Even on a particularly strong bill, singer, bandleader and political activist Femi Kuti was a star attraction at this year’s Celtic Connections, with his superb band The Positive Force laying a strong claim for finest ensemble of the festival. Still, Kuti challenged his initial resolve to let the music do the talking with passionate humanitarian appeals and political barbs scattered across a gloriously energetic set, powered not only by Kuti’s charisma and his band’s irresistible pulse but by a trio of backing singers and dancers in perpetual booty-shaking motion to rhythms which demanded a response.

Kuti was a taut, wired presence, exuding James Brown-like showmanship in his seamless call-and-response with his singers and marshalling of the musicians, powering down to make way for a psychedelic organ interlude only to ramp it up again with his febrile saxophone playing. He often played across the exultant blasts of the brass section with powerful keening drones unleashed by the man who holds the Guinness World Record for longest sustained saxophone note. Elsewhere, there was beseeching soul, sunny reggae and Cuban piano riffs to colour the party before some punchy Afrofunk propelled the audience to their feet and instigated dance frenzy.

Ever the mischievous MC, Kuti took it right down to the tiniest tinkle of piano before the entire congregation exploded back into life. The politics of dancing is a Kuti family business and he honoured his father Fela's crusading legacy on the likes of Look Around as well as covering the soul jazz rage of Beasts of No Nation in the encore.

Femi Kuti & The Positive Force reviewed at Royal Concert Hall, Glasgow as part of Celtic Connections.