World of Jamaican Music

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An illustrated map of the creators of Jamaican music and how they are connected.

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Lord Tanamo

Artist. Ska, reggae

Active
1954-2008
Sunrise
October 2, 1934, Kingston, Jamaica
Sunset
April 2016, Toronto, Canada
Also known as
Joseph Gordon, Joseph Abraham Gordon

Lord Tanamo was a calypso and mento singer who became one of the Skatalites' regular vocalists and their master of ceremonies, best remembered for "I'm in the Mood for Ska."

Born Joseph Abraham Gordon in Kingston, the youngest of fifteen children, he grew up in Denham Town, was drawn to calypso by Lord Kitchener, then living in Jamaica, and sang on the street and in the north-coast hotels. The Globe and Mail called him "neither a crooner nor a belter," with a relaxed style that reflected those years. His first records were for Stanley Motta's label, where he cut r&b as well as mento; "Crinoline Incident" was his first hit, at twenty. In 1962 he switched to ska, beginning with "Come Down," and had hits with ska treatments of folk songs, "Iron Bar" and "Matty Rag."

With the Skatalites he sang, played percussion and introduced the songs; he turned "I'm in the Mood for Love," popular in Jamaica through Fats Domino, into "I'm in the Mood for Ska," and he claimed to have named the band, a claim other members dispute. Duke Reid recorded him at Treasure Isle, and he made a tribute to Don Drummond, "Big Trombone."

He moved to Toronto, where he co-owned the Record Nook with Jackie Mittoo, and kept recording calypso and mento for Bunny Lee and Sonia Pottinger, among them a version of "Rainy Night in Georgia." He sang at the Skatalites' reunion at Reggae Sunsplash in 1983 and at Glastonbury in 2003. A stroke in 2008 left him unable to speak, and he departed in Toronto in April 2016.

Last updated November 5, 2026

Connections

Notes

  1. Steve Barrow and Peter Dalton, The Rough Guide to Reggae, 3rd ed. (London: Rough Guides, 2004), 42, 43. "Lord Tanamo Dies in Canada," Jamaica Observer, April 22, 2016, https://www.jamaicaobserver.com/2016/04/22/lord-tanamo-dies-in-canada/, quoting the musicologist Kingsley Goodison.
  2. "Lord Tanamo Was a Master of the Stomping Ska Sound," Globe and Mail, accessed October 21, 2026, https://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/music/lord-tanamo-was-a-master-of-the-stomping-ska-sound/article29930517/. "Lord Tanamo Dies in Canada."
  3. "Lord Tanamo Was a Master of the Stomping Ska Sound," Globe and Mail, accessed November 5, 2026, https://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/music/lord-tanamo-was-a-master-of-the-stomping-ska-sound/article29930517/.
  4. Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 8, which says he recorded "r&b as well as mento" for Motta's Kalypso label. On the first hit: "Lord Tanamo Was a Master."
  5. Heather Augustyn, "Lord Tanamo," SkaBook (blog), March 20, 2015, https://skabook.com/2015/03/20/lord-tanamo, quoting the Star.
  6. "Lord Tanamo Dies in Canada." Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 43. On the band's name: "Lord Tanamo Was a Master." Lloyd Bradley, This Is Reggae Music: The Story of Jamaica's Music (New York: Grove Press, 2001), 100, lists him with Tony DaCosta as the Skatalites' vocalists.
  7. Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 45. Augustyn, "Lord Tanamo."
  8. "Lord Tanamo Dies in Canada," which dates the move to the mid-1970s; the Globe and Mail has him settled in Canada by 1969 and names the Record Nook. "Lord Tanamo Was a Master."
  9. "Lord Tanamo Was a Master," which gives his death on April 15 at eighty-one; the Observer says he died on a Tuesday, at eighty-two. "Lord Tanamo Dies in Canada." On Glastonbury: Augustyn, "Lord Tanamo."

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