MUSIC OF BENIN

ORCHESTRE POLY RYTHMO DE COTONOU
ECHOS HYPNOTIQUES VOLUME TWO (Analog Africa AACD 066)

Though this is billed as Volume Two it is the fourth Poly-Rythmo CD to appear since their rediscovery and resurrection by avid European collectors. Günter Gretz's Popular African Music found them in 2003, Soundways in 2004, then Analog Africa gave us The Vodoun Effect in 2008, as well as scattered tracks on their compilations Legends of Benin and African Scream Contest. Suddenly we have a Benin section in our libraries -- with Gnonnas Pedro, Ignace de Souza and Amadou Balake too. Far from being mouldy oldies, this music is as exciting as anything new being put on the market and it is wonderful to hear more of it. This disc focuses on the 70s, and comes from the "vaults of Albarika Store" -- a treasure trove of Benin's glory. Though the previous issues have been from lo-fi (used) records, this time we get stuff that was recorded at EMI in Lagos for Albarika drawn from 120 master tapes containing 500 songs. No wonder it has taken 5 years to release. This hoard was whittled down to 200 tracks, then fifteen for this jam-packed release. Since Poly-Rythmo was the focal point of all Beninois music in the 70s they had an endless resource for material and talent. Many Beninois rhythms have migrated to other countries over the centuries and reinvesting them with electricity was only the beginning of the group's inspiration. Traditionally based, the music branches in all directions: there's funky drumming underneath it all but the guitarists and vocalists have their own ideas about whether their are doing soul, funk, R&B or psychedelia. Lead singer, Vincent Ahehehinnou, admits as much in Samy's blog about the disc. There's also a talented keyboard player who adds his ideas to the mix. Due to the upswelling of latter-day fans we saw the re-emergence of Orchestre Baobab to triumphant acclaim, and the less-successful return of Bantous de la Capitale (which had suffered too much attrition over the years), and now it seems as though Poly-Rythmo are poised to return to the world stage. I can imagine these Vodoun trance grooves going on well into the next half-century.

LEGENDS OF BENIN
(Analog Africa No 5)

An OCORA album "Les musiciens de la forêt," recorded in Gabon, was on my turntable when news came that president Omar Bongo had died. He pocketed the oil revenues and famously said that Africa was a vehicle that needed a European driver but Europe was a vehicle that needed African fuel. Because of his long and strong rule, Gabon had remained relatively unaffected by the West, and I suppose the same could be said of Benin, which is one of the last frontiers in the area of musical exploration. It's a skinny country wedged between Nigeria and Togo. It's so small that when you order food in Cotonou they ask, Is that for here or Togo? (Duuuhhhh, sorry!) Samy Ben Redjeb, having found a gold mine there on his travels, returns with some more ore. I missed the last TP Poly-Rythmo album he did because I just don't have the 28 smackeroos it costs here in Bee-ville (that's a load of taco-truck tacos) and I would have to turn in 7 other discs to get it in trade at the current scam trade-in prices being offered by the struggling pseudopodia of Amoeba Music, so it's not economically viable. But I have two great Poly-Rythmo albums on Popular African Music & Soundway to tide me over. So I was pleased when a copy of LEGENDS materialized in my inbox. At the start, middle and end are three cuts by Gnonnas Pedro, the only Beninois "Legend" I'd heard of. After a great cut from Gnonnas and his Dadjes we go into "Tighten Up" by James Brown, performed by El Rego et ses Commandos, renamed "Feeling you got." The novelty of African acts copping James Brown in pidgin English has really worn off though apparently the punters still want more. Antoine Dougbé is more original (with the smouldering "Honton soukpou gnon") and El Rego returns to give us something more African-sounding, possibly akin to a Fuji percussion groove. Antoine Dougbé, backed by Orch. Poly-Rythmo, finds a groove, & even takes a loping reggae approach to one tune, so we get a great variety of musical tastes. The sequencing is great and the excitement builds to Antoine Dougbé's "Kovito gbe de towe," and finally the Big Bomber of Benin, Gnonnas Pedro's "La Musica en verité" is fired up. I first heard this on cassette in the mid-80s and was immediately entranced, it is one of the most magical songs ever waxed, you don't want it to end, and indeed it seems to spin round and round unceasingly with its Melotron lead. This version (from Dadjes volume one) appeared on LA COMPILATION and immediately went onto my Desert Island Discs playlist. There is a long silence at the end (reminiscent of Reminscin' in Tempo with Balla et ses Balladins) and after two minutes or so some talking, and a final blast of music from the past.


