British jazz artist Zara McFarlane unveiled her album Sweet Whispers – an homage to Sarah Vaughan – at Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club earlier this year. I was admittedly curious how the same show would translate in the larger, often livelier setting of Camden’s Jazz Café. To my pleasant surprise, this showing – as part of the EFG London Jazz Festival – surpassed her Ronnie Scott’s performance, with McFarlane noticeably more confident having likely greased the wheels on this album a few times since. A calm but enthusiastic Sunday night crowd were all over it.

McFarlane’s secret weapon for the evening was steelpan artist Marlon Hibbert, invited in part to honour her Caribbean heritage and love for reggae and soca. An inventive steelpan and vocals rendition of ‘Mean to Me’ made the song feel proprietary to McFarlane. She delivered masterful vocal performances throughout – intuitive yet intelligent phrasing, seamless transitions between registers, and particularly lustrous readings of tracks like ‘The Mystery of Man’ and her hymnal original composition ‘Sweet Whispers’. Commanding her terrific band with a telepathic tightness, this concert could have been recorded straight to vinyl.