Live Review: The Abyssinians, Johnny Clarke, Iration Steppas, Kingfisha

World music and the blues are not necessarily peas in a pod that spring instantly to mind. This night, however, thanks to the Australasian World Music Expo, we are provided with an opportunity to think about this dichotomy in a more than interesting and thoroughly enjoyable way. There's something fundamentally exhilarating about the blues, the basis as it is for rock'n'roll, without which none of us would even be reading this publication, and tonight we bear witness to two distinctly variable, though related, forms.

First up is the adorable Kutcha Edwards: raconteur and possessor of one of this country's most resonant and soulful voices; more stately than a statesman and with a keen eye for despair balanced by a wicked sense of humour. Opening number Scars sets the tone for the rest of the set: a deftly balanced coming together of sadness and hope, laughter and horror, rhythm and blues. Just like James Taylor in his guest spot in The West Wing, Edwards treats us to a cover of Sam Cooke's A Change Is Gonna Come. Penultimate number Roll With The Rhythm is a real showstopper, in the best sense the word could possibly evoke. Finally, closer Get Back Up Again says it all, really.

Mali blues man Boubacar Traoré hits the stage armed with his guitar, a percussionist playing some kind of instrument this scribe has never seen before, a world-beating harmonica player whose accompaniment is more like language than music, and a suit that looks like it was designed by an African Jackson Pollock. The music we hear for the next hour is beautiful and uplifting, the lyrics sung in a language very few of us understand, and specifically designed, it seems, to move us in ways we aren't often moved. A young African girl dances in the aisle in a manner that this writer has only ever seen in James Bond films, and somehow this says more about Traoré's music than mere words ever could. The voice we are hearing is every bit as soulful as that of Edwards, though obviously coming from a very different place geographically. Despite the miles, though, and the wildly different timbre of the sounds, there is more that unites these two artists than separates them, and we are truly privileged to be in their presence. In the end, of course, this is a big part of what world music is all about, and this particular evening is a stunning success.