Afromassive - Gridlock

Birthed out of the tall trees and lush green earth known as Humboldt County, California, AfroMassive is collective of like-minded musicians exploring the groove-based music of West Africa, known as Afrobeat. While trying to model the instrumentation from the sounds made famous by Nigerian musician and political activist, Fela Anikulapo Kuti, AfroMassive musicians are also bring their own set influences to the table. The group was the brainchild of Humboldt veteran musician, Greg Camphuis (guitar) and Cleveland native, Aaron Bortz, bassist of Bay Area super-group, ALBINO! Afrobeat. They soon enlisted the help of other community musicians such as Jesse Jonathan and Chris Noonan, as well as students from Humboldt State University's vast Percussion department led by the renowned, Eugene Novotney. As the ball continued to roll, the group immediately kept the booty's shakin' and the audiences growing. Before too long, the AfroMassive decided to put their sound on tape. The resulting creation is a hard-hitting groove machine, producing a greasy slew of West African traditional rhythm with elements of 70's funk and psychedelic jazz.





Tracklist

1. Milk
2. Gridlock
3. Triangle Plus Four
4. Everybody's Got To Go
5. Black Bag
6. Sketchballs
7. Mago Mago
8. Sunrise

Horoya Band National - Savane Profonde

The National Horoya Band was from the West African nation of Guinea.

Guinea was created as a colony by France in 1890. The capital Conakry was founded on Tombo Island in the same year. In 1895 the country was incorporated into French West Africa. On 28 September 1958, under the direction of Charles de Gaulle, Metropolitan France held a referendum on a new constitution and the creation of the Fifth Republic. The colonies, except Algeria, which was legally a direct part of France, were given the choice between immediate independence or retaining their colonial status. All colonies except Guinea opted for the latter. Thus, Guinea became the first French African colony to gain independence, at the cost of the immediate cessation of all French assistance.

After independence Guinea was governed by the President Ahmed Sékou Touré. Some called Touré was considered a “Mao-style” socialist, while others called him a dictator. He applied his command-economy beliefs to the arts as well as to trade and agriculture. Under his leadership, Guinea joined the Non-Aligned Movement and pursued close ties with the Eastern Bloc.

Prior to the Guinea’s independence, most of the musicians working in Conakry’s top nightclubs and hotels were Europeans, playing French and American show tunes and dance music. Guinean musicians were found lower down the economic ladder, in neighbourhood dancehalls, but they too played a repertoire mainly made up of waltzes, foxtrots and Latin American dance tunes. The names of the leading Guinean bands – La Douce Parisette, L’Africana Swing Band, Le Harlem Jazz Band and Les Joviales Symphonies – speak for themselves.

Within months of achieving power, Sékou Touré’s Ministry of Culture disbanded all European-style bands in the country and directed their musicians to “return to authentic African rhythms and tunes”. The policy was called ‘Authenticité’ and Touré backed it up with state sponsorship of newly formed national and regional bands as well as the state owned record label Editions Syliphone Conakry. There were regular festivals at which the regional bands competed for national status. The best bands were awarded with the title Orchestre National and had the possibility to travel to Cuba to learn more about Afro-cuban music. At its peak, the state supported seven national bands.

‘Authenticité’ notwithstanding, the music played by the national and regional bands included some non-Guinean elements. Ghanaian highlife was a signifcant influence – E.T. Mensah And His Tempos Band toured Guinea within a few weeks of independence and were rapturously received – as was Cuban music, so hardwired into Guinean music, from which it largely derived, that even Touré couldn’t expunge it (and following the Cuban revolution of 1959, he probably felt he didn’t need to anyway). A little later, Congolese rumba was another heady infusion.

Woven into these imported influences was traditional Guinean music, uniquely rich in polyrhythms, mainly of the Manding and Foulah peoples. The synthesis was cool and loose-limbed, a relaxed but insistent dance style played in the main by ten-piece and bigger line-ups featuring vocals, three or four electric guitars, horn sections, balafons (xylophones), kit drums and traditional percussion.

After the death of Sékou Touré, this State support came to an end, concerts became rare and money for recording was not available anymore. Many bands eventually disintegrated as working conditions deteriorated.

