Before reggae, rock steady, or even ska, mento ruled Jamaica's musical consciousness. Originally a rural folk music, coalesced from African and European influences, mento took on a more modern tenor ...

A dozen years ago, finding Jamaican mento music from the 1950s was nearly impossible. The pre-ska, acoustic calypso music -- which can still be heard on the island's resorts and tourist spots -- was ...

Can a septuagenarian Jamaican mento group called The Jolly Boys, who once played for Errol Flynn and are now covering songs by Iggy Pop and Amy Winehouse, bring success to the just-launched GeeJam Re… ...

Mento takes centre stage in this year’s Groundation series organised by the Jamaica Music Museum. For curator and director of the museum, Herbie Miller, the decision to focus on mento — one of the ...

KINGSTON Jamaica – For centuries, the voice of the Jamaican people has been amplified through its music, the foundation of which is mento. While the genre lost its sway by the 1950s, its legacy has ...

The Jolly Boys will be bringing the sounds of Jamaica to this week's Big Chill which takes from Thursday 5th until Sunday 8th August at Eastnor Castle in Herefordshire. Jamaican mento act The Jolly ...

In Jamaican music’s immediate family, there are reggae, dancehall, ska, rocksteady, dub and mento and Nyabinghi. Close cousins? That would be hip-hop, reggaeton, EDM and Afrobeats. Learn about all the ...

Soul Jazz Records did the musical world a huge favour when they kicked off the reggae reissues gravy train with their superb 100% Dynamite series. Now that they seem to have become fixated on the grim ...

Gilzene and the Blue Light Mento Band revive Jamaica’s earliest recorded music complete with “rhumba box”, while the precocious Portico Quartet carve out their distinctive other-worldly indie jazz ...

During rehearsal, the music is spiritually uplifting for members of the Jamaican Folk Revue. In the church meeting room, they tell stories through lyrics, about love and marriage, dance and games, ...