Sep 6/06
How to release 100 albums and be forgotten
Let’s be honest here: at its core, Benn loxo is all about Charlotte Dada and the amazing variety of soul and funk music that came out of East and West Africa during the 1970s. Today we go back to these roots with some horn-infused, organ-induced, heavy-on-the-bass, yet still so African 1970s tunes from the Republic of Benin.
Following the success of their two Ghana Soundz releases, Soundway released an amazing best-of compilation of one West Africa’s least known “golden era” bands, T.P. Orchestre Poly-Rythmo de Cotonou. As usual, they did a great job cleaning up the vinyl and bringing the tunes back to life without over-reproducing. We can thank Soundway’s Miles Cleret for the great crate-digging.
Despite their relative obscurity outside of Benin, The “Tout Puissant” Orchestre Poly-Rythmo are still a household name in Cotonou and were one of the most prolific groups to ever exist in Africa. Cleret reckons that they released over 50 full-length LPs and hundreds of 45s.
Today’s first track sounds a lot like one of my all-time favourite shower songs, Tighten-Up by Archie Bell and the Drells. The second.. shivers. I love it.
T.P. Orchestre Poly-Rythmo – Les Djos
T.P. Orchestre Poly-Rythmo – Kokoriko
Rumour has it Charlotte Dada is at a safe house in the Sentier district of Paris.
I think you might be confusing her with her daughter..
But seriously folks, apparently there was a Charlotte Dada documentary shown at the Toronto Film Festival a few years back. Has anyone seen it? Does anyone know anything more about this woman with the Ghana-sweet, Beatle-covering voice?
TP Polyrythmo de Cotonou is still alive and well in Benin with many of the original members. Last year they released a great CD “Nouvelle Formule”
Would love to hear their newer stuff – do you have a track or two from Nouvelle Formule to share on this site?
Benin the size of Luxembourg? Huh??
You’re right. It’s only about 48x larger than Luxembourg.
Post updated, early morning way-off comparisons deleted.
Thanks for the post, one of my favorite comps from last year, from a band I knew nothing about before 2005. The track that kicked off the Love’s a Real Thing comp on Luaka Bop is fantastic as well.
Excellent selection, as ussual.
Do you think it could be possible to make available the old posts that you sometimes mention?. I´m really intrigued about Charlotte Dada!
Will,
Absolutely. I’ve been meaning to re-post requests for a while now.. I’ve done it a few times in the past.
If there’s anything in particular you’d like to see please let me know.
Funny that noone’s mentioned the fantastic PolyRythmo comp on Popular African Music… Benin must be Africa’s best kept secret as far as golden age afro funk and pop goes – such a shame that practically nothing’s been reissued so far…
Yep, Orch Poly-Rhythmo de Cotonou Dahomey was always a fave group of mine, those lovely old 45s on the Alabarika Store label like Gbeti ma Djro / Angelina II. Great to hear these two cuts, man. Dig that guitar sound.
a discovery. love it. thx
[...] I’m saying all this because that was the first thing I thought of when I saw in the liner notes that Le Tout Puissant Poly Rythmo got their start in 1967 in Professor Wallace Creppy’s group, Sunny Black. Now I’m sitting here listening to Poly Ryhmo’s track, Agbaza Mimim, off their album Nouvelle Formule, and all I can imagine is my father slapping the steering wheel of his silver Oldsmobile, singing along like it was The Turtles’ Happy Together. [...]
[...] Records. You should all know and love their Ghana Soundz releases, plus Afro-baby and that great TP Orchestre Poly-Rythmo release put together by Miles [...]
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