What the hell is Mento?

First, a quick mento lesson (with a little help from wikipedia.com): Mento is a style of Jamaican folk music that predates and has had a major influence on ska and reggae music. Mento generally features acoustic instruments, such as acoustic guitar, banjo, hand drums, and the caja de rumba, a large mbira, or thumb piano, shaped like a box that you can sit on while playing. The rumba box carries the bass part of the music.

Mento is inspired by the musical traditions brought to Jamaica by African slaves. Mento song lyrics often deal with aspects of everyday life in a lighthearted and fun way. It has also been said that “Mento is used to ridicule members of the social group or censure them for some wrongdoing.” Some of my favorite song titles are “Bitter cassava killed Joe Brown“, “donkey wants water“, “love in the graveyard“, and of course, “big bamboo“.

Mento is often confused with calypso, a form of music that originated in Trinidad and Tobago. Although the two share many similarities, they are separate and distinct musical forms. In part, the differences arise from the different colonial histories of the two West Indian islands, as Jamaican music does not have the Spanish influences found in other Caribbean musical styles. In fact, some of singer Harry Belafonte’s hugely successful records in the 1950s, such as “Man Smart, Woman Smarter,” were actually mento songs but were promoted as calypso because tourists couldn’t tell the difference between mento and calypso.

If you like Jamaican reggae music but think you’ve never heard mento before, listen again to Peter Tosh’s “Whatcha Gonna Do” (the mento song “Charley’s Cow” but with new lyrics). You’ll also find threads of mento running through many songs by Bob Marley and The Wailers, Bunny Wailer, and other well-known reggae artists. It was not uncommon for ska and reggae artists to combine mento tunes with their more modern songs. Once you know what mento is, you’ll hear it often.

The most recognized Mento band today?

The Jolly Boys of Port Antonio, Jamaica are the most recognized mento band in the world today. Since their formation over 56 years ago in 1955, they have performed at every famous hotel in Jamaica. Most of the time they performed together with a dance group. One of these companies was managed by Albert Minott, at the time an occasional member of the Jolly Boys and now their current lead singer. Imagine tourists in the British colonial decades of the 1940s and 1950s swaying to this fun, laid-back Jamaican folk music and typical Minott fire-swallowing and hand-walking antics – sweet.

The Jolly Boys (known at the time as the Navy Island Swamp Boys) were also favorites of Errol Flynn and regularly performed at private parties at his Port Antonio home on Port Antonio’s Navy Island (owned by Flynn). I imagine the peppermint-saucy lyrics, boasting of sexual escapades, drinking and good times, would have been up there with Errol Flynn. In fact, legend has it that Errol Flynn named the group The Jolly Boys because they gave him a “jolly” feeling when he heard them play.

Although artists have moved in and out of the group over the decades, the current Jolly Boys are: Albert Minott (lead vocals and guitar), Joseph “Powda” Bennett (vocals and maracas), Derrick “Johnny” Henry (vocals and rumba box). ), Allan Swymmer (percussion), Egbert Watson (banjo), Donald Waugh (banjo), Lenford “Brutus” Richards (guitar) and Dale Virgo (percussion).

Best of all, the Jolly Boys are still performing after more than 50 years, so if you want to learn more about mento music, you can still enjoy this form of early music in person. They are the house band at the GeeJam hotel in Portland, Jamaica. If you can’t see them perform live, you can listen to their mento music online or check them out in the Denzel Washington movie, “The Mighty Quinn.”

Don’t miss your chance to enjoy this unique Jamaican music. You will not regret!