Jazz in Benin
Following Benin’s independence in 1960, the US Bureau of Educational and Cultural Relations sponsored music events in Benin’s capital city, Cotonou, including jazz, though it’s unclear whether this impacted local musicians at all. In any case, the country had a vibrant music scene. The funky, afrobeat band “Tout Puissant” Orchestre Poly-Rythmo de Cotonou recorded prolifically between 1973 and the 1980s. Various compilations in the early 2000s brought their appealing music back into the limelight, and they reformed in 2009. More recently, two Beninese-born artists have had a significant impact in jazz internationally – singer-songwriter Anjelique Kidjo (born 1960) and singer-guitarist Lionel Loueke (born 1973).
Anjelique Kidjo was influenced by Togolese singer-songwriter, Bella Below, whose ‘Blewu’ she covered on her breakout album on her first European solo album Parakou in 1990. Other influences ranged from Manu Dibango and Miriam Makeba to Stevie Wonder and James Brown. Born in Oudiah, Kidjo performed in public from an early age. She moved to Paris in 1983, studied jazz at the CIM, and worked with Dutch pianist Jasper van ‘t Hof in the group Pili Pili, who recorded three albums (1987-1990). Signing to Island Records, Logozo (1991) was critically acclaimed and led to her first world tour. Kidjo is hugely popular and has worked with a number of great jazz musicians (Herbie Hancock, Branford Marsalis, Cassandra Wilson), but her open-eared approach to music mean she is just as likely to collaborate with Philip Glass or Josh Groban. She has a particularly striking ability with inventive covers of other people’s songs, taking something like Gershwin’s ‘Summertime’ and turning it on its head. ‘Redemption Song’, ‘Voodoo Chile’ and ‘Lay, Lady, Lay’ are three further examples that pop up on her albums, along with guest appearances from Henri Salvador, The Kronos Quartet, Gilberto Gil and John Legend, to name a tiny sampling.
The guest arranger on Kidjo’s Grammy-nominated 2010 album Õÿö was fellow Beninese ex-patriate, Lionel Loueke. He was born in Cotonou into a poor, but educated, family. Inspired by his older brother, who played guitar, Loueke listened to and learned from Wes Montgomery, Joe Pass, George Benson and Kenny Burrell. He studied in Cote d’Ivoire, Paris and then at Berklee College of Music from 1999-2001. An audition for UCLA’s Thelonious Monk Institute got him heard by Terence Blanchard and Herbie Hancock, both of whom would go on to use Loueke on albums in the early 2000s.
In 2008, signed by Blue Note, he released the album Karibu, which featured guest spots from Wayne Shorter and Hancock. A 2010 album ‘Mwaliko’ brought him together with Richard Bona and Kidjo. Loueke tours widely, and has collaborated with artists as varied as Australia’s The Vampires and Sting. He maintains a regular trio with ex-Berklee classmates, drummer Ferenc Nemeth and bassist Massimo Biolcati.
