Recorded in the 1950's. Includes liner notes and song annotations by Richard
Noblett.
All tracks have been digitally remastered.
Personnel: Count Lasher (vocals, guitar, banjo, bamboo flute, alto saxophone, piano, drums, maracas); E. Bedasse, A. Bedasse (vocals, guitar, banjo, bamboo flute, maracas).
Audio Remasterer: Ron Geesin.
Mento is the Jamaican music that's never received much attention -- indeed, this is the first compilation to take a look at the style -- coming long before reggae and ska. Its roots are in the dance slaves made to the European quadrille, although it greatly changed over time, becoming more of a folk form, and by the middle of the 20th century resembled calypso (and was sometimes marketed as such, to the extent that most of the backing groups here use calypso in their names, and much of the material here originally appeared on the Kalypso label). If there's one fault here, it's that the record focuses too closely on a small range of artists (Bedasse gets to sing on no less than 12 tracks out of 22, for example, with Count Lasher getting six more), giving no real account of the music's breadth. But it's out of this that reggae evolved, one of the strands of the future; it's important for that, but it's also vital on its own account, as a piece of Jamaican history that deserves to be heard. Produced, curiously, by Pink Floyd associate Ron Geesin. ~ Chris Nickson minimize