Protest, Polyvalence, and Indirection in Benin's Brass Band Music
Sarah Politz
The heterogeneous movement of international street bands exemplified by the HONK! festival has often identified a common enemy in the forces of authoritarianism and global capitalism. This chapter argues that brass bands like the Gangbe Brass Band of Benin, West Africa, bring to this movement a divergent set of histories with such global forces, which shape their economic practices and musical aesthetics in pragmatic ways. The chapter shows how Gangbe’s projects have been a forum for the working out of members’ divided perspectives on Benin’s authoritarian past, the neoliberal present, and the value of its national culture during the 1990s and 2000s. The chapter focuses in particular on Gangbe’s advocacy of individualist, entrepreneurial production and marketing strategies; and their fusion of traditional vodun rhythmic textures, dances, and body percussion with diasporic repertoires like New Orleans brass band music. From a historical perspective, this chapter examines brass musicians’ inheritance of a form of authoritarian Marxism which, in the 1970s and ’80s, imposed regulations on traditional religious celebrations in Benin. The cultural renaissance that then took place in the 1990s brought brass musicians into the project of marketing Benin’s culture as a heritage commodity in a neoliberal, capitalist framework.
Sarah Politz is Assistant Professor of Ethnomusicology at the University of Florida. Her work focuses on creative practice in African and Afro-diasporic music, with a particular focus on the popular music traditions of the Republic of Benin. She performs actively as a jazz trombonist.
Chapter media:
Link 4.1: "Noubioto" by Gangbé Brass Band
Sarah Politz
The heterogeneous movement of international street bands exemplified by the HONK! festival has often identified a common enemy in the forces of authoritarianism and global capitalism. This chapter argues that brass bands like the Gangbe Brass Band of Benin, West Africa, bring to this movement a divergent set of histories with such global forces, which shape their economic practices and musical aesthetics in pragmatic ways. The chapter shows how Gangbe’s projects have been a forum for the working out of members’ divided perspectives on Benin’s authoritarian past, the neoliberal present, and the value of its national culture during the 1990s and 2000s. The chapter focuses in particular on Gangbe’s advocacy of individualist, entrepreneurial production and marketing strategies; and their fusion of traditional vodun rhythmic textures, dances, and body percussion with diasporic repertoires like New Orleans brass band music. From a historical perspective, this chapter examines brass musicians’ inheritance of a form of authoritarian Marxism which, in the 1970s and ’80s, imposed regulations on traditional religious celebrations in Benin. The cultural renaissance that then took place in the 1990s brought brass musicians into the project of marketing Benin’s culture as a heritage commodity in a neoliberal, capitalist framework.
Sarah Politz is Assistant Professor of Ethnomusicology at the University of Florida. Her work focuses on creative practice in African and Afro-diasporic music, with a particular focus on the popular music traditions of the Republic of Benin. She performs actively as a jazz trombonist.
Chapter media:
Link 4.1: "Noubioto" by Gangbé Brass Band
Supplemental Links:
https://www.lafriquedanslesoreilles.com/gangbe
https://www.facebook.com/gangbebrassband/
https://www.facebook.com/eyonlebenin/
https://www.facebook.com/viviolamusicdumonde/
Supplemental Articles:
Copeland, Lyndsey. 2019. The Anxiety of Blowing: Experiences of Breath and Brass Instruments in Benin. Africa 89(2): 353-377.
Politz, Sarah. 2018. "People of Allada, This is Our Return": Indexicality, Multiple Temporalities, and Resonance in the Music of the Gangbé Brass Band of Benin. Ethnomusicology 62(1): 28-57.
Politz, Sarah. 2018. "We Don't Want to be Jazz-Jazz": Afro-Modernism, Jazz, and Brass Band Music in Benin. Jazz & Culture 1: 12-48.