Formed in 1961, the Horoya Band de Kankan won the best orchestra prize in 1967, 1968 and 1971 at the Quinzaine Artistiques Festival. They were nationalised in 1971. The band was led by Métoura Traoré (although for this single, both songs were written and conducted by Lansina Kanté). They recorded two albums and a handful of singles between 1969 and 1974, as well as a number of compilation appearances under either the name Horoya Band, Horoya Band National or National Horoya Band.

radiodiffusion.wordpress.com



Tracklist

01. Zoumana (tentemba) 10.36
02. Konimba (rumba savane) 5.18
03. Paya Paya (rumba savane) 6.28
04. La Guinee Horoya (rumba savane) 4.17
05. Touraman (rumba son) 7.27
06. Djama Ba Labo (rumba savane) 3.55
07. N'Fala Dyamana (morna) 6.49

Fela Kuti - Live with Ginger Baker (1971)

Live with Ginger Baker (1971)

Originally recorded in 1971 and 1978 by Fela Kuti’s band, Africa 70, with the addition of former Cream drummer Ginger Baker, this album contains 4 songs plus a bonus track 16-minute drum duet between Baker and Africa 70’s drummer Tony Allen recorded at the 1978 Berlin Jazz Festival.


Tracks


Let’s Start
‘Let us start what we’ve come into the room to do’ is telling it as it is — graphic explicit sex. Sung in Yoruba with some broken English explanations, Fela calls on his partner in the room to get on with it, ‘don’t play the innocent…let’s start! Take off your clothes! Let’s start!’. The recording has Ginger Baker, of the former English pop group ‘Cream’ playing live as guest drummer on some tracks like Let’s Start, in place of Tony Allen, the regular drum player in Fela’s Africa 70 band. The Album titled ‘Live with Ginger Baker’ was recorded in the sixteen track mobile studio Ginger Baker sold to Polygram Nigeria in 1976.

Black Man’s Cry
Black man’s cry is about identity. ‘I am black and proud’ Fela sings in Yoruba, ‘Who says Black is not beautiful! Bring that person out, let me see!’ — he challenges, ‘There is nothing as beautiful as the black skin! Look at me! Look at me very well! There is nothing as beautiful as the black skin! Look at me very well!’. It is a song to rid the black mind of inferiority complex, particularly Africans who use chemical products to bleach their skin, or Africans who feel inferior to the White folks.

Ye Ye De Smell
Ye ye de smell is about people getting what they deserve-reaping what you sow. If you flirt with another person’s wife, you shouldn’t feel bad if people do the same to you. Literally meaning: bullshit stinks. It implies that if you give people bullshit, you should not be surprised if you get the same back from others.

Egbe Mi O (Carry Me I Want To Die)
“Egbe Me” in Yoruba language means: Carry me. In this song, Fela is singing about the different kinds of things that happen to you while you dance. How could you go into trance while dancing? How in a state of musical trance, the traditional beads women wear under their skirts break without the woman noticing. How a man’s hat would fall of his head while dancing without him noticing. All kinds of things happen to you doing the dance — but you are not alone! ‘…be ke iwo nikan ko’. Fela ends this track with a general chorus calling everybody together with the band: Egbe Mi O!

Written by Mabinuori Kayode Idowu

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Nigerian Afrobeat star Fela Kuti brought a refreshing attitude to his music. On one hand, he was deeply distrustful of authority in all its forms. On the other, he understood that the members of his groups would have to work together to function as a unit. What emerged from that mindset was a unique approach to group dynamics. While the members of his bands knew they would have to play with precision, they could also play with grace. In this particular incarnation, six percussionists ensure the groove never drifts far, and most of the time the melody instruments also reinforce the beat. Sure, soloists regularly trade leads, and refrains call everyone together. But it is, after all, a difficult task bringing the rich rhythms of Africa together with the driving energy of funk and the panoramic color of jazz. Because Fela could make it work, he became a legend.

Enter Ginger Baker. Baker tooled into Nigeria in 1969, having come directly from Europe in a Land Rover. His stated purpose was to absorb and internalize the rhythms of Africa, and he was remarkably successful in accomplishing this task. Fela Kuti already had an astonishingly brilliant drummer in the form of Tony Allen, who was able to simultaneously perform a world of rhythm. But Ginger Baker brought something new to the mix.

Live! was recorded in 1971 with Fela's group at the time, the Africa 70. Due to its demanding performance schedule, the band is remarkably tight. Interlocking rhythms drive keyboard and guitar vamps, propelling instrumental soloists on trumpet and saxophone. There's a nice jazzy feel here, manifested both in an elastic sense of time and in an ensemble approach to performance. Improvised passages lie interspersed between statements of the theme, with Fela improvising on voice or delivering some rather frank lyrics in English and Yoruba. For example, the message of the opener: Let's get it on! (This piece features Ginger Baker sitting in for Tony Allen on drums, and he does quite well. Baker trades his usual heavy-handed approach for a lighter touch, dancing in and around the beat.)

The last track, recorded live in 1978, is a wonderful addition to the reissue of this record. It's a 16-minute duet between Tony Allen and Ginger Baker. These two men perform as equals, making for an interesting situation. Allen, as usual, is impossible to pin down. Baker manages to integrate and interweave his rhythms, making the combination much greater than the sum of its parts.

