In an energising vibrant performance Angelique Kidjo did not just steal the show on Friday night, but she was the toast of this year's entire jazz festival.

A major highlight of the four day event was a surprise performance by Diane Reeves with Ms Kidjo during her set.

An almost last minute replacement for the great South African songstress Miriam Makeba who was too ill to participate in this year's event, producers BET (Black Entertainment Television) served audience goers well with their choice of Ms Kidjo. Her sound is indicative of her native West Africa with pulsating rhythms that bleed right into your pores and force you to your feet. And although you probably will not understand the lyrics, most of which are not in English, you can feel her positive message of love and joy.

She started off her set with Batonga and its very distinctively West African sound then moved on to Bahia, a piece inspired on her first visit to Brazil and which featured a very South American - salsa - beat. By the time the audience had heard "Light Every Soul", "Afirika", "Tumba" and "Malayka", they had learned the unique Kidjo sound.

Echoes of her full bodied rich sound are still playing in my head and what made it all the more amazing is that it emanated out of such a small frame.

She might have been five feet but her voice was as powerful as Mahalia Jackson or Jesse Norman.

And then she can dance! Not the swaying from side to side with a the occasional little hip gyrations, but a full enegertic performance in the West African style not often seen on stage or screen in the West. Bounding on the stage in turquoise and a magenta silk, Ms Kidjo with her very closely cropped hair and bright wide smile, showed her very mod style. She was like beam of radiant light as she interspersed her selections with some of her philosophies on life.

"Do whatever you can to make yourself happy. Whatever it takes," she said. "This is very important it is the only way you will be able to make others happy. It is the only way happiness can spread."

And the happiness was certainly spreading by her last song, forcing her to do an encore where she came down from the stage and joined audience members dancing. The celebratory note the night ended on was in complete contrast to the three acts which preceded Ms Kidjo.

Shine Hayward & Friends started the evening off with the easy listening melodic tunes local audiences expect from him. Keyboard player Roy Ayers started out the foreign acts with full funk sound which took you straight back to the seventies. Sporting one of those hats with a feather in it, a rust coloured suit and black T-shirt, my man looked like he is stuck in the decade. But that's all right - it was good, it was great to hear those tunes again, and in such a pure form. Chances are that simply would not have been possible if he had changed a bit with the times.

Newcomer Deidre Azziza who won a talent search promotion held in New York in connection withe the Bermuda Jazz Festival, had so impressed Mr. Ayers in New York that he brought her along to Bermuda. And she was impressive doing the lead vocals for his signature song, "(Everybody Loves the) Sunshine".

While Herbie Hancock is widely known as a jazz performer, he did not play a single recogniseable hit on Friday night. His set was deep. Real deep. It was what I call intellectual jazz. It was not for everyone. It was for me.

Mr. Hancock spoke briefly before he took his seat in front of the piano. He told the audience it was his first trip to the Island and that the music he and the band would be presenting would be "an exploration" . And an exploration is just how it felt. The band started out heavy with "Dolphin Dance", merged into "Wild Hornets", a piece very befittingly named and after that where a piece began and ended was imperceptible. The band jammed.

The band played full out, there was no stopping for little anecdotes, no animations for the audience. The drummer had her face turned away from the audience the entire time she played. Her ear faced her drums - she was focused on the sound.

The saxophone player just stood in front of the mike and blew. He blew me away. I missed not being able to see the bassist's fingers, despite being in front of the front row, I could barely see his face.

But he, he was good, I could hear him, and after all this was a jazz show and jazz is music - it is sound. So eventually I closed my eyes with these guys and guess what? I found myself on an exploration.