Jazz breaking news: Zara McFarlane Previews Songs From Until Tomorrow At The Wilmington Arms

Warming up with the Cole Porter standard ‘Night And Day’ the young Londoner quickly moved into her own musical territory on the stage of the Clerkenwell pub venue with the Bopstar-connected song ‘Chiaroscuro’ revelling in the vowels of the word in its title and getting comfortable quickly. McFarlane has a relaxed, smiling way with the audience who filled the intimate space and listened carefully to her and the band made up of two saxes, keyboards, bass and drums. Energetic she danced along during the instrumental passages but was always in control.

‘More Than Mine’, from Until Tomorrow, easily won over the crowd later on. McFarlane explained the song was about the process of seeing a past lover with someone else who just might have more going for them than you might care to admit, and she delivered her mischievous lyric against a simple keyboard cue from Peter Edwards. Fine tenor sax stylist Binker Golding came into his own later on as the main instrumental voice although the interplay with alto saxist Camilla George, who also took some early solos, was less successful. But Partikel’s Max Luthert kept things brisk against the slightly perfunctory drumming. Besides ‘More Than Mine’ other highlights from last night were her treatment of a Harry Whitaker song, while both ‘Lazy Sunday Afternoon’ and ‘Mama Done’ worked well, and ‘Yesterdays’ was a breeze. ‘Blossom Tree’ would have been better much later in the set as early momentum was definitely lost, but McFarlane is well worth catching live in the autumn as this was an accomplished vocal performance. – Stephen Graham