IT’S a musical fixture that the Concorde’s jazz aficionados and her army of fans would definitely not miss.

And jazz songstress Clare Teal kicked off her latest appearance at the Stoneham Lane club by thanking the audience for supporting live music and not staying at home watching the World Cup.

Playing to a full house the singer and Radio 2 broadcaster proved that she is one of the nation’s most gifted exponents of big band swing music.

And it was like coming home. For her earlier Concorde appearances shaped a star studded career which has made her the nation’s most successful jazz singer in decades.

It was here that she learned much of her stage craft before breaking into the big time, clinching a £3 million pound five-album deal – an unprecedented amount for a jazz singer- and she has never looked back.

Her mission has been to bring big band and swing to music lovers everywhere and in spreading this gospel she has criss crossed the United Kingdom and travelled the globe.

World renowned trumpeter/composer Guy Barker swapped his trumpet for a baton to direct Clare and her multi-talented band through two sets of spectacular swing sounds.

It began with that very reliable showstopper, On A Wonderful Day Like Today, penned by Leslie Bricusse and Anthony Newley.

Clare has always been inspired by Ella Fitzgerald which goes right back to when she was an eight year-old in her native Yorkshire, diving into a trunk full of 78s, belonging to her grandmother.

As far as Clare is concerned the American jazz star was “the most incredible singer to ever walk the earth.”

So there is always space for Ella in her playlist, including Imagine My Frustration which fused the remarkable talents of Fitzgerald and Duke Ellington.

Bassist Simon Little, a long serving member of Clare’s trio, combined on vocals for a moving interpretation of Ella’s I’ll Never Be Free.

Mixed into this intoxicating cocktail of swing and blues were a couple of Van Morrison numbers. Clare’s duet with the blues legend has been a big hit on CD and stage.

She rounded off the first set with a rousing American Ragtime tune, There’ll Be a Hot Time in the Old Town Tonight, which was composed in 1896 but is still as fresh as a daisy today.

Stand out number in the second set was the very upbeat Teardrops from My Eyes, a rhythm and blues composition by Rudy Toombs, with pianist Jason Rebello weaving magic on the ivories.

Singin’ In The Rain from another of Claire’s musical heros, American jazz star Lena Horne, brought showers of applause.

Clare signed off with It Don’t Mean A Thing, a 1930s composition from the song book of American bandleader Duke Ellington. And she proved that she was more than a match for the World Cup as she scored a standing ovation from an appreciative audience.

Duncan Eaton