Live! is as tight, funky, and sensual as any record Fela Kuti ever made. Having Ginger Baker in the mix makes it a bit unusual, but this is an excellent recording suitable for Fela initiates and devotees alike.

allaboutjazz.com, written by Nils Jacobson

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Originally released in 1971, this LP had Fela Kuti solidifying the format that would take him into international visibility in the years to come: extended tracks with grooves that mixed African and funk rhythms, punctuated by rudimentary lyrics. There are just four songs on the album, none shorter than seven minutes, and all but one going over the ten-minute mark. More than a dozen strong, his band, the Africa '70, cooks pretty well on tracks that fuse jazz, soul, and African music in a trancelike fashion that avoids becoming stale, despite the length of the arrangements. Ex-Cream/Blind Faith drummer Ginger Baker's name was given prominence in the billing, probably to attract rock- and pop-oriented listeners who might not ordinarily take a chance on music from the African continent. However, it's Fela and Africa '70, not Baker, who are the dominant presence on a record that sounded much like a mixture of James Brown, fusion, and Nigerian forms.
Enjoy it!

oufarkhan.blogspot.com

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When this live set from afrobeat pioneer Fela Kuti was released in 1971 Kuti had yet to be recognized as the political and cultural hero that threatened both his career and life. In fact, it wasn't until a James Brown tour of Africa in 1971, that the continent of Africa started to grasp Kuti's funked out sounds a political lyrics. In the beginning, Kuti had spent some time in London recording his earliest singles under the direction of Cream drummer Ginger Baker. Baker had become entrenched in African music after moving to Lagos. On this set, Baker replaces long time Kuti collaborator Tony Allen behind the drum kit for the opener "Let's Start" and the 13-minute jam "Ye Ye De Smell." The latter turns into a relentless percussive jam with Baker and Allen trading blow for blow like an Ali v. Forman heavyweight fight. Kuti would later return the favor providing vocals, percussion, and organ to Baker's Stratavarious record which further increased the African palates to western sounds. It would not be to much later that Kuti would become an international icon.

theyaretheimitators.com

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Originally released in 1971, this LP had Fela Kuti solidifying the format that would take him into international visibility in the years to come: extended tracks with grooves that mixed African and funk rhythms, punctuated by rudimentary lyrics. There are just four songs on the album, none shorter than seven minutes, and all but one going over the ten-minute mark. More than a dozen strong, his band, the Africa '70, cooks pretty well on tracks that fuse jazz, soul, and African music in a trancelike fashion that avoids becoming stale, despite the length of the arrangements. Ex-Cream/Blind Faith drummer Ginger Baker's name was given prominence in the billing, probably to attract rock- and pop-oriented listeners who might not ordinarily take a chance on music from the African continent. However, it's Fela and Africa '70, not Baker, who are the dominant presence on a record that sounded much like a mixture of James Brown, fusion, and Nigerian forms. [The 2001 CD reissue on MCA adds a comparatively disappointing 16-minute drum solo by Ginger Baker and Africa '70 drummer Tony Allen, recorded live at the 1978 Berlin Jazz Festival. If Fela had any involvement with that track, it's not noted on the sleeve.]

allmusic.com




Tracklist

1. Let's Start
2. Black Man's Cry
3. Ye Ye De Smell
4. Egbe Mi O (Carry Me I Want To Die)
5. Ginger Baker & Tony Allen Drum Solo

Femi Kuti reconfronts the "Attitude of Lagos"

Kevin Ford of the Chicago Afrobeat Project interviews Fela's oldest son about democracy, his father's legacy, and his new album "Africa for Africa".


The interview


Compared to your other albums, I'd say the messages on Africa for Africa are the most direct. I'm wondering if recording at Decca studio [in Lagos, Nigeria] affected the sound?

When we record in Lagos it's like being on the battlefield. The electricity cuts off. There is no central AC, and we are sweating like dogs. All the things we are singing about, we are confronted with them in the studio. When we record in France, we are very comfortable. In Paris, it's very difficult to [express] yourself when you are singing about problems and you can't really identify with those problems.

I think it comes through in the album. It sounds to me like you have even more power behind your messages.

I planned to do the songs that way. But probably the emotion you are hearing comes from the fact that I was reconfronted with the attitude of Lagos.

There were some things brought up in the album that kind of hint at a united Africa. Do you think there could be a pan-African union, kind of like the European Union?

That was Kwame Nkrumah's [the nationalist leader who liberated the new nation of Ghana from British rule] dream. And I think we're still a very long way from that because the leaders in Africa are very greedy. I don't see any African country doing anything for its people. So I think it'll probably take another 50 to 100 years for us to reach there. The fact is we have to keep on fighting. We have to remember that so many people have lost their lives fighting. If there wasn't a Kwame Nkrumah, my father, Malcom X, Marcus Garvey, or Mandela, people like me will be naive to the history of Africa. It's very important that I play my part so that the children can always have a platform to continue the struggle.

