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Stanley Beckford

Title: Plays Mento

Label: Barclay France

Cat No:5898732
Format:CD

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Discovery Records
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Stanley 'Starlight' Beckford is a musical legend in his Jamaican homeland, but almost totally unknownin the wider world. Now aged 60, he was the vocalist of historic bands - including the celebrated Soul Syndicate, the Starlights, and Stanley & the Turbines; as well as the composer of major hits like "Soldering" and "Wanted Man". After some forty years in the business, he is still a popular figure, a prize-winning songwriter and television star. He appeared at WOMEXin 2002.

He attended Kingston's All Saints High School a few years before Bob Marley, and became a regular local performer. But , with the development of 'reggae' in the late 60's, his distinctive voice, high-pitched and a little nasal, was better suited to the countryside repertoire of 'mento' than to the new town 'wailing' style, illustrated by Bob Marley and his followers.

'Mento' is a more basic, stripped-down rural predecessor to Reggae - similar to the relationship between Country Blues and Chicago Blues. A kind of 'skiffle-reggae' with frequent double-entendre and touches of Trinidadian calypso, which Jamaicans would probably refute.

For the recording of "Sings Mento", Stanley's wife and daughter, Thelma Beckford and Monique Miller, provided the vocal back-up, along with the two Blue Glaze singers. Several other artists joined in: violinist Theodore Miller, himself leader of an excellent authentic mento formation, the Lititz Mento Band; three percussionists (Sky Juice, Michael Enkrumah Henry, and Leroy Horsemouth); plus the only reggae musician invited : the fine guitarist Mickey Chung,

Track Listing for Plays Mento
01. Big Bamboo
02. Hold My Hand
03. Rich Man
04. Broom Weed
05. Dip Dem Jah Jah
06. Guava Jelly
07. Three Little Birds
08. Kisiloo
09. Brown Gal
10. Soldering
11. Fi Mi Gal
12. Hold Him Joe
13. One Love

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Stanley Beckford