mento
Mento is a style of Music of Jamaica, Jamaican folk music that predates and has greatly influenced ska and reggae music. It is a fusion of African rhythmic elements and European elements, which reached peak popularity in the 1940s and 1950s. ...
singer who performed throughout the 1950s up until the mid 1960s. With his band, Messam released several records that consisted of a mixture of original and traditional material on the
Stanley Motta
Stanley Motta was an electronics store proprietor who established a record label in Kingston, Jamaica and opened the first privately owned recording studio in Jamaica in 1951, jump starting Jamaica's music industry.
Career
Motta recorded cal ...
record label, under the name Lord Messam & His Calypsonians.
Career
Lord Messam was a regular performer on the
Montego Bay
Montego Bay is the capital of the Parishes of Jamaica, parish of Saint James Parish, Jamaica, St. James in Jamaica. The city is the fourth-largest urban area in the country by population, after Kingston, Jamaica, Kingston, Spanish Town, and Por ...
mento scene. Gigs featuring Messam as frontman are known from various flyers and advertisements covering the period 1949 to 1966.
In 1953, thirteen Jamaican bands competed in the "First Annual All-Island Calypso Band Contest". Lord Messam placed second in the competition behind winner
Lord Power
Lord is an appellation for a person or deity who has authority, control, or power over others, acting as a master, chief, or ruler. The appellation can also denote certain persons who hold a title of the peerage in the United Kingdom, or are ...
.
The 1955 "Calypso Pepper Pot" show was judged by
Louise Bennett
Louise Simone Bennett-Coverley or Miss Lou (7 September 1919 – 26 July 2006), was a Jamaican poet, folklorist, writer, and educator. Writing and performing her poems in Jamaican Patois or Creole, Bennett worked to preserve the practice of p ...
, Mapletoft Poulle and
Stanley Motta
Stanley Motta was an electronics store proprietor who established a record label in Kingston, Jamaica and opened the first privately owned recording studio in Jamaica in 1951, jump starting Jamaica's music industry.
Career
Motta recorded cal ...
. Besides Lord Messam & His Calypsonians, the bill featured local artists such as
Lord Tanamo
Joseph Abraham Gordon (2 October 1934 – 15 April 2016), better known as Lord Tanamo, was a Jamaican-Canadian singer and songwriter best known for his mento and ska work.
Career
Born in Kingston, Jamaica, Kingston and raised in Denham To ...
Lord Lebby
Lord is an appellation for a person or deity who has authority, control, or power over others, acting as a master, chief, or ruler. The appellation can also denote certain persons who hold a title of the peerage in the United Kingdom, or a ...
, and
Count Lasher
Count Lasher (sometimes styled Count Lasha) was the stage-name of Terence Parkins (''c''.1921 – 1977
Michael Garnice states that Count Lasher died in 1977 at the age of 51, but in the ''Caribbean Popular Music: An Encyclopedia of Reggae, Mento, ...
, as well as some Trinidadian calypsonians. Lord Messam’s entry – "If You're Not White, You're Considered Black" failed to place in this contest — Messam's set was considered "tame" and aimed at tourists — though he did win the prize for best costume.
Messam performed regularly at hotels and collaborated with early recording stars such as Higgs and Wilson. Later in life, Messam became a mentor to some of the next generation of local musicians.
Reggae
Reggae () is a music genre that originated in Jamaica in the late 1960s. The term also denotes the modern popular music of Jamaica and its diaspora. A 1968 single by Toots and the Maytals, " Do the Reggay" was the first popular song to use ...
and
ska
Ska (; ) is a music genre that originated in Jamaica in the late 1950s and was the precursor to rocksteady and reggae. It combined elements of Caribbean mento and calypso with American jazz and rhythm and blues. Ska is characterized by a walki ...
songwriter
Clancy Eccles
Clancy Eccles (9 December 1940 in Dean Pen, St. Mary, Jamaica – 30 June 2005 in Spanish Town, Jamaica)Katz was a Jamaican ska and reggae singer, songwriter, arranger, promoter, record producer and talent scout. Known mostly for his early reg ...
was one such artist who worked under Messam.
Style
Messam's Calypsonians are characterized by their utilization of tight
polyrhythms
Polyrhythm is the simultaneous use of two or more rhythms that are not readily perceived as deriving from one another, or as simple manifestations of the same meter. The rhythmic layers may be the basis of an entire piece of music (cross-rhyth ...
, with
banjo
The banjo is a stringed instrument with a thin membrane stretched over a frame or cavity to form a resonator. The membrane is typically circular, and usually made of plastic, or occasionally animal skin. Early forms of the instrument were fashi ...
parts that have been described as "
pointillist
Pointillism (, ) is a technique of painting in which small, distinct dots of color are applied in patterns to form an image.
Georges Seurat and Paul Signac developed the technique in 1886, branching from Impressionism. The term "Pointillism" wa ...
."
The opening bars of Messam's version of the traditional number "Linstead Market" have been compared to the sound of a music-box, and the few recordings that Messam left behind have been praised for their "dreamy" and "otherworldly" quality.
The melodies are typically backed with a "proto-reggae" rhythm.
Like many mento artists, humor formed an integral part of Messam's music. The self-composed "Poun' Paper" takes a comic look at dating. In this song Messam warns about giving a woman cash too early in the date — the song describes his unsuccessful attempts to retrieve the "poun' paper" when the narrator's expectations are not met. Another Messam composition "Holiday Number", also examines relationships:
Lord Messam incorporated many traditional songs into his sets, such as the folk-song "
Linstead Market
"Linstead Market" is a Jamaican folk song of the mento type that tells of a mother who goes to the market with her ackee fruit but does not sell any, with the result that her children will go hungry.
Discography
78 rpm
* "Jamaican Mentos" (medley) b/w "Holiday No." (Lord Messam) by Lord Messam & His Calypsonians (MOT. 2142-3 MRS label)
:(includes: "Mango Walk", "Gi Me Back Me Shilling", "Chichi Bud Oh" and "Hog In A Me Mint Tea")
*"Don't Tek It For A Joke" (Lord Messam) & "Rucumbine" (Jamaican mento medley) b/w "Poun' Paper" (Lord Messam) by Lord Messam & His Calypsonians (MOT. 2144-5 MRS label)
*"The Little Fly" (Rupert Lyons) b/w "Monkey" (George Brown) by Lord Messam and His Calypsonians (SM. 103, 105 Souvenir of Montego Bay label)
Albums
*''Authentic Jamaican Calypsos Volume 1'' (MRS label, Side one):
** "Take Her To Jamaica"
** "Linstead Market"
** "Monkey"
** "The Little Fly"
"Linstead Market" also appears on the MRS album ''Calypso Date'', and on the CD compilations ''Mento Madness'' (2004, V2 North America) and ''Jamaica - Mento 1951-1958'' (2010, Fremeaux).