| Mento Video Downloads |
Page last revised: 12/16/07
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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 discovered by Dr. Leah Rosenberg (Florida State University) and Leonardo Vidigal (Federal University of Minas |
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Gerais - UFMG), Brazil, who brought this to my attention. He is the editor
of a reggae Brazilian webzine called Massive Reggae. |
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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!
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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". |
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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:
| 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: |
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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: |
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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: |
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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: |
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