Christmas Jambree :: A Vintage Jamaican Yuletide Mixtape
Yuletide sails into Jamaica each year on what the locals call the Christmas Breeze, a slightly crisper air that tends to waft through the island come December. There’s another seasonal harbinger, one that is more common around the world, and that’s the sound of Christmas songs on the radio. But Christmas music in Jamaica is, well, uniquely Jamaican. Traditional carols get a reggae underpinning while lyrics about snow and holly are usually substituted for sunshine and mango trees. Back in the day, it was hardly a given that every Jamaican artist would record a Christmas song, unlike today. But several did–and they’re worth digging for.
In the first half of the 20th century, calypso music ruled the islands. There were many Christmas songs being recorded by calypsonians–and it’s entirely likely that these songs were enjoyed in Jamaica at the time–but scant details exist about any such Jamaican recordings. One known example is a frighteningly-rare mento 78 called “Jingle Bells Calypso” by the Jamaican artist Lord Lebby. Why this matters is that, while mento is indigenous to Jamaica, calypso is not (it came from Trinidad). As it happened, many of the Jamaican mento musicians became so frustrated with outsiders confusing the two styles that they eventually just gave in to being called “calypso” in order to sell records and please the tourists (as evidenced by the aforementioned Lord Lebby title). But that would soon change.
Download: Christmas Jambree :: A Vintage Jamaican Yuletide Mixtape (zipped folder)
first uploaded 10th Dec 2017
Yuletide sails into Jamaica each year on what the locals call the Christmas Breeze, a slightly crisper air that tends to waft through the island come December. There’s another seasonal harbinger, one that is more common around the world, and that’s the sound of Christmas songs on the radio. But Christmas music in Jamaica is, well, uniquely Jamaican. Traditional carols get a reggae underpinning while lyrics about snow and holly are usually substituted for sunshine and mango trees. Back in the day, it was hardly a given that every Jamaican artist would record a Christmas song, unlike today. But several did–and they’re worth digging for.
In the first half of the 20th century, calypso music ruled the islands. There were many Christmas songs being recorded by calypsonians–and it’s entirely likely that these songs were enjoyed in Jamaica at the time–but scant details exist about any such Jamaican recordings. One known example is a frighteningly-rare mento 78 called “Jingle Bells Calypso” by the Jamaican artist Lord Lebby. Why this matters is that, while mento is indigenous to Jamaica, calypso is not (it came from Trinidad). As it happened, many of the Jamaican mento musicians became so frustrated with outsiders confusing the two styles that they eventually just gave in to being called “calypso” in order to sell records and please the tourists (as evidenced by the aforementioned Lord Lebby title). But that would soon change.
Download: Christmas Jambree :: A Vintage Jamaican Yuletide Mixtape (zipped folder)
first uploaded 10th Dec 2017
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