The spirits speak

The disc's title calls for clarification. "Vodou" is an alternative spelling for "voodoo." The "sacred" in the title refers to the fact that the 20 songs offered, ranging from unpolished field recordings to US studio productions for commercial consumption, utilize voodoo rhythms. How does an awareness of the sacred quality of this music affect what you hear? Complex polyrhythms are a signature of much of Haiti's popular music. And these rhythms invite fierce dancing as well as satisfying close listening. They represent transformations of traditional African drum rhythms intended for communication with a range of invisible spirits.

Unless you count Dr. John's psychedelic "gris-gris" rock, voodoo-inspired music has never hit the national charts. So to judge by the title, you might think that Rhythms of Rapture is "primitive" drumming and chanting for Haitians and ethnomusicologists and no one else. But the album shatters that stereotype. Boukman Eksperyans, Boukan Ginen, and RAM (the last featured on the soundtrack of Philadelphia) are essentially rock bands with a world appeal who build on a foundation of traditional Haitian drum rhythms. Each is well represented by one tune. All boast a charismatic lead vocalist, stinging electric guitar lines, and layers of interlocking drum rhythms drawn from traditional Afro-Haitian rituals. Their music could comfortably play in the context of an Afropop radio show or MTV broadcast. The vocals are that polished, the electrified rhythms perfect for dance clubs.

On the other hand, a 1947 field recording made by the American cinematographer (and voodoo initiate) Maya Deren of Philocles Rosenbere, a/k/a "Coyote," offers the roots of bands like Boukman Eksperyans. Here is a masterful drummer demonstrating his talent before fellow villagers, singing for the spirit rather than for Yankee dollars. It would be easy to imagine a career for him in other musical and cultural contexts -- a Haitian Chano Pozo? -- had he refocused his music commercially. This is a raw and dramatic moment in which a drummer honors the divine in himself and his audience, far from the world of music as entertainment.

Falling somewhere between the most commercial and the most ritualistically devout musicians are folkloric groups. A high point on Rhythms of Rapture is "Simbi Dio" by La Troupe Makandal, a Haitian folkloric group currently based in New York City. This riveting and distinctive dialogue between singers and a single trombonist sustained for several minutes is now in constant rotation on my CD player. And you thought that in Caribbean music the spirits spoke only through drums and singers? The unidentified trombonist blasts with the energy of a voodoo-inspired cross between J.J. Johnson and Caribbean trombone master and ska pioneer Don Drummond.

After spending nearly an hour with this disc, you might want to know more about voodoo. Rhythms of Rapture was released in conjunction with Sacred Arts of Haitian Vodou, a sumptuous 450-page catalogue edited by Donald J. Cosentino and published by the UCLA Fowler Museum of Cultural History to accompany the largest exhibit of voodoo art ever shown in this country. (Just opened in LA, it will go to New York's Museum of Natural History in 1997.) Filled with substantial essays by authorities like Robert Farris Thompson and Suzanne Blier, bursting with eye-opening color photos of altars, flags, and other ritual objects, Sacred Arts is the best general book in English about a vastly misunderstood system of Caribbean spirituality and the art it inspires. You could fault it for mentioning the music on Rhythms of Rapture just three times, but the perspectives offered on all other aspects of voodoo art make this essential reading. Voodoo spirits are called "loas"; in Mumbo Jumbo, novelist Ishmael Reed has a character declare, "Remember to feed the loas." This recording and book will.