The Barbican's excellent run of Brazilian gigs continued with a night of nostalgia. Jorge Ben Jor's backing band in the late 1960s was the excellent Trio Mocotó all are still in fine health. The trio's recent album Samba Rock appeared after a silence of 26 years, the title referring back to the style they helped define in Rio and Sao Paolo at the height of the Black Power movement. Their music is completely at home in that sunshine jazz-samba vibe that makes Brazil seem the ultimate place to live.

Mocotó kicked off with an upbeat set that was so good-humoured you could be forgiven for thinking you had wandered into a comedy club. On stage they are dominated by the cartoon presence of percussionist Nereu Gargalo, who ends each number with an excessive hands-in-the-air gesture and chortles into his microphone like Scooby Doo. The three rode through problems with their sound, chanting their unworried motto: Beleza! Beleza!! Beleza!!!

Jorge Ben Jor's output is so vast it seems to speak for a nation rather an individual. At the Barbican, dressed in white with dark glasses, he pumped out one classic after another. The only glaring omission was Mas Que Nada, but no one cared as the house rocked to the serious soul and funk sounds of his eight-piece band.

Evergreen hits like Filha Maravilha, Pais Tropical and W/Brasil poured out without showmanship. A carnival interlude raised the frenzy level. In a parting gesture that left a Basque lady next to me fuming, Ben's percussionist picked three dozen women to come on stage for the final medley. The girly dance party around the great man wanted to go on all night.