News
  Contact

 
Site search:
About mento:  What Is Mento?   What Mento Isn't    Can I Buy Mento Recordings? 
 Non-mento Cover Versions of Mento Songs    Related Sites 
1950s
artists:
  Lord Fly   Count Lasher    Lord Tanamo    Count Sticky  Lord Messam 
 Count Owen    Lord Flea    Lord Lebby    Harold Richardson & The Ticklers  
  Arthur Knibbs    Chin's Calypso Sextet, A. Bedasse, E. F. Williams & Ivan Chin  
Later
artists:
 The Jolly Boys    Stanley Beckford    The Hiltonaires   Lord Antics 
 Sugar Belly    Mento Bands Performing At Jamaican Hotels and Elsewhere 
 Carlton James and The Rod Dennis Mento Band   Naaman Lee 
More
scans:
More on
mento:
 More Artists and Favorite Song Clips    Download Mento Screen Backgrounds   Mento Video 
  The Jamaican Music Roadmap   A cross-reference of all mento lyrics found on this site
Mento related:  Bob Marley & The Wailers & mento   Toots & The Maytals & mento   Mento & Jazz    Foreign Mento 
 Harry Belafonte and mento    Edric Connor, Louise Bennett and Jamaican folk music    Mento Souvenirs 
News and What's New Archive

 

Last revised with old news items: 2/3/07

 

This page contains older news listings, archived from the "News and What's New" page.

For the latest news, visit the "News and What's New" page.

 

Previous Mento News

A fifth volume of Chins Calypso Sextet CDs? CD 5 will be released at the end of September!
9/16/05
 


The Dub Store Japan label, has released Count Owen's middle period LP, "Calypsos Down Jamaica Way" on CD, as seen on the "Can I Buy Mento" page.
7/25/05
 

I am sad to report that on July 16, Laurel Aitken passed away at the age of 78.
7/23/05


See
Lord Tanamo perform in California,
June 25, 2005.
Its his first
performance
on the west
coast.



5/18/05


The late-2004 release, "Trojan Jamaica Box Set", has a number of tracks that will be of interest to a mento fan...
1/29/05

Sad news, as Vincent Pryce, the leader and clarinet player of the Blue Glaze Mento Band passed away on October 4th.
11/20/04

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Update 1/15/05:
The Jamaica Cultural Development Commission has posted a page in tribute to Vincent Pryce with pictures and music at: http://www.jcdc.org.jm/vincent_price.htm
 

 
The fourth of four
Chin's CD is now on
sale from CDBaby.
Details can be found
on the Chin's page.
11/06/04
 

 

Mondomix has a page devoted to Stanley Beckford, complete with audio interviews in Real format.
6/12/04


"Reggaemento", the second CD by Stanley Beckford  backed with the Blue Glaze Mento Band has been released in France. For more on this release, visit the Can I Buy Mento? page.
2/13/04


National Public Radio in the USA has reviewed Mento Madness. This 4:24 Real Audio clip can found on the following page: http://www.npr.org/features/feature.php?wfId=1842828.
7/3/04


Mento Madness: Motta's Jamaican Mento 1951-56 was released March 2004 on V2 Records. This must-have collection of MRS tracks is compiled by Steve Barrow and Paul Coote. Visit the Can I Buy Mento? page for more details.
2/8/04


The Jolly Boys 1989 CD "Pop and Mento" has been re-released by British label Cooking Vinyl (www.cookingvinyl.com).
1/7/04


The sad news of Clyde Hoyte's passing is documented by The Jamaica Observer
12/6/03


The Jamaica Observer has an article on Stanley Beckford and his popularity in Europe. Go to the link below and search the page for "Beckford":
www.jamaicaobserver.com/lifestyle/
11/27/03


Studio One has begun to repress at least two LPs by The Hiltonaires , "Big Bamboo" and "Ska-Motion In Ska-Lip-So."
11/13/03


Sad news, as Ken Khouri has passed. For more on Mr. Khouri, visit the  Can I Buy Mento? page.
10/2/03


Florida will saw The Blue Glaze Mento Band perform this summer as part of the Mello-Go-Roun' cultural festival.
7/2/03


The Jolly Boys will be performing at festivals in Canada in July. For details, keep checking:
http://www.Thejollyboys.com/shows.html
5/25/03


Stanly Beckford with The Blue Glaze Mento Band are on tour of Europe. For details, check:
http://stanleybeckford.artistes.
universalmusic.fr

5/25/03


There is now a mento music exhibit at the Institute of Jamaica. Dan Neely was involved with its development.
5/25/03
 


There was a four band mento concert at Devon House in Kingston on May 31st: The Happy Smilers, The Jolly Boys, The Freedom Mento Band (from Glengoffe and Freedom St. Catherine) and The Rod Dennis Mento Band.
5/25/03

 

Previous Site News

A new page with pictures of vintage Mento Souvenirs has been added.
3/18/06


Two song clips by Arthur Knibbs & Cecil Knott have been added to the "More Artists and Favorite Song Clips" page. These join last month's new clips by Shaw Park, added to the same page and a clip with lyrics added to the Count Owen page.
2/9/06


