The long musical arm of the Kuti family has a mighty reach. With four generations of musicians behind him, Femi Kuti could be said to be standing on the shoulders of giants, not least those of his father, the creator of Afrobeat, the legendary Fela Kuti, who died in 1997.

Femi didn’t marry 27 “wives” on stage as Fela once did but he did carry some of his spirit with his confrontational politics, stage presence and some fine funky beats to open the London Jazz Festival. Troubled from the outset by feedback, his set was songs dating from 1998 and from his new record Day by Day — but finished with a startlingly energetic number which, he said, ranged into the future: he’d record it in 2012, he declared.

Backed by his band, The Positive Force, clad in green smocks and comprising a five-piece brass phalanx, three scantily clad women dancers and a superhot rhythm section, Femi blew on his sax and played a Hammond organ with what sounded like his fists — he didn’t seem too concerned whether his keyboard harmony fitted the song. That, plus his rasped vocals that were wide of the note, made the music feel rough-hewn. The audience didn’t care, dancing in the aisles at the end of his two-hour set.