The tightly packed crowd at World Cafe Live on Friday came for Kuti's densely danceable polyrhythmic grooves, lively horn charts, and plainspoken politicized messages.

Yet, when Kuti sang out in an operatic warble, "There's something going on here" through the kinetic psychedelia of his song "Stop AIDS," few seemed prepared for what was subtly unfolding: his potently jazz-filled expressionism. It showed how deliciously unique an artist Kuti has become since his recorded debut 24 years ago.

After his colorfully dressed ensemble, Positive Force, filed onto the stage with three scantily clad dancer/ singers, Kuti - decked in darker tones, conducting his mini-orchestra with waving hands - commenced the world party.

With hypnotic repetition, propulsive rhythm, and the punctuation of reeds and brass as Afro-beat's most formative elements, the littlest things stood out most. Noted were the swift shouts of "Marxism and socialism" during "One Two"; how Kuti's voice trembled dramatically but for a moment on "Do Your Best"; how Kuti's Hammond B-3 organ hums and saxophone squeals humbly and mumblingly introduced several tracks only to have them explode within moments.

The quietest, yet most quicksilver surprises came during the performers' jazzy interplay - how Kuti's tiny trumpet blasts in and around "They Will Run" echoed those of Miles Davis and how guitarist Opeyemi Awomolo moved from highlife's flickering funk to a flightier tone akin to Wes Montgomery. These are not players associated with Afro-beat. Yet Kuti made them so. He even rattled off the names of jazz giants - Dizzy, Billie, and more - before reminding the crowd of his father's title.

There was no need. Kuti's epic "You Better Ask Yourself" did that and beyond as it went from a coolly percolating bass-lined groove peppered with subtly cluttered percussion - steadily somniferous - to blasting off mid-song with keening horns and rattled lyrics dedicated to Africa's lush and tragic contradictions.