It'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.
