Ann Hampton Callaway, Ronnie Scott’s

American jazz-cabaret singer Ann Hampton Callaway makes a rare UK appearance at Ronnie Scott’s next week on the back of reviews for her latest album that have been so hot, they require a health warning. Callaway’s latest album, From Sassy To Divine : The Sarah Vaughan Project : Live at Dizzy's Club Coca Cola , was released on September 16 to universally ecstatic reviews, and she will be performing her tribute to the heady, sensual Sarah Vaughan over two nights.

These days, Callaway is the Great American Songbook incarnate. Having started her career mainly in cabaret, in recent years Callaway has extended her range and regularly sings the works of America’s great jazz legends Billie Holliday, and now Sarah Vaughan. Her voice is potent, with a multi-octave range and the ability to soar and dominate, yet it’s also intimate: she has a delectable huskiness and sensuous charisma. Her performances are also known for their humour, and her ability to imitate is employed to greatly entertaining effect. 

For some critics, she overdoes the special effects, and she’s not the singer for fans of an ethereal or minimal aesthetic. She is, however, hugely entertaining and melodic. Writing the hits for seven Barbra Streisand albums is not, perhaps, the lure for discerning British music lovers that her PR team expects, but it goes to show both how deeply immersed she is in the tradition of American popular song, and how successful she has been in US.   

Before a brief London appearance earlier this year, Calloway had not sung in London for 15 years, which accounts for her relatively lower profile. In the US, Calloway is a major star. She has sung for presidents, and made a moving appeal for the Hurricane Katrina victims with a live performance on national TV. There are still a few tickets left for her two-night Ronnie’s show. There shouldn’t be. Snap them up.