Today,  www.mentomusic.com is 3 years old.
1/31/06


Another Shaw Park song clip has been added to the "More Artists and Favorite Song Clips" page. A song clip and lyrics have been added to the Count Owen page.
1/28/06


A picture of Count Lasher has been found and posted to the Count Lasher page.
1/25/06


Added sound clips and lyrics for both sides of an obscure but great Chin's single.
12/31/05


Added to The Jolly Boys page is a brief performance video clip from 2003, courtesy of the BBC.
10/22/05


A new Lyrics page has been added to help you find song lyrics that appear on the various pages of this site.
10/19/05


A new piece of vintage video available for download has been added to this site, and a new Video page has been created to hold it.
10/9/05


Another new mento t-shirt designs has been added to the Mento Shirts page. The design is for an imaginary 1950s mento concert listing all the top stars. The same design has been added to the Mento Screen Background page and is available for download.
7/28/05


A new page has been added about Toots & The Maytals and mento.
4/16/05


Courtesy of his daughter and grand- daughter, a great collection of photos plus information have been added to Harold Richardson and The Ticklers page.
10/17/04


Special thanks to Ras Rojah and The Beat magazine for recommending this web site in the August-September 2004 issue.
8/20/04


The More Label and Jacket Scans page has been split into 5 separate pages.
12/30/04


Thanks to Matt Dinsmore of San Francisco for 8 assorted label & sleeve scans added across the "More Label and Jacket Scans" page, plus one added to the "Chins" page.
12/26/04


Song clips have been added to the Sugar Belly page and the Lord Antics pages.
9/18/04


Site search added to the top of each page.
8/27/04


Lyrics and three sound clips have been added to the Count Sticky page. One clip has been added to the Naaman Lee page.
8/8/04


The lyrics to "Bulldog" have been added to the Count Owen page, "Love (and Love Alone)" & Robin Plunket's "Shaw Park Blues"to the Other Artists page, "Honeymoon" to the Chins page, "Magic [Bargi] Composer" to the Lord Flea page, "Jingle Bells Calypso" & "Sweet Jamaica" to the Lord Lebby page, "Mango Time" to the Count Lasher page and "Glamour Gal" to the Harold Richardson page.
7/5/04


More pages have been spun off from pages too large: Lord Messam, Count Sticky, Lord Antics, Stanley Beckford and Naaman Lee.
7/24/04


A separate Harold Richardson page has been spun off, in addition to those for Lord Lebby, Count Lasher, and Chin's Calypso Sextet
7/13/04


A second mento shirt design has been  added to the Mento Shirts page. It can be purchased as a t-shirt, sweat shirt, sports shirt, ladies shirts, and children's shirts in a variety of colors and styles.
6/1/04


Courtesy of Richard Noblett of the UK, a great collection of of 48 scans of golden age 78 RPM disc labels can be seen on the More Label and Jacket Scans and the Edric Connor, Louise Bennett & Folk pages.
5/9/04


The Lord Flea page now includes biographical information on this artist and his family, courtesy of his daughter.
4/17/04


Sound clip playback problems are resolved, and two new clips, "Jingle Bell Calypso" by Lord Lebby and "Trek To London" by Count Lasher  have been added to the site.
4/3/04


Two new Jamaican folk sound clips have been added to the Edric Connor, Louise Bennett & Folk  page, along with the Louise Bennett clip that was added in December. This brings the total clip count to 110.
2/29/04


In addition to the mento design, the Original Shirts page now has new regaae and dub designs along with the ska and a Jamaican Music designs. Each design can be purchased as a t-shirt, sweat shirt, sports shirt, ladies shirts, and children's shirts in a variety of colors and styles.
5/14/04


Today, this site is one year old, but my wife says a birthday party is out of the question.
1/31/04


Jeremy Collingwood (www.Traxonwax.net) has contributed some great rare scans. These can be found on the Label and Jacket Scans page and on The Jolly Boys page. 
12/6/03


A separate Count Owen page has been spun off of content that was on other pages.
12/8/03


A new Lord Tanamo page has been added. 
11/9/03


A clip of "Hold Yuh Hand" by Edric Connor has been added, along with some new scans, to the Edric Connor, Louise Bennett & Folk page. 
11/2/03


This site has moved to a new and better ISP. The URLs no longer contain ":8000". If you have a problem viewing a page, you may have to clear your browser's cache. 
10/25/03


Courtesy of Allen Kaatz, a great collection of 12 golden age & 4 mid-period rare label scans have joined the collection posted last month courtesy of Rob Schoenfeld.
10/18/03


Four 1960s mento-jazz song clips by Baba Motta have been added to the More Artists and Song Clips page.
9/14/03


A short video clip has been added to the Sugar Belly page. A longer video clip of Jamaican folk and mento has been added to the Edric Connor, Louise Bennett & Folk page. These clips join the video that was added to the Lord Flea page 2 months ago.
9/2/03

 

 

© 1999-2024 MentoMusic.com
All rights reserved.