Samaris
Servant Jazz Quarters, London N16
The Bug + dBridge + Mad Professor + Mala
Koko, London NW1
As Peter Green was conquering depression and mental illness in the mid-'90s he candidly confessed: "I'm not afraid anymore. Music doesn't scare me the way it used to…" The Splinter Group's body of work provides eloquent supporting evidence of this.
The latest album from eldest son of Afro-beat founder Fela is a bleak ode to world poverty and though Femi's music is anything but bleak, its content shines a mirror on today's sorry state of affairs.
Ten years since the Scanners started their stuttering journey through the world of independent labels and grotty venues, they feel like a band enjoying the benefits of foreign success.
Brudenell Social Club, Leeds/Touring
Only six months before I finally meet David Henry Hwang, the Western world's most famous playwright of east Asian heritage, the British East Asian Artists (BEAA) led an international protest when the Royal Shakespeare Company gave a miserly three - minor - roles out of 17 to east Asian actors in their first Chinese play The Orphan Of Zhao.
It was an absolute honour to play there.