Michael Mayo flies high at Ronnie Scott’s, London

The third stage of ‘touring delirium’ is not knowing where you are or what time it is, which is a sobering thought to say the least. Yet Michael Mayo, who has explained the syndrome to a responsive sold-out audience – and well he might after several weeks on the road – nonetheless shows no signs of gig fatigue.

 The 32 year-old American singer is as personable as he is musically impressive, delivering the kind of performance that has the attention to detail and dynamics of an artist who takes his craft seriously. His fine band – drummer Robin Baytas, bass guitarist Kyle Miles and pianist-keyboardist Andrew Freedman – strike just the right balance between assertion and restraint, pushing the energy levels and then easing up when need be.

There is a wide range of material that includes Mayo’s originals such as ‘Bag Of Bones’ and ‘Anxiety’, both of which tread a pleasing middle path between pop, jazz and soul, and standards, ‘Just Friends’, ‘I Fall In Love Too Easily,’ ‘I Didn’t Know What Time It Was’ and ‘Four.’ Although Mayo, who has worked with Christian Sands, Nate Smith and Quentin Angus, scores highly for his own thought provoking lyrics, documenting Insta-age struggle, he excels on timeless themes that require guile as well as emotional charge. In fact, Mayo has a delicacy in his tone that stands in a lineage that would include anybody from Billie Holiday to Al Jarreau, but in his moments of introspection there is a hint of the wounded melancholy of Chet Baker, which makes a fine contrast with the strength of scat work that compares favourably to Jon Hendricks among others.

At his most interesting Mayo moves between the poles of understatement and emphasis, and his ability to take a mellow piece such as Herbie Hancock’s ‘Butterfly’ from ethereal grace to impassioned energy shows a great command of dynamics and dramatic light and shade. Whether using a loop station to create choir and rhythm section from multiple sung and live-sampled parts, or swinging hard with the real rhythm section Mayo has an ingenuity and personality that could make him one of the most credible heirs to the throne of Bobby McFerrin.