They don't make 'em like Paolo Conte any more. The Italian was born at the start of the Second World War – and you can hear it in his work. Frisky piano, wheezing accordion and a husk to match Tom Waits: his music is irresistible stuff. Conte's compositions are like Fellini: perfectly distilled. The songs are pure carnival, tilted with grappa and sweetened with the miele of a mediterranean evening.

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But this octogenarian is so much more than a product of his time and place.

With age, he has become more allusive, borrowing freely from American hot-jazz, honkytonk, fandango and R&B. His lyrics, sadly lost on the English-speaker, are full of a weird and immediate poetry: ‘My lyrics are generated mainly by my imagination, they are stories that I imagine and dream of abstract, sketchy dreams, with a disruptive force’, he said.

This November, you can spend an evening with this truly original craftsman. He’ll play songs from throughout his five decades at the piano stool. Expect to hear the beguiling 1979 hit Un Gelato Al Limon that gained Conte widespread attention, followed up tracks like Sparring Partner, Come Di, Una, and the eternal Via Con Me.

English and American audiences have a habit of trying to dissect and label his magic, but Italians just sit back and sing along. The latter is by far the better approach. 'It’s wunnerful, it’s wunnerful, it’s wunnerful', as Conte sings.

What	Paolo Conte, EFG Jazz Festival
Where	Royal Festival Hall, Southbank Centre, Belvedere Road, London, SE1 8XX \| MAP
Nearest tube	Waterloo (underground)
When	On 13 Nov 17, 7:30 PM – 11:00 PM
Price	£15-£65
Website	Get tickets