You've talked in the past about democracy—that you have your doubts about democracy as a system.

Yeah, it's a game, like you see with the Democrats and the Republicans in America. The Republicans always want to gain power so they will always do everything to sabotage the Democratic government, and vice versa. So what kind of system of government is that, when it is broken down before it started? Even if the government in power is doing good things, the opposition always tries to find an excuse to bring it down, so that government never functions like it should.

The U.S. and Nigeria are obviously different places, but Afrobeat music is very strong in the U.S., even though we don't have the same politics.

It's becoming global. I don't think we need to overcome the fact that it's from Nigeria.

Do you feel like in Lagos there is more pressure to stick to the roots, to the "true" Afrobeat?

Africans just like dancing; so as long as you do a good song, they are very flexible. They can be critical as well. They think that you are using Afrobeat. They use my father to judge you and say this doesn't sound like him. It doesn't mean they don't accept it, but they can be very critical.

A lot of people call it underground music in America.

It's not underground. They made a mistake. I don't know why everybody's always saying "underground." My father said "on the ground."


chicagoreader.com

Fela Kuti - Koola Lobitos/ The ’69 L.A. Sessions

Great information by Knitting Factory Records.

Initially founded in 2002 as an offshoot of the celebrated Knitting Factory club in lower Manhattan, Knitting Factory Records, along with the new Knitting Factory club in Brooklyn, was reborn in 2009 with the acquisition and re-release of the Fela Kuti catalog. KFR also encompasses the catalogs of Instinct Records, Shadow Records, Shimmy Disc, and Evolver Records.


Koola Lobitos (1964-1968):

Omuti Tide is about the alcoholic who never takes his job seriously. In the end he loses his job for drink. Sung in Yoruba like most of the songs from Koola Labitos era, one can hear the strong Latin jazz effect from Fela’s London days hanging out with West Indian Brothers (We can also hear the mix of Latin jazz and the African American Diaspora influences in Funky Horn. It is sad Fela stopped playing the trumpet in the latter part of his life as Funky Horn is a testimony to him being a great horn player). Highlife Time, another Koola Lobitos piece sung in English is about highlife music and the beat. Highlife music is one of the many contemporary urban music of West Africa, influenced by Caribbean Calypso and Latin American Salsa. Ololufe Mi is Fela’s love song, declaring his affection for his lover and insisting that she is his one and only love. Fela’s proficiency as a trumpet player can be heard in this track like in all the other pieces from his Koola Lobitos days. Wadele Wa Rohin, in Yoruba language means: ‘you will go home and proclaim in what high esteem people hold Eko, the home of great sense! Smart arse city. Eko is a funky, swinging, crazy ghetto’. Laise Lairo, another song in Yoruba literally means: without any offence or bad feeling, you lose your wife and get locked in prison by the person who took your wife. Like most of Fela’s songs of this era, they were addressing social issues. Wayo too, talks about dishonesty. Wayo in Hausa language means dishonest. Though sung in Yoruba language, it conveys the same meaning of dismay at the discovery that a person you trust is dishonest, a cheat and a fraud. It is all about being upright in society.

The ’69 L.A. Sessions

The ’69 Los Angeles Session recordings were a collection of songs that reflect Fela’s musical and political evolution, from a musician entertainer with a style of music called ‘highlife jazz’ to a fighter of a black cause with music as a weapon. Coming to America, he overestimated the power of his ‘highlife jazz’ style of music. He forgot that America expected something more authentic from an African band than jazz — of which America has produced the greatest maestro. Fela recounts his experience: “My American tour in 1969 was a turning point in my way of thinking and approach to life. America is a great country, it made me jealous that we don’t have today that kind of greatness in our country. It was also in America that I was exposed for the first time to a lot of black history — that background knowledge about Africa which I did not have before. I was exposed to the teachings of Marcus Garvey, Malcolm X and also the Black Panther Party.” With a new thinking, he realized he had to write and arrange his music in a way more relevant to the environment he came from — something with the African background. During rehearsals in Los Angeles, after smoking a joint (Marijuana) for the first time, he said he heard this heavy bass line vibrating in his head in the for mof sakara (apala rhythm), a traditional Yoruba music from the West of Nigeria. The result: My Lady Frustration, an instrumental piece. Dedicated to the lady who stood by him during his evolution in the US and who felt frustrated with all the problems encountered by Fela in his musical search for greener pastures. Finally finding his feet, he wrote this song as a tribute to her. Viva Nigeria, written in his new style of music called :’Afrobeat’ is about the Biafra civil war going on in Nigeria and calling on Nigerians to unite and resolve their differences in more amicable ways than war. Other titles from these sessions are songs talking about social issues: Obe!(soup), Ako!(Braggart), Lover, and Witchcraft sung in Yoruba language. The last song, This Is Sad, is a nostalgic piece expressing his longing to return to his family after a long absence from them. In a homesick manner, he wishes the witchcraft would bring him home.

