★★★★☆It’s quite a challenge: how to play dance music in a huge venue that is all but empty? A year ago, thousands of us were swaying and clapping to an electrifying Prom by Angélique Kidjo, who was paying homage, in her unique way, to Talking Heads and Celia Cruz. Now, even when it was skilfully dressed up with multicoloured TV lights, the beloved Albert Hall couldn’t help looking a little like a mausoleum. Congratulations, then, to the youthful London-based Afrobeat-meets-jazz octet Kokoroko for managing to generate the semblance of a gig. In what was, they explained, their first live performance since lockdown, the trumpeter Sheila Maurice-Grey and her colleagues struck a rare balance between head and heart.

Source: The Times September 08, 2020 11:03 UTC