The Basement is a great jazz venue – brick walls and black curtains softened by red table lights and a sense of space compared with many cramped Brighton venues.

Liane Carroll certainly filled that space. Irrepressibly larger than life and with a wicked sense of humour, her personality came over with a voice that was consistently powerful and agile and held the whole audience – ranging from a 75th birthday to a surprisingly large following of guys in their 20s – spellbound.

Her piano playing was not polished precision, but it was assertive, fluent, passionate and stylish, through soul, blues and swing, perfectly matching her vocal inventiveness.

With her regular band (bass and drums) and James McMullen on trumpet, the arrangements of jazz standards including I’ve Got It Bad, and Chet Baker’s Time After Time, were often quirky and virtuosic yet always subtle and crisp. Add in the emotional power of the slower numbers, especially Take Me Home – a Tom Waits song, and this was an exciting, engaging and moving gig.

The Luke Rattenbury Trio, Brighton regulars offering fast-paced Latin-influenced guitar jazz, provided support. Offset only by at times overly busy percussion, there was musical playing from all three, including some notably lyrical bass solos.