Esperanza Spalding
Ronnie Scott’s, W1
*****
Marcus Miller: Tutu Revisited
Barbican, EC2
****

Having celebrated its glorious past with Sonny Rollins and Chick Corea, the London Jazz Festival climaxed with a glimpse of the future in the leggy, Afro-haired person of Esperanza Spalding.

Daughter of a black father and Mexican-Welsh mother from Portland, Oregon, she sings, writes and plays bass so brilliantly that her graduate college, Berklee, begged her to join the staