WOMAD

Bukky Leo & Black Egypt

From Nigeria

I don’t know. You wait around for a top-drawer Afrobeat combo to grace the Rivermead stages and then, unlike those much-missed Routemaster buses (RIP), two come hurtling down the M4 at once. Not only are we blessed by the mighty Femi Kuti, we also heartily welcome Bukky Leo, a saxophonist and singer who, back in the day, was plucked from Lagos’ streets by Fela Kuti’s drummer Tony Allen to star in his new band. He would very soon also be sharing a stage with the great fella Fela. Having relocated to the UK from Lagos in the early 1980s, Bukky was, within a few years, headhunted for the Acid Jazz label by an unfeasibly young Gilles Peterson and subsequently transformed into one of the acid jazz movement’s darlings. Following a prolonged spell in Egypt during the 1990s, he recruited a new band – Black Egypt – and was picked up again on the cultural radar at the tail end of last year, thanks to the band’s Afrobeat Visions album for Brighton’s Mr Bongo label. A chunky, funky set that drew upon Bukky’s deep Afrobeat heritage, it retained the music’s inherent Afrocentricity and freewheeling jazz sensibilities, but added a decent dose of soul and house. Past meets future for the sound of now. Catch This If You Like… Femi Kuti or Tony Allen