The Rough Guide to Ethiopia

Mention Brazilian jazz to most music fans and the inevitable bossa nova images flood into view: the beach, the female whisper-vocal, the rimshot snare drumming, the chord-plucked acoustic guitar, possibly a little muted batucada percussion, breathy alto saxophone and cabaret-vamp piano. It's an image ineluctably stuck in the 1960s, when most aspiring Brazilian musicians looked to America's West Coast 'cool jazz' scene for inspiration, listening to artists such as the Modern Jazz Quartet, Chet Baker, Paul Winter, Jimmy Giuffre and Stan Getz.

The 1960s and 1970s across Africa were decades defined by bright optimism and clashing sensibilities. Music plunged through the heart of this dynamic time and was a powerful tool of expression. Far-out psychedelic-sounding rock mixed with a thick dollop of deep funk and soul became the sound of a generation.