Written by Mabinuori Kayode Idowu



Tracklist

01. My Lady Frustration
02. Viva Nigeria
03. Obe
04. Ako
05. Witchcraft
06. Wayo
07. Lover
08. Funky Horn
09. Eko
10. This Is Sad

Emefe - An overview of albums ... free to download

EMEFE (em-ef-ayyy!) is a band lead by Miles Arntzen, a young musician based in New York City. Miles got the group together in December of the year 2009. Inspired by his musical heroes in Antibalas, who encouraged him to study the life and music of Fela Anikulapo Kuti, and Medeski Martin and Wood, who taught him about the importance of the individual and the self in music, Miles started recording demos of the tunes that became EMEFE.

It is important to note that Fela Kuti, the man who created the music we play, lived in a different time - he made his music as a response to the injustices that ruled everyday life in Africa (specifically Nigeria) in the 70's and 80's. His music was about not becoming zombies under the authorities. He sang about not letting the corrupt government officials bring his people down. So why does EMEFE play this music? In the same way that Fela used this music as an escape from and confrontation against the authorities, EMEFE uses it to escape the inner authority inside all of us, the doubts and worries that are there inside our minds every day. Our mission is to use our music to help ourselves and our listeners let go of those trivial negatives that bring us down. We want to fight the inner authorities that we put on ourselves, each for our own specific reasons. With deep respect for Fela Kuti, we are excited to play the music he created - afrobeat - because, simply, it makes us happy. We hope it makes you happy too.

EMEFE also takes inspiration from the improvised music made by Medeski Martin and Wood and other areas of music and life to produce music that makes the listener want to dance in a happy frenzy. Check out our afrobeat funk tunes and give some feedback!

The band could be called an afrobeat band, with influence from Fela Kuti and Antibalas. It could be called a funk band, with influence from Sly, MMW, The Roots, and the Dap-Kings. But what's in a genre? We are, quite simply, EMEFE.

emefemusic

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Live at Tutuma Social Club

This is a document of EMEFE's debut show at Tutuma Social Club on December 21st, 2009. It was part of Tutuma's weekly Rising Stars event, and we won the night!

Album can be downloaded for free here!



1. Intro 01:02
2. I No Get Eye For Back 08:54
3. Jump and Stomp 05:44
4. Sneaky 08:05
5. Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da 04:11
6. The War and Consequence 11:21
7. Oh, That's What It Is 06:02

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Emefe Sound EP

This is a demo EP album recorded completely by Miles Arntzen. This is just to get the point across and introduce you to the EMEFE Sound.

Album can be downloaded for free here!



1. Oh, That's What It Is 04:36
2. The War and Consequence 04:08
3. Love In A Song 03:49
4. Sneaky 03:29
5. 221 Groove 05:09

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Europe EP

EUROPE EP presents three original songs by Miles Arntzen and EMEFE. It begins with the horn driven, hard hitting "New System", written as a warning to the University Corporations out there that take money and return the favor by instilling pressure and anxiety in their student bodies. The fiery "Motherland" kicks off next, an anthem for anybody who wants to let go of all the B.S. that they see on TV and in the newspapers every day. "Europe" opens with peaceful sounds of Italian cities, soon followed by a marching groove and supreme horn calls and responses. EMEFE's EUROPE EP is a call to arms, a call for everybody to stand up and march against the negative. That negative can be inside of their own body systems, outside on the street, or everywhere. Whereas MUSIC FREES ALL is an invitation to drop it all and dance, EUROPE EP is a ferocious and urgent stand against everything and anything that brings us down.

Album can be downloaded for free here!




1. New System 06:50
2. Motherland 03:36
3. Europe 07:50

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Music frees all

EMEFE stands for Music Frees All. Music has the power to resonate inside of us, flowing through every thought, every fear, every memory and every worry. Our minds create rules and authorities that drive us in every moment. Let songs, like the ones on this CD, free your self from those rules. Let yourself dance!

Album can be downloaded for free here!



1. Jump and Stomp 04:54
2. Free Your Self 04:24
3. The War and Consequence 05:52
4. The Night 04:49
5. 221 Groove 05:07
6. Sumo 06:02
7. Sneaky 06:26
8. Oh, That's What It Is 04:21


Just enjoy ...!

