Eliades Ochoa, Cheltenham Jazz Festival, April 30

Resembling a smaller version of the contemporaneous Gran Teatro of Havana, Cheltenham’s splendid Town Hall was an excellent setting for the start of the grizzled Cuban star’s latest world tour. Bang on time, the first of five cream-suited backing musicians strode on stage, and rapidly abandoning an unfortunate attempt to start a premature clap-along, settled into an expert, if harshly amplified, groove. By the third number, pianist and musical director Juan Pineda was in action, closely followed by the boss, in his black Stetson, so insistently self-identified with his Cuban farming roots you sometimes suspect he’s actually son of a Miami Cadillac dealer. Whatever, Ochoa’s nasal guajiro voice and pristine tres were as irresistible as ever, while his half-century of experience and contacts meant the sextet, yet another new line-up, was as efficient as a Ukrainian special forces platoon, with everybody switching between instruments to order, sax and trumpet on voice and percussion, percussionist Angel Herrera on voice and much more percussion.

The material comprised the usual selection of sones, guajiras, guarachas, boleros and the odd plena, including tracks from Ochoa’s latest album (called Guajiro, surprisingly enough), plus numerous items from his extensive back catalogue. This, of course, meant Buena Vista anthems 'Chan Chan' and the rousing finale 'El Cuarto de Tula', a song so central to Eliades’ career he named his pet tortoise after it. Perhaps not the best performance of Ochoa’s long career, but certainly among the countless very good ones, and proof he’s still untouchable in his (cane) field.