All Black Everything has been an awfully long time coming, but it’s been well worth the wait. Singer, bassist, composer, arranger and producer Amy Gadiaga has been threatening to break through for quite a while, despite getting noticed with her 2022 single ‘Everything I Do’, but if there’s any justice in the world, this 26-minute EP is the release that should finally do it.

Like all the best music these days, it defies categorisation, but what all five tunes on this EP have in common is sublime melody, hipness and warmth. And despite all the danceable grooves, they don’t just sit on them: Gadiaga has written contrasting sections, just like Duke Ellington, in which her long-standing band members all get the chance to shine: Bacchus is on fiery form on ‘Paloma Negra’, Oti’s trumpet stabbing the air, Gadiaga’s vocal harmonies soaring above it all. ‘I Soar When I’m Alone’ rides along on a soulful piano vamp, riding out again on Oti’s catchy trumpet figure. ‘Full Sun’ is one of those tunes you think you’ve always known, driven along by the relentless Simon Lamb, and Gadiaga taking a nifty bass solo amidships.

On ‘Petite’ she mutates into the smoky, purring Parisian nightclub singer - Melody Gardot style - that she could have become if she’d decided to stay in her home city of Paris rather than settle in London.

Amy Gadiaga reveals a coiled sophistication in all departments. Both her writing and singing sound increasingly confident, distinctive and personal, and she delivers the songs in several languages. She’s the real deal, and this mini-album is a quantum leap.