Orchestre Poly-Rythmo de Cotonou - Cotonou Club ... Review

Reviews

t's been over 20 years since the Tout Puissant Orchestre Poly-Rythmo last made a studio LP. More than two decades away from anything is a long time, but in popular music, 20 years is practically a geologic epoch-- everything changes, from the sounds on the records to the social conditions under which they're made. Back in their 1970s heyday, Poly-Rythmo were a nearly unmatched force, playing easily in any style on the stage and developing a sound all their own in the studio. Founded in 1966 as the Sunny Blacks Band (sometimes written Sunny Black's Band) by singer/guitarist Mélomé Clément, the group took the name Poly-Rythmo in 1969 in reference to the fact that they played all rhythms, and over the next 16 years, they recorded over 50 albums and hundreds of 45s for pretty much every label that ever operated in Benin.

The band was hobbled by the 1982 deaths of guitarist Papillon and drummer Yehouessi Léopold, and eventually petered out as the 80s wore on. A flash forward to the last few years finds the band finally being discovered by listeners outside of West Africa, the archival efforts of the Analog Africa, Soundway, and Popular African Music labels bringing the band's achievements into the light. And as with several of the their counterparts, the renewed interest brought the band back together. Or a new version of the band, at least. The 10-piece group that cut Cotonou Club contains five original Poly-Rythmo members-- Clément, singer Vincent Ahéhéhinnou, guitarist Maximus Ajanohun, saxophonist Pierre Loko, and bassist Gustave Bentho-- joined by six other musicians, some of whom have a bit of history with the group.

Does the new Poly-Rythmo measure up to the old? In a few very important respects, it does. It's never going to be the 70s again, of course, and there is a certain spirit of invention and restless creativity on the best of the classic Poly-Rythmo records that a project like this has little hope of recapturing. But it's more than a simple nostalgia trip. For one thing, it doesn't entirely give in to the appetite for funk that caused European and American audiences to get interested in the first place. Sure, most of the music leans that way, but Poly-Rythmo were always an eclectic band, and they haven't forgotten that here, mixing in a bit of highlife and rumba and taking a few surprising side trips into jazz. The result is something that feels a little like one of their old LPs with more studio polish-- producer Elodie Maillot took care to record the band on analog equipment to get some semblance of the natural warmth of their old albums, but the sound is left unadorned, just the band playing.

Amongst the new songs, they revisit a few past glories of Beninois music, including their biggest hit, "Gbeti Madjro". On it, they've recruited Benin's biggest pop star, Angelique Kidjo, to share the lead with Ahéhéhinnou while the band holds down the classic breakneck Poly-Rythmo groove, derived from a blend of funk and vodoun ceremonial rhythms. The band spins through tough Latin funk on "Koumi Dede", setting merengue piano against stabbing guitar and making room for a startling jazz solo by keyboardist Moïse Loko. Gnonnas Pedro's classic "Von Vo Nono" (featured on Analog Africa's Legends of Benin compilation) gets a slowed-down heavy funk treatment, the twin guitars of Ajanohun and Fifi LePrince put air in the highlife lilt of "Ma Vie", and there's even an unexpected collaboration with Franz Ferdinand's Nick McCarthy and Paul Thomson on "Lion Is Burning", a thumping Afrobeat rave-up that's been slotted as a bonus track.

I don't expect Orchestre Poly-Rythmo to return to their old prolific ways, but it's good to hear from them again. A common theme with these West African bands that have returned in the last decade-- think Bembeya Jazz and Orchestra Baobab-- is that they were dominant in their best years, but the stories ended unsatisfactorily. Coming back now and releasing albums that are close to the level of their classic material, not to mention playing around the world to big crowds, provides a sort of closure. It ends a long song on a high note, and if we're lucky, maybe even begins a new verse. Twenty-odd years ago, when Poly-Rythmo last made a studio album, they were at their lowest ebb. Cotonou Club finds them at another high.

pitchfork.com, by Joe Tangari, March 2011

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An inconsistent but frequently captivating return from the Benin legends.

Based in Benin’s seaside city of Cotonou, Orchestre Poly-Rythmo are the most recent great West African band to make a post-millennial comeback. Following a path similar to that trodden by Senegal’s Orchestra Baobab and Mali’s Orchestre Super Rail Band, Poly-Rythmo have emerged from prolonged hibernation as a result of several re-issues and interest from abroad.

Orchestre Poly-Rythmo’s heyday was the 1970s, as their funk, soul and Afrobeat influences underline. However, a combination of economic and political factors, management issues, the death of key members and bad luck meant this once-prolific band effectively stopped recording in 1983, and only rarely performed afterwards. But since 2003, compilations on Popular African Music, Luaka Bop, Soundway and Analog Africa (including African Scream Contest and Legends of Benin) have given them much wider exposure. Consequently, they were invited to headline the 2010 African Soul Rebels tour and recorded this new album.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, Cotonou Club largely consists of re-recordings of vintage material; some of the original pieces can be heard on the albums mentioned above. Ne Te Faches Pas is a strong opener, which retains its rubbery disco bounce and slick brass riffs (strongly reminiscent of late-80s OK Jazz), but is less than half the length of the version on The Kings of Benin (2003). In contrast, Gbeti Madjro is only slightly shorter than the old version, and has a welcome contribution from Benin’s sole superstar, Angelique Kidjo, who apparently used to sing with them. Of the other highlights, their take on Gnonnas Pedro’s Afro-funk gem Von Vo Nono, and the Afrobeat shuffle of Holonon (complete with James Brown-style screams and Moise Loko’s wonderfully cheesy keyboards) are the most noteworthy.

