Having last headlined a show in London over three years ago, Corinne Bailey Rae spoke passionately about the serendipities and peculiarities of each live performance she does. ‘We’re probably never going to see each other again,’ she noted coolly – underscoring the uniqueness of the experience.

The Leeds-based singer-songwriter performed last week at the Royal Festival Hall for Jazz Voice, the gala which opens the EFG London Jazz Festival. What became apparent during her solo set in the much smaller Queen Elizabeth Hall (also part of the Southbank Centre) was that Bailey Rae thrives in a more intimate set-up. Swapping the fully-decked EFG London Jazz orchestra for just keys, guitars, and percussion meant that the subtleties and delicate tones of her voice were in greater focus.

And she has a lovely voice indeed: mellow and silken. Her gospel-infused take on Bob Marley and the Wailers’ ‘Is This Love’ infuses such warmth and comfort into the lines ‘We’ll be together / With a roof right over our heads‘.

She began the set with ‘Been to the Moon’ from her latest album The Heart Speaks in Whispers (2016), an album which excited listeners and critics with its blend of musical styles and electronic textures. Harking back to her previous performance at Jazz Voice, she performed Hoagy Carmichael’s ‘Stardust’ (lyrics from Mitchell Parish), this time with just electric piano accompanying her. ‘Breathless’, from her eponymous debut album, was delivered with thrust and an added sexual urgency. (Side note: does this song remind anyone else of Mica Paris’ ‘You Put A Move On My Heart’, penned by Rod Temperton?) Her signature songs ‘Like A Star’ and ‘Put Your Records On’, the latter perhaps the defining song of 2006, were sung with her characteristic sweetness and lilt.

She closed the set gorgeously with ‘Do You Ever Think of Me?’, a song sampling the melody of Curtis Mayfield’s exquisite ‘The Makings of You’, which virtuoso Motown songwriter Valerie Simpson helped Bailae Rae complete.