081. Lord Flea & His Calypsonians - Shake, Shake, Sonora (04/05/20)

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Jamaica 1957

Lord Flea was the stage name of Norman Byfield Thomas a Jamaican mento musician credited with "helping start the calypso craze in U.S.
With his band The Calypsonians, Flea toured America throughout the late 1950s, and released an album on the Capitol label. The band also performed in two calypso-related films.

Little Flea's version of "Shake Shake Sonora" (later to be covered by Harry Belafonte) was reviewed in February 1957 by Billboard, which stated that: "Flea has a dynamic drive.." and that the single "could put many to shame."

The music produced by Lord Flea and other artists from the Caribbean islands was marketed as 'calypso' but Flea's style was actually known as 'mento'. In a 1957 interview for the UK Calypso Star magazine, Lord Flea explained: "In Jamaica, we call our music 'mento' until very recently. Today, 'calypso' is beginning to be used for all kinds of West Indian music. This is because it's become so commercialized there. Some people like to think of West Indians as carefree natives who work and sing and play and laugh their lives away. But this isn't so. Most of the people there are hard working folks, and many of them are smart business men. If the tourists want "calypso", that's what we sell them!"

Found in a Dutch thriftshop by the dj's from Exotische Verhalen van het Middenrif, a weekly radio-show, on OT Radio. This is a show about the joy of music without boundaries. Check it out!

http://www.mixcloud.com/middenrif