A couple hours before Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros even took the stage at Sunday’s KCRW World Festival at the Hollywood Bowl,Zimbabwean musician Oliver “Tuku” Mtukudzi’s seven-piece ensemble prompted my concertgoing companion to bill this night as a “battle of happiness.” With Alexander Ebert’s band carrying the bill, such a label was both fitting and perhaps even an understatement given the acts kicking off the evening’s festivities.

Mtukudzi and his lockstep ensemble were radiant, effervescent, and as genuine a purveyor of joy and appreciative gratitude as you could ask for, a breath of fresh air in the Hollywood setting. Not since Charles Bradley took the Bowl stage two years prior have I witnessed an artist as authentically gracious and beaming as Mtukudzi. Early on, his mission statement was clear, as the front man pronounced: “Where we come from, we use music to diffuse tension.” Tension released, this was pure, unadulterated musical joy right out of the gate. Happiness quotient high.