Take Me to Jamaica -- infectiously fun mento compilation revels in ska/reggae's roots

My three year old loves to sing, and so do I -- and she shares my trick memory for silly lyrics. So every day, I rack my brains for a new ridiculous song to teach to her. Last week, I scored a major hit with Harry Belafonte's Man Piaba, which sent me to Wikipedia to look up Belafonte's life, which in turn sent me to the entry on mento, a Jamaican precursor to ska and reggae. It sounds a lot like calypso, but with horn and rhythm sections I identify with early ska, like the stuff collected on the Trojan box set (another big favorite around our house).

The references section in the Wikipedia entry recommended Take Me to Jamaica: Story of Jamaican Mento, a 24-track tour through the early years of recorded mento, featuring Lord Tickler, Lord Composer, Lord Flea, Chin's Calypso Sextet, and a bunch of other artists I'd never heard of but have been enjoying immensely.

This stuff has resurfaced plenty in pop culture -- Animaniacs fans will recognize The Monkey Song, which apparently started out life as Lord Messam and His Calysonians's Monkey, and is even more fun in its original incarnation; almost as much fun as the Belafonte standard "Hold 'Im Joe" (performed here by Lord Fly). In fact, if I were to make a tag-cloud of all adjectives that occurred to me while thoroughly enjoying this CD, it would be dominated by the word "fun." Songs like "Names of Funny Places" (by Hubert Porter) and "Let's Play Ring Jamaican Style" are so much fun to listen to and sing along with that they're practically criminal.

I love that the world has entire genres of music that I love waiting for me to stumble upon them.

Take Me to Jamaica: Story of Jamaican Mento

• [Anonymous]

  Is there anywhere to buy this in North America? Specifically Canada? The iTunes link takes me to the uk iTunes store.

• [manicbassman]

  ah yes, the Jolly Boys… they make the Rolling Stones look like young upstarts…

• [Elmo Gearloose]

  What, no mention of “Doctor No” which had sultry calypso and sexy bikini babes:

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L9qpCb281Y4&feature=related

• [Robert Goldman]

  Hm. When I try to follow your link, I just find myself on an Amazon page which offers me a long list of unavailable MP3 tracks, or an unavailable CD. Looks like it was once available, but is no more….

  Got a better source?

  • [Cory Doctorow]

    Hrm. I’d bought the UK edition and hadn’t paid close attention to the US edition… I’ve re-linked to the UK CD and MP3s (but you still might be SoL in the US!)

• [Anonymous]

  This one’s a great compilation! Another great CD of 1950s mento is called “Boogu Yagga Gal” and of course, the new hotness in mento is the Jolly Boys, who have a new album called “Great Expectation.”

• [Anonymous]

  I really like the live album Calypso Awakening, which is taken from the carnival in Trinidad in the late 50′s. Some classic songs by Mighty Sparrow and Lord Melody. The sound quality is quite good for the time.

  Calypso Awakening: From The Emory Cook Collection
  http://www.amazon.com/Calypso-Awakening-Emory-Cook-Collection/dp/B00004X0L2/ref=sr_1_9?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1298325982&sr=1-9

• [PaulR]

  The link works for Commonwealth countries. Er, well, at least Canada.

  Three years old! Already!

• [L. Katz]

  If you want to know about mento in depth check this website where a comprehensive history of the music is kept.

  http://www.mentomusic.com/

• [Anonymous]

  There’s a great recently recorded calypso album called University of Calypso which gives a selection of classic songs the modern studio sound they richly deserve, and mixes in some hot latin jazz just to make it doubly irresistible. It should be said though that some of those old songs are definitely not politically correct so you may want to screen it and take out a song or two before playing it for kids.

• [Anonymous]

  Yikes!
  I haven’t heard that song since I was eight!

• [flaccus]

  It’s about time that more folks discovered the swingin’ and frequently wacked sounds of Jamaican music from the pre-reggae era. Do yourself a favor and search out the weird toasts of DJ Sir Lord Comic, who claimed to have “music in me teeth” and probably did, too. Nobody does stuff this crazy anymore on this poor planet, except maybe these zany divas, who are probably Comic’s godchildren: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=um6q_j40Pl0

  • [L. Katz]

    Sorry, this has nothing to do with the topic. This is just a lame attempt to promote some drag queens. Sir Lord Comic was a DJ during the era, but the sound systems he DJ’ed for played American R&B, not mento.

• [Dan]

  “Take Me To Jamaica” is a great mento compilation! I’m partial to the Chin’s Calypso Sextet tracks, and the one by Count Lasher. Another compilation of sides from the 1950s I am very fond of is “Boogu Yagga Gal.” (You should be able to still pick this one up around the net somewhere.) It has a lot of Chin’s and Lasher tracks on it as well.

  If you or your readers, Cory, are interested in hearing a more modern take on mento, you can check out the Jolly Boys (http://www.jollyboysmusic.com/). The group’s been around since the 1950s, and has an album of rock covers (Amy Winehouse’s “Rehab,” Iggy’s “Passenger,” etc) out which represents a new direction for this genre that in many ways has been stuck in a touristic rut since Belfonte’s day. (And for the NYC readers, I understand the JBs are playing at the Hiro Ballroom this Thursday and will be on WNYC this Friday.)

• [Bionicrat2]

  Even 10 years ago it was very difficult to get a hold of mento of on CD. As I understand it, since most was produced for the local (as in just Jamaica) market there aren’t even a ton of decent 78s floating around out there.

  Since you were touching on (being corrected about) the history of Jamaican music I am a big fan of the “Rough Guide to Reggae” book by Steve Barrow. It really is a lot more than music guide:

  http://tinyurl.com/45dnd37

  An interesting album came out in ’09 that is an informative and fun compilation and documentation of that moment of evolution from mento to Jamaican R&B. “Soundman Shots: The Caribou & Downbeat 78′s Story”:

  http://tinyurl.com/4qznoen

• [Anonymous]

  cory, have you heard the disney reggae album that came out recently? its surprisingly good

• [L. Katz]

  Here we go again…

  Calypso and mento are two different forms of music. Mento was called calypso to market it in the US in the 50s. Lord Flea was the best known mento performer in US films and music until he passed from cancer in the mid-50s. Dr. No featured Byron Lee & The Dragonnaires in the film, with the music composed by Carlos Malcolm. It was not mento, but Jamaican R&B which evolved into ska.

  Mento’s influence in Jamaican music is evident from early ska to modern dancehall. The video from the Aggrolites on Yo Gabba Gabba is a performance of Banana, a traditional Jamaican folk song. The Aggrolites cover the skinhead reggae version recorded by the Pyramids in 1969. The first recorded version was by Cecil Knott for MRS records in 1956-57.

• [Anonymous]

  In regards to silly lyrics; may I suggest Lionel Hampton’s “Rag Mop,” which my dad sang to me and I continue to sing to my daughter.

• [YardEdge]

  i saw the Jolly Boys live here in Kingston, they were amazing! so if you get a chance to see them live for sure check them out! in their new album, they give modern songs a mento treatment.