Event information

Nicola Conte brings the joyful, globe spanning sound of Umoja to our stage, with Zara McFarlane on vocals.

Named after the Swahili word for unity, Umoja is music built for moving to, drawing on the 70s cosmic jazz and African and Afro Caribbean rhythms that fill Conte’s record collection, with a nod to Fela Kuti and Tony Allen’s Afrobeat. Recorded live to analogue tape, it crackles with the energy of a band playing together in one room, as at home on the dancefloor as it is on the turntable.

A DJ, producer, guitarist and bandleader, Conte is a lifelong crate digger with a knack for spotting great voices early, championing Gregory Porter and José James in Europe long before they became household names. Here he and McFarlane bring their collaboration to our stage, with the voice behind ‘Arise’ joining him for a night of their music together.