For all that we’re living through desperate times, it can be sobering to consider the challenges facing creative people in eras and places by no means unimaginably distant from our own. Take, for ...

Séance of the ancient and urban, conjured by a spidery, hypnotic rhythm derived from spirit possession ceremonies, the Orchestre Poly-Rythmo de Cotonou owes its black magic to the Vodoun Effect. That ...

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Le Tout-Puissant Orchestre Poly-Rythmo is a difficult ensemble to follow. For one thing, they have functioned under the names Poly Rythmo de Cotonou, TP Orchestre Poly-Rythmo and L'International ...

Sign up for City Lights, our twice-weekly guide to arts and nightlife in the D.C. area. It lands in your inbox every Sunday and Thursday. With entrees like shrimp ...

Sign up for City Lights, our twice-weekly guide to arts and nightlife in the D.C. area. It lands in your inbox every Sunday and Thursday. The musicians in Orchestre ...

Better than: Air conditioning in a heat wave. There’s a shopping list of fine pop bands from throughout the African continent listed on one page of drumming major John Miller Chernoff’s esteemed 1979 ...

This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts. If you didn’t know any better, you might easily mistake Orchestre ...

Three cult albums, culled from a repertory of over 500 songs, primed an expectant audience. Having the tag “voodoo funk” attached doesn’t do any harm to the band’s mystique either and, for once, it is ...

Last September Orchestre Poly-Rythmo de Cotonou played to a packed house at the Barbican Centre in London. There’s nothing unusual about a sold-out gig, but what was unusual was that this was ...

Le Tout-Puissant Orchestre Poly-Rythmo is a difficult ensemble to follow. For one thing, they have functioned under the names Poly Rythmo de Cotonou, TP Orchestre Poly-Rythmo and L'International ...

Two decades after breaking up, this versatile unit from West Africa's Benin returns with some new members and a good deal of their initial creative spark. Save this story Save this story It's been ...