Jazz breaking news: Schiralli impresses at the Rag Factory as hippie dancers and a psychedelic juggler get the party started

Schiralli, an Italian-Irish singer who grew up in Camden and Islington has a following in France for her Universal album Bang Bang.

Opening with 'Miles and Miles' she was singing at an evening thrown by theatre ensemble Boxing Rabbit whose company include actor Nick Figgis (son of Leaving Las Vegas director Mike, also in the audience). Nick Figgis appears in the black and white video for Schiralli's earlier song 'Roll The Dice.'

Playing to a noisy exuberant good natured crowd, but one who made quite a din, the Londoner had the night before played the Apple Store in Covent Garden with much more clinically high tech surroundings than at this much more simpatico studio venue. Here with a fine three-piece band featuring workman-like drums, plus the former Amy Winehouse guitarist Robin Banerjee alongside Zed-U bassist Neil Charles, Schiralli wearing a small leather jacket, pale coloured dress and ankle boots was at ease straight away managing to rise above the bar chatter and impressing with songs like 'Woman' with the band swirling around her in great style and skinny dancers roaming about in the audience. Her finally judged anthem 'The Clearing' got the audience's attention and the band began to stretch out and get involved. Charles, who lest we forget was the bassist on the superb debut of Empirical, anchored the shifts in the songs at each stage of the way and added to the subtlety of Schiralli's already considerable material while Banerjee displayed great harmonic touch and rhythm throughout. Banerjee can play like Ernest Ranglin if he wants, but not here.

With trestle tables bearing the remains of the food the audience had consumed during the earlier part of the evening abandoned to one side, and with another act preparing to come on later Schiralli, who sounds a bit like Beth Orton filtered by the now Paris-based Paula Rae Gibson (say 'Black Hole'), has an incantatory beyond-genre appeal that with this band is potentially as acceptable to jazzers as she would be to the art crowd. With many of the latter in the room spinning shapes on the dancefloor, Schiralli came into her own on songs like 'Rocka-bye' which everyone seemed to like. Remarkably, before the end, a juggler appeared in the audience to throw beautifully-coloured psychedelic balls in the air, and a punk girl happily danced away as Schiralli finished her hour-long set. Hugely promising, some great songs and the look of someone who'll succeed. Do-be-do-be-do she's not.

– Stephen Graham

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