Blackstar Live in Vienne, France

This special performance sees a meeting between two interesting forces in modern African-American music. The first is Blackstar, a hip hop outfit made up of the iconic Yasiin Bey (formerly Mos Def) and Talib Kweli. Formed in the late 90s, they were hailed for injecting a sense of sharp social and political observation onto a scene that had been characterised by gang violence in much of the mainstream media. The second is the Hypnotic Brass Ensemble, an extraordinary outfit composed of the eight sons of trumpeter Phil Cohran, all dressed in white, wielding different horns and playing a mix of jazz, rock, funk, hip hop and music from around the world. 

Here, at the Jazz à Vienne festival, Blackstar are supported by the Hypnotic Brass Ensemble for a show that demonstrates the links between jazz and hip hop, as well as the power of spoken word. Indeed, both Bey and Kweli take old techniques and make them feel new, like call and response, dialogue interplay and audience participation. But it’s not necessarily meant to cook up an atmosphere in the arena … that is there already. Instead, they are artists in touch with the long lineage of beats and words, modern poets and town criers here to throw up a mirror to society and offer a new narrative. Its a thrilling and important performance.