TP Orchestre Poly-Rythmo De Cotonou

★★★★ Segla

ACID JAZZ. DL/LP

Iincredibly rare Benin funk and dancefloor groove.

Very little is known about quite probably the rarest album issued by Cotonou, Benin’s TP Orchestre Poly-Rythmo De Cotonou – TP meaning “tout puissant” or “all powerful”. Recorded amid line-up upheavals at EMI Lagos in Nigeria, and rush released in 1978 without a sleeve as ALS059 on Adissa Seidou’s Albarika Store label, it nevertheless stands alongside their greatest work, transcendence arriving early on the first of three tracks, Mi Kple Mi De, a 16-minute plus celebratory mesh of funk and Beninese beat, where vivifying horns dance atop vodun rhythms and soulful chanting lifts you high. Dodji Lo, meanwhile, at nine and a half minutes, is all jittery plucked guitar and brisk syncopation, and the title track, a mere six minutes-plus, looks west to The Isley Brothers, Jimi Hendrix and Santana, and summons fire and shamanic psychedelic blues.