Australian-born, Manchester-based vocalist and songwriter Nishla Smith previously showcased her storytelling talents on her fine 2021 debut album, Friends with Monsters. In contrast to the debut, which featured just one standard, Live in Manchester presents a carefully curated selection from the Great American Songbook, performed by Smith alongside Mancunian pianist, composer and improviser Tom Harris.

Recorded in front of a live audience over two nights at Manchester’s Low Four Studios in January last year, the seven-track album documents a five-year creative partnership. From the classic scene-setting opener, ‘Someday My Prince Will Come’, to the enduringly popular ‘Smile’ - originally an instrumental piece composed by Charlie Chaplin for his 1936 film Modern Times, with lyrics added almost two decades later by John Turner and Geoffrey Parsons - Smith invests everything she sings with insight and beauty of tone.

In ‘Tea For Two’, the duo show how completely locked in they are, rhythmically speaking, with Harris clearly enjoying some Monkish displacements in his rambunctious solo. One of Billie Holiday’s signature tunes, co-written by Holiday and Arthur Herzog Jr, Smith delivers a powerful emotional jolt with ‘Don’t Explain’, characterised by finely shaded dynamics and phrasing of great expressivity. Often cited as one of the earliest and most influential jazz waltzes, Harris dusts down a joyously playful version of Fats Waller’s great ‘Jitterbug Waltz’, the album’s sole instrumental.