From the first hummed notes, it was clear that Vusi Mahlasela's session at the Recital Studio was going to be special.

With a voice rich and compelling, the singer-songwriter known at home in Africa and around the world as the voice of revolution for his anti-apartheid efforts and post-apartheid call for reconciliation, gave a gentle lesson in humanity and empathy through a repertoire both uplifting and deeply moving.

Spanning folk, rock, jazz, reggae, blues and rooted in traditional African folk, Vusi's music was sheer poetry in its musical and textual lyricism. The work of a sensitive and masterful craftsman, it expressed a quiet grief and anger at injustice while offering courage and hope to the oppressed.

Beginning his set alone with the impassioned anthem Ubuhle, Vusi was then joined by superb musicians Mark Calderon on bass guitar (and backup vocals) and the smouldering Ian Hermon on drums. Together, the trio (which should have been a quartet, except that guitarist Matthew Heulitt was stuck in their hotel room, down with food poisoning) delivered a part-English, part-Zulu repertoire that ran a gamut of emotions, styles and themes.

This included the infectious, reggae-styled protest song Chamber, Our Sand, a cry of anger at the unjust displacement of the desert San people in Botswana, his celebrative South African hit Silang with its call for unity, Loneliness, a beautiful song of comfort dedicated to "all those who are lonely", a tribute to freedom fighter Thandi Modise, Song for Thandi, the maskanda-inflected Jabula, the heart-rending spiritual Thula,
the bluesy Red Song, and a stirring anthem about people
returning to Africa post-apartheid from the Sundance-winning film Amandla!, When You Come Back.

Then as the concert drew to a close with the upbeat Miyele Africa and Africa Borwa, a member of the audience got up to dance and shake each smiling musician's hand. Beaming, the trio bowed to the audience, radiating a genuine sweetness that warmed us all long after the concert was over.

The blues! Oh, mercy me, the blues! If there were any genre of music that really brings sheer passion and love from its musicians, this would be it-and if you were lucky enough to catch Philippines' Lampano Alley and Singapore’s very own ublues, you'd have seen that love first hand.

Our local boys led the charge, jumping straight into Soul Fixin' Man, setting the tone for the night with deep down home blues laced with lots of funk and some good ol' rock n' roll.

Lead singer Trevor Jalla's versatile voice wailed with an electric ferocity matched by the soulful keyboards of bandleader Danny Loong. But it wasn't until the introduction of Teo Boon Chye on saxophone and Italy's Enrico Crivellaro on guitar did things really heated up.

What started off as a friendly sax-vs.-keyboard solo duel between Boon Chye and Danny during the band's rendition of Gimme Some Lovin' turned into a wonderfully improvised all-out war. Not to be outdone, Enrico spent the whole evening shredding his guitar, with wailing, eloquent and emotion-drenched solos that left the audience and rest of the band awestruck.

It's an understatement to say that the boys set the bar pretty high for Lampano Alley-but from the moment singer Binky Lampano broke out into BB King's down-low Everybody Wanna Know Why I Sing The Blues, in that fantastic, unmistakable growl of his, all uncertainty of whether the Filipino band could keep up was tossed out the window. Throw legendary harmonica player Tom Colvin into the mix with his soulful solos and it was clear that the out-of-towners only brought things to a whole new level.

Individually, both bands were phenomenal. Together, however, in one last hurrah, they were the stuff of legend. Performing Muddy Waters' Got My Mojo Working, the two groups closed the evening with one hell of a bang!

6:30pm at the Mosaic Living Room: Consisting of five lovely ladies and a beat-boxer, nanu showed a whole new side to a cappella, as they made their way through everything from pop hits to disco classics and even Chinese traditional numbers.

8:00pm at Nokia Powerhouse: Mixing classic jazz up with a bit of soul, funk and groove, local outfit K'Ass should come with a disclaimer warning people just how infectious their music is. With a set that consisted of tracks by everyone from the Brand New Heavies to Randy Crawford, these guys clearly know how to party!

9:00pm at the Mosaic Living Room: Acoustic duo d'Easton Ritmo know their stuff. Their wide-ranging repertoire covered sing-along classics like The Eagles' Hotel California, Robbie Williams' Better Man and even the Latino ballad Beautiful Maria of My Soul from that Antonio Banderas movie.

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