T. P. ORCHESTRE POLY-RYTHMO
REMINISCIN' IN TEMPO (popular african music PAM ADC306)
THE KINGS OF BENIN URBAN GROOVE 1972-80 ( Soundways SNDWCD004)

It strikes me as really odd that people will pay $350 for a scratched LP on EBAY just to boast that they own it. It's not like they have a real connection to it, probably never heard of Benin (which used to be Dahomey), couldn't name the President or tell you the names of any famous Beninois -- even members of this band. So not having $200 for such frippery I finally found the scratch to buy the Soundways album I have been hankering after since it came out in 2004. I did not get it at the time because I was sick of Afrobeat & African funk: it seemed everyone was pushing the same Fela-derived beat & it got monotonous. But I like this band, and while I don't own any of their vinyl, I do have the Popular African Music CD in the REMINISCIN' IN TEMPO series.

The PAM album, which came out in 2003, was the tip of the iceberg. Günter Gretz had found a dozen albums and sampled three of them for this 77-minute extravaganza. The band is still extant and has been working for over 40 years. Being the top band in Cotonou they got to back all the visiting artists: this helped their adaptability to different rhythms & gave them the chops to play a song for ten or fifteen minutes. The speedy guitarist launches into "Wimoweh" during the bridge in "Oh bea"! Local stars such as Angelique Kidjo and Gnonnas Pedro (there's your JEOPARDY answer) also used them in the studio. They toured widely and during a 1980 tour of Angola were issued firearms for protection in case of a very negative reaction from the audience! But in Libya zealous customs agents destroyed their amplifiers looking for hidden contraband. And piracy took its toll on their sales, so their career ground to a halt. Soukous fans will appreciate hearing the early Theo Blaise Kounkou track "Dety motema." He went on to join Sam Mangwana's African All Stars & recorded half a dozen albums in Paris (now out on 3 CDs) that are top-notch.

The secret weapon of the band is Yehoussi Leopold, their churning crankshaft, who is a monster on the drumkit and produces all the polyrhythm you could want. Lead-guitarist Bernard Zoundegnon, a.k.a. Papillon, is the main composer. He likes riffs that sound "flat" to Western ears, reflecting the influence of Oriental Brothers in neighbouring Nigeria, though his arpeggiated style is more a reflection of Congo guitar styles. You know they had to be unique for Tidiani Koné, saxophonist and leader of Le Rail Band du Mali, to abandon his successfully stint in Bamako & join the Cotonou team. While Benin is a francophone country, it is sandwiched between those anglophone giants Ghana and Nigeria so it got the best of both worlds, and the band would often go to Lagos to record and use the advanced facilities there to produce 45s. Of course this meant they also got close exposure to the Afro-funk movement sweeping Lagos in the early 1970s. The heart of the PAM compilation is two 17-minute tracks, originally issued as the album "Cheri coco" / "Mille fois merci" (Albarika Stores 038). Ostensibly a ballad, "Cheri coco" hits the ground running and the guitarists blaze off in a blur of dextrous phalanges, while the drummer sends his high hat into a gnat-biting frenzy. It's reminiscent of Theo Blaise's work with Mangwana and suggests another influence on the African All Stars (or vice versa, the track is from 1977, the same time as "Les Champions" and a year before Theo Blaise joined Mangwana's group). There's even a radical tempo change in the middle, like the B side heard upside down. The sound quality drops off for the last two Latin numbers with a jerky Mellotron pretending to play piano montuno. However they are definitely cooking and demonstrate the popularity of Guillermo Portabales in Benin.

The Soundways compilation is more of T.P.O.P.'s Afro-soul and funk work. Miles Cleret went to Cotonou in 2004 to try & track down the 50 LPs and over 100 45s released by the band, so it's a fair assumption he has his finger on the pulse. It's pretty frantic, poly-rhythmic certainly, with funky and psychedelic overtones, as heard on their Famous Flames-style "Les Djos," with James Brown yelps, even a "give the drummer some" break. This set is geared more towards shorter punchier tracks, the hit singles, as opposed to the album style presentation of the PAM disc. "Kokoriko," which is of course the sound a cock makes to wake you up, really gets your attention. There are also Cuban-influenced moments when they do two more versions of a Guillermo Portabales' tune. These are "Genamou na wili we gnannin," sung in Fon by Meloume Clement, and "Agnon Djidjo." They borrow a Sam and Dave fanfare for "Kou Tche Kpo so o." There is one of the longer jam tracks on Soundways' compilation, "Ne te faches pas." It's my favourite track on here. There's a horn chorus in counterpoint to the vocals and the guitar has a dizzy flanger setting & an itchy restlessness that won't quit.

The two CDs give you 2 and a half hours of one of the greatest unknown bands ever.


SONORAMA: SUD DE BENIN
(Cosmonote 001)

There cannot be very much music on the planet that remains untainted by outside influences. In the last 40 years the world has shrunk so dramatically because of jet travel and the quest for novelty by curious adventurers. In his brilliant novels Redmond O'Hanlon recounts the exploits of intrepid Brits going up the Amazon or into the heart of Borneo, only to be confronted with natives in GAP T-shirts hoping for batteries to listen to their Michael Jackson tapes. Benin is still unfamiliar terrain, nestled down there in the Bight of Benin with Nigeria and Ghana. The traditional music has a lot in common with Apala and Fuji from the neighbours: drum and percussion-driven, it has long trance-like rhythmic cycles interrupted by call and response vocals.

Cosmonote is dedicated to preserving a visual and aural document of this culture. Their newest project is a 15-track CD of traditional Beninois music and a DVD with 37 separate sections showing rhythms and dances in video and sound with photo galleries also. It's accompanied by a large booklet in French describing all the action. Unfortunately I could not watch the DVD in my MAC or DVD player (It's PC-compatible and I live in the Apple universe though it says it's Mac-compatible also but it could be a RAM problem: I haven't upgraded in at least 4 years.), but I look forward to checking it out eventually. In addition to drumming, there's a harmonica solo, snatches of street sounds ("Ambience au village") & parts of rituals. Cosmonote are now developing a program on the music and culture of Burkina Faso in connection with Al Jazeera's Childrens' Channel. See wonderful images and more information on their site.

Gangbé Brass Band
Live at Great American Music Hall, San Francisco, 2 November 2005

The San Francisco Jazz Festival always has a few aces up its sleeve and, while others are reluctant to take a chance on world music, you can count on Randall Kline to bring in some quality acts for his annual shindig. And what better place to see the masters of Benin groove than the European gilt-and-ormolu palace in the seedy Tenderloin district of San Francisco. The Music Hall survives from San Francisco's gilded age in the nineteenth century, filled with gold pillars and large mirrors to expand the space. Those painted putti on the ceiling have seen a lot. The audience was older and better dressed than you see at most world music concerts: jazz aficionados taking a chance on something new. Most of them were anxious to get a seat, but once the music started there was a throng on the dancefloor. The obvious reference point for the crowd was New Orleans. Intermittently, the Gangbé Brass Band sound and act like the Dirty Dozen or another of those great party bands. I suppose it's inevitable when you have seven horn players throwing down and cutting up. Of course New Orleans will never be the same again. (Typical of the New American Thinking it will be boiled down to a simple statement: "the birthplace of jazz." Congo Square will quietly disappear into condos as Halliburton cleans it up and the whole thing will suddenly be very up-market, perhaps renamed Walt Disney's Jazzworld with "official" musicians on street corners, like in Cuba.)