Sadly, the rest is less consistent. Lion Is Burning was recorded with two members of celebrity fans Franz Ferdinand but is little more than a jam, and seems to borrow quite heavily from Hugh Masekela’s Don’t Go Lose It Baby. Jeremy Tordjman’s rather flowery sleeve notes outstay their welcome, making spurious mileage out of Poly-Rythmo’s purely musical connections with the vodoun religion, which members are keen to stress they don’t adhere to. And it’s a shame the band don’t stretch out a little more on some of the songs. Even so, if Cotonou Club isn’t quite what it might have been, fans should bear in mind that the reformed Orchestra Baobab didn’t really hit their stride until their second ‘comeback’ recording.

bbc, by Jon Lush, March 2011

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After a delay of more than 20 years, there's a new album from one of West Africa's great dance bands. Formerly known as TP Orchestre Poly-Rythmo de Cotonou – TP standing for "tout puissant" or "all powerful", and Cotonou being the largest city in Benin – they started in the late 60s, recorded dozens of albums, but took decades to achieve international recognition. A series of compilation albums led to their eventual discovery by Western audiences, and the reformed band gave their first UK concert in 2009. This new album features several of those who played with Poly-Rhythmo in the 60s and 70s, and it's a rousing, varied affair. It continues their tradition of specialising in all styles, mixing Afrobeat with funk, jazz and local voodoo influences, here with help from celebrity supporters. Angélique Kidjo joins the stirring, funky revival of Gbeti Madjro, the new Malian star Fatoumata Diawara adds sturdy vocals to the brassy Mariage, and there's even an appearance by members of Franz Ferdinand on the rumbling finale, Lion Is Burning. It's a cheerful, stirring and perhaps deliberately unfocused set, but they sound even better live.

guardian

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You’ve got to love Strut. Whereas similar labels are happy to re-issue long lost LPs or compilations of old tracks from some of the little known heavyweights of African music, Strut always go the extra mile, often getting their artists back in the studio to release new music. Following storming new recording by the likes of Mulatu Astatke of Ethiopia and Ebo Taylor from Ghana, now it’s the turn of Benin’s voodoo funksters Orchestre Poly-Rythmo to show if they retain the mojo that brought them to fame in the late 60s with their unique fusion of highlife, Afro-beat, soul and jazz shot through with sacred rhythms.



Anyone who caught the band at their shows last year might not have doubted the group’s relevance in 2011, but their studio return exceeds all expectations. Recorded in Paris with producer Elodie Maillot (the journalist who tracked the band down in 2007 after hearing a crackly old vinyl recording while at Radio France), this is the band’s first LP in over 20 years and while some of the rawness that made those original recordings so stunning might have been lost, there is a depth and modern edge here that might just make this one of the African albums of the year. With new versions of classics like ‘Gbeti Madjro’, featuring Angelique Kidjo (one of a handful of featured guests who thankfully don’t dilute the brew as is often the case) alongside new compositions like the Latin tinged ‘Koumi Dede’ this is hopefully the first in a series of LPs from Clément Mélomé and his band. With the album released on four formats – including a heavyweight gatefold LP – and a bonus film, Strut are putting their attention into this one, and by the time you reach the finale ‘Lion Is Burning’ (featuring their big fans Franz Ferdinand) you feel like the band have earned it. While you need to catch them live to feel the full force, this is both a welcome and assured return to the studio by this incredible band.

mondomix.com

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It’s one thing to unearth great cuts by an old band, but quite another to dig up the band itself. The 1960s and ‘70s vintage recordings of Benin’s Orchestre Poly-Rythmo De Cotonou collected by the Analog Africa label on African Scream Contest, Legends Of Benin, and two sets devoted solely to the band are amongst the best arguments proffered by the 21st century to keep listening to music. By turns jubilantly propulsive and laconically grooving, the Orchestre’s output made a strong case that they were one of the top funk bands in the world. A combination of great success on their home continent, bad local politics and worse luck conspired to keep them from playing in Europe or the U.S. back in the day. Since then, a few key members died, and although they never completely packed it in, they rarely played between the late ‘80s and 2007.

