“This tour de force study of vòdún music and religion addresses how the two intersect, interpenetrate, and inform each other—and the world at large. A beautifully written book, at once intellectually rigorous and poetic, Transforming Vòdún is a must-read for scholars, students, practitioners, and the general public alike—anyone interested in global music, religion, and how Africa has shaped both.”
—Suzanne Blier, Harvard University

- Suzanne Blier

“This is a colorful, nuanced, and dynamically conceived manuscript that makes the sounds and concepts of one of West Africa’s most important music cultures accessible to the wider world. It is destined to sit among the classic works of African musical history.”
—Michael E. Veal, Yale University

- Michael E. Veal

“Transforming Vòdún contributes to the literature on Beninese jazz and brass bands and vòdún, approaching these topics from the viewpoint of postcolonial trauma studies, diaspora studies, and music and ritual. For all of these reasons, the manuscript will be of interest to ethnomusicologists and can be used in classes on African music, global pop music, jazz studies, and West African history.”
—Patricia Tang, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

- Patricia Tang

"Transforming Vòdún shines as an exploration of Vodun's part in adaptable West African communities of practice and its role in the transformation of postcolonial trauma into multimodal performed histories. Demonstrating the cultural dynamics of Beninese jazz and Vodun, Politz's book offers a vision of Black Atlantic sacred arts as portals into fraught pasts and culturally, visually, and sonically interconnected futures."

- Elyan Hill