Mento

Apr 20, 2026 - 11:33
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Mento

← Previous revision Revision as of 06:02, 20 April 2026
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{{blockquote|A product of the colonial experience, which emerged from the sufferer classes towards the end of the nineteenth century, produced by people for whom New World African ­traditions, European dance genres and musical exchange via interregional migration were all influences. It is, without a doubt, one of the most important elements of Jamaica’s cultural heritage.}}
{{blockquote|A product of the colonial experience, which emerged from the sufferer classes towards the end of the nineteenth century, produced by people for whom New World African ­traditions, European dance genres and musical exchange via interregional migration were all influences. It is, without a doubt, one of the most important elements of Jamaica’s cultural heritage.}}


According to former Prime Minister [[Edward Seaga]], who had extensively researched Jamaica's folk music:
According to former Prime Minister [[Edward Seaga]], who had researched Jamaica's folk music extensively:
{{blockquote|Well, everything originally came from that [the slave plantation system of Jamaica], but over the years there were amalgamations and crossovers – English folk ditties that were absorbed, ring games, quadrille and things like that. So you had a little bit of all that in it. And what really emerged as mento was a combination of the music brought from Africa by the slaves, and that combined with English folks songs and religious material that came out of the United States after the civil war and the great revival, and so on. Mento was very popular in the late 1940s and early to mid-1950s, and used to be played at all the popular nightclubs, including the Silver Slipper in Cross Roads, the Glass Bucket in Half-Way Tree and hotels on the north coast.}}
{{blockquote|Well, everything originally came from that [the slave plantation system of Jamaica], but over the years there were amalgamations and crossovers – English folk ditties that were absorbed, ring games, quadrille and things like that. So you had a little bit of all that in it. And what really emerged as mento was a combination of the music brought from Africa by the slaves, and that combined with English folks songs and religious material that came out of the United States after the civil war and the great revival, and so on. Mento was very popular in the late 1940s and early to mid-1950s, and used to be played at all the popular nightclubs, including the Silver Slipper in Cross Roads, the Glass Bucket in Half-Way Tree and hotels on the north coast.}}


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