Cuba and West Africa have long had musical links so it's no wonder, really, that renowned Havana-based pianist Roberto Fonseca and leftfield Malian guitarist and singer Fatoumata Diawara – former label mates on London's World Circuit records – share a wavelength. Having met and jammed in Paris the two hit the road, performing at festivals including France's Jazz in Marciac, where this excellent live album was recorded. Kicking off with Diawara's ‘Sowa’, a track propelled by both the hard-driving funk of the kamele n'goni hunter's harp and some deftly placed phrasing from Fonseca, it moves into the latter's ‘Connection’, a joyous 14-minute descarga wig out in which Afro-Cuban percussion and bold piano montuno weave a thread around Diawara's slender, passionate voice. A new track, ‘Real Family’, co-written by both, unfurls slowly, with theatrical spoken word French sliding over pretty piano melodies before Diawara sends her voice soaring, husky, powerful and contained, its effect on a rapt live audience almost palpable here.