Krar Collective

Thank you for your kind enquiries about my hospital visit - not great news, I need to have several operations to put right something fairly complex but I'm advised that the NHS being what it is, nothing will happen soon. Next stage is an MRI scan which I thought was only something that happened in House. As you'd expect, I'm not going to let this stop me living life, though it may not be at quite the usual pace...

To prove the point, I went to see Ethiopian band, Krar Collective, this evening. They were joined by three London brass players and gave their usual traditional music a jazzy edge at times. The krar is an ancient instrument rather like a lute and Temesgen Zeleke is a renowned master of the instrument, he also has an amazing voice. But the main vocalist was Genet Assefa who not only stunned us with her sweet and powerful voice, but also with her Ethiopian dance moves and changes of costume for each number so that she was dressed appropriately, in accord with the provenance of the music. Great stuff!