CARO Emerald is cool. From the get-go, her stage presence has a warmth that zings through her entire set.

The Brighton Centre may be huge (at one point she jokes that it feels like a gymnasium), but Caro Emerald achieves what she says she would like to do: make it feel more intimate, like “a party, a disco.”

Support act Loren Nine warns us that she “writes sad love songs”, but reassures us that the main event will wake us up again.

Nine (pronounced Ni-ne) sings beautifully, a tiny girl on stage with just a keyboard and songs of longing.

In contrast, Emerald’s signature jazz/Latin infused songs take the audience back to the heady days of 50s Monaco or the sultriness of Havana nights.

There are torch songs (I Know That He’s Mine), crowd favourites (Riviera Life, Liquid Lunch) and new songs (Wake Up Romeo, Mambo Shuffle), before ending on Emerald’s two most recognised songs That Man and A Night Like This.

In prior interviews, Emerald has been quoted as saying she wants to make the audience feel like they’re in a jazz club.

This venue may not have the intimacy of a club, but Emerald does her best to make sure that her audience feel like they’re as involved as they might be in a much smaller venue, encouraging them to dance and sing along.

And the crowd, with the biggest age range I’ve ever seen at any gig I’ve ever been to, from the very young to the very old, do exactly as they are told to do.

People pour from their seats to form the narrowest, most orderly dancefloor at the front of the stage, spilling down the aisles.

Barely a row anywhere in the whole room is without at least someone standing and dancing along. The crowd positively adore her and I suspect even those who don’t “do” dancing at least found their shoulders moving along with the beat.

This might not be jazz as the purists like it, although there is some of that evident here, but it is fun and joyful and it’s also quite wonderful to see so many people turning the cavernous Brighton Centre into something that feels less like a gym and more like a really good party.

By Stephanie Pomfrett