It was that year that French journalist Elodie Maillot tracked them down for an interview. She got more than she bargained for; saxophonist Melome Clement and bassist Gustave Bentho charged her with getting them to Europe, and she complied. The Orchestre that first toured Europe in 2009 and played the U.S. in 2010 didn’t sound exactly like the spirited Orchestre of yore. A horn section provides more punch than the guitars, which lack the beginner’s mind inventiveness that Zoundegnon “Papillon” Bernard routinely summoned, but they avoided some of the worst missteps (stiff programmed beats, bad keyboard sounds) that trip up so much recent African pop, and they played their old songs with pride and more than sufficient energy.

Now comes the Orchestre’s first album in 20 years, Cotonou Club, and it has some of the bet-hedging one tends to see when musicians don’t trust what they’ve got — re-recordings of old material and guest stars. And what’s with the shortened name? That truncation extends to the song titles; “Dadje Von O Von Non,” which they first recorded with the singer Gnonnas Pedro, is now “Von Vo Nono.” It moves a bit slower now and it has a squiggly Minimoog, massed vocals, and a full horn section instead of the original’s spidery guitars responding to Pedro’s giddy call.

But different doesn’t mean bad; this version has gravitas as well as soul, and when they pick up the tempo and flow into a whooping vocal break, it’s clear that the Orchestre still has that hard-to-nail-down “it.” Likewise, its new version of “Gbeti Madjro” may not be quite so spacious and jittery, but it still hits it hard, and the energy in Clement’s lead vocal matches guest singer Angelique Kidjo’s.

The Orchestre still lives up to the Poly-Rythmo part of its name, taking the Congolese high-life groove of “Ma Vie” at a smoking sprint and mixing wah-wah funk guitar with salsa piano licks on “Koumi Dede.” The band doesn’t play like it wants your mercy; more like it wants you to dance, and if you don’t, it’s your loss.

Still, Cotonou Club is not a perfect album. “Lion Is Burning,” which features two members of Franz Ferdinand, isn’t a total travesty, but with its sore-thumb slide guitar flourishes and over-buffed synths, it does feel like it walked in from another, lesser album. But it’s tucked at the end of the record, easy to avoid if you’re of a mind to do so.

dustedmagazine.com

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It took far too long for Orchestre Poly-Rythmo — with or without “Tout Puissant” (all-powerful) appended — to make its name beyond Benin, where the group was formed in 1968, and elsewhere in West Africa, where it did all its performing until it toured Europe in 2009 and the Americas in 2010. Now it has made its first studio album since the 1980s: a chance to hear in detail the workings of a great funk band that still plays like young men.

The 11-man Orchestre Poly-Rythmo merges once-forbidden voodoo rhythms from Benin with the many other sounds that were percolating through West Africa in the 1960s and ’70s, among them Fela Kuti’s Afrobeat, James Brown’s funk, Afro-Cuban rumba and salsa, disco’s analog synthesizers and Afro-Brazilian rhythms. Horns punch out soul riffs; singers rasp, hoot and sometimes shout. The syncopated layer of brisk triplet voodoo rhythms from bells, hand drums and shakers — prominent in “Oce,” in which they intertwine with staccato guitars, and in the wah-wah-laced “Tegbe” — may well be the catalyst that makes the songs always seem to be eagerly leaping ahead.

For this album the group combed its huge repertory for surefire material, reviving older songs. The grooves lean toward salsa in “Koumi Dede” and Afrobeat in “C’est Moi ou C’est Lui,” but Orchestre Poly-Rythmo ratchets up the rhythms. Its singers work hard too; in the speedy “Gbeti Madjro,” which has a guest vocal by Angélique Kidjo (also from Benin), the bandleader, Mélomé Clément, answers her with a flat-out raspy scream.

“Cotonou Club” is the latest example of the symbiosis between wrongly obscure funk makers and once-distant fans who push them toward the wider world. It was produced by a determined French journalist, Elodie Maillot, and its final track, “Lion Is Burning,” is a collaboration with Paul Thomson and Nick McCarthy of Franz Ferdinand. The opening rhythm, British-style dance-rock, is a little stiff, but Orchestre Poly-Rythmo doesn’t let it stay that way. It piles on stuttering horns, wah-wah keyboards, quick-scrubbed rhythm guitar, group vocals and a very busy cowbell, and the polyrhythms ignite.

nytimes.com




Tracklist

01. Ne Te Fache Pas
02. Pardon
03. Von Vo Nono
04. Koumi Dede
05. Gbeti Madjro (feat. Angélique Kidjo)
06. Oce
07. Tegbe
08. Mariage / Cest Moi Ou C’est Lui (feat. Fatoumata Diawara)
09. Holonon
10. Ma Vie
11. Lion Is Burning (feat. Paul Thomson & Nick Mccarthy from Franz Ferdinand)