Dressed in fabulous bright pants and jackets with contrasting gold and purple silk vests, Gangbé Brass took us home to the birthplace not of jazz but of voodoo which so influenced music in the Western hemisphere. The drumming was prominent and, as usual, the Music Hall sound was mixed impeccably. The talking drums played by Benoit Avihoué were crisp as Juju propelled many of the tunes; the rhythms were complex and evolved as different members of the orchestra came forward to solo. Olatounou Ahouandjinou, lead trumpeter, handled most of the vocals but also gave way to his older brother trombonist Wendo Ahouandjinou who had a sly delivery. By the third number, "Glessi," their joy was palpable and everyone on the dance floor was getting into the groove. A second percussionist played a big rumba box (that's cajon, IJ, not cojones!) and a third played congas. With shekere and occasional cowbell they had the Yoruba-Fon Afrobeat underpinning everything. Their medley "Oblemou" quotes "Meet me boys on de battlefront," the essential Norlins anthem. That got the crowd really worked up. They were even better live than on their excellent albums and as an encore they paraded through the crowd.

GANGBE BRASS BAND
TOGBE (Contrejour 009)

The late Lester Bowie is certainly a hard act to follow but two sides of his career come to mind in listening to the Gangbé Brass Band. One of the things the Art Ensemble of Chicago was doing, I think, was trying to recapture a sense of their own African-ness through music. Like other American jazz artists they were serious students of African rhythms. Another of Bowie's outlets, Brass Fantasy, was a hyper-talented group of hornmen jamming on standards, from "I only have eyes for you" to Fats Domino's "Blueberry Hill." I saw both bands and it's hard to say who was having more fun, the controlled spontaneity of the Art Ensemble or the virtuoso flights of fancy of Brass Fantasy. Gangbé Brass Band hail from Benin; their name means "Sound of metal" in Fon and they do the Lester Bowie tradition proud. They came together ten years ago as a group of young musicians to explore different traditional Beninois rhythms through the eyes of modern jazz. This album is exceptional and certain to please jazz fans as much as aficionados of traditional African music. The drumming is high in the mix and the horn arrangments are top notch. Four trumpets, sax and two trombones make a great ensemble. Occasionally the second trombonist holds down the bottom on euphonium, as on the track "Ajaka," and this is where the groove locks over the talking drum, conga and bass drum. The ritual chanting goes on a bit long at times and would have easily been supplanted by horn lines. This also would have made it more accesible to those who don't understand the Yoruba, Fon or Goun languages.

GANGBE BRASS BAND
WHENDO (Roots Racines) (Contre-Jour CJ015)

Gangbé Brass Band from Benin come on strong with another heavy-hitting jazz-based album. Drumming is to the fore, but we get more horns and better arrangements than their first album as they explore their roots. From Fela Kuti's Kalakuta Republic to New Orleans is a giant step but they stride across in spirited style. "Oblemou" tells tales from the front lines of the New Orleans marching bands of yore, but they are not nostalgic drunks weeping in their mint juleps. They keep the solos tight and tidy. "Remember Fela," a tribute to Fela Kuti, states everything you need to know about Afrobeat in a simple groove. The percussive bed makes for a restless horn section and they churn along, shredding the sheets. Then there's bits of everything musical in between those disparate worlds. My favourite track is "Segala" which quotes Mancini -- the "Pink Panther" theme and not the "Baby elephant walk" you'd expect! WHENDO is a classic album.

GNONNAS PEDRO
COMPILATION VOLUME 1 (ASLCD/1 1994)

A legendary singer from Benin, Pedro made his mark in the sixties and seventies with West African style salsa that has since become very popular. In the 80s he had a disco hit before vanishing into obscurity. In the late nineties he returned in triumph to appear with Africando. These early pieces propel Pedro's lyrical vocals on a tide of hypnotic guitar and Latin percussion, saturated in soulful horn arrangements. Four of the songs have circulated in muddy bootleg copies for over a decade, including the hypnotic "La Musica en verité" (with its Mellotron lead) and "La Combinacion de Gnonnas," a medley of popular Cuban standards. This French reissue cleans up the sound but offers no additional information, save what's encoded in the plastic, luckily this great Afro-Cuban music speaks for itself.