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This site was created to give Jamaica'smento music a presence on the web. Mento is a vibrant and significant genre of music. It has a verylong history and isstill performed today. Mento was crucial in the formation of ska and reggae, yet, for the world-wide masses of ska and reggae fans, mento is largely unheard and unknown.

I love this music and want it to be remembered, documented and celebrated. As someone who had enjoyed ska, rock steady, and reggae for more than 20 years, discovering mento was a fantastic treat for the ears as well as arevelation. This foundation chapter in the history of Jamaican music was finally revealed.

I hope other mento fans will find this site. They may get a laugh from theWhat MentoIsn't page. I invite them to contribute information, scans and clips, as many have already. You will be credited by name for your contribution, unless you ask otherwise. Frequent visitors to this site may want to bookmark theNews and What's New page. In addition to any mento news items that come my way, this page has as a listing of updates made to this site.

I also hope that this site will create new mento fans. If you like ska and reggae, but you haven't heard mento, thenhalf the story has never been told.I hope theWhat Is Mento? andCan I Buy Mento? (which includes some recommendations) pages are especially helpful to you. Also, check out theartists' pages, as well as theMore Scans and theMore Artists and Favorite Songs Clips pages. These include hundreds of rare label and jacket scans (almost all of which can be clicked on for a larger rendition) with contributions from mento collectors around the world, as well as more than a hundred audio clips of mento recordings long unavailable. Lyrics to some songs are also included on these pages.

Take a look at theCover Version of Mento Songs, theBob Marley & The Wailers and theToots & The Maytalspages. You may find that some of the reggae songs you've been enjoying for years are actually mento songs.

Check out other pages, formento screen backgrounds and the worlds onlymento t-shirts. There is a page for mentolyrics and one forvideo of mento performances. There is even a page forMento Souvenirs. TheJamaican Music Roadmap graphically puts mento into the perspective of Jamaican music history. There is also a page with photos of a few of the manyMento Bands That Are Playing At Jamaican Hotels Today.Most recently, pages have been added for coveringa very old, one-of-a-kind mento album and"foreign mento" from countries other than Jamaica.

Finally, there are pages on topics related to mento: the overlap between mento and Jamaican folk music is explored on theEdric Connor, LouiseBennett and Jamaican Folk page. A page onHarry Belafonte describes how this artist used Jamaican folk/mento as a major influence and helped popularize these songs. TheMento and Jazz page describes how the earliest mento recordings were on jazz records of the 1920s and 1930s and how mento-jazz has spanned the decades.

Please let me know of any error in this site, from a typo to a major gaffe. Also, if you have information, photos or recordings to contribute to this site, please contact me. I will be sure to credit you by name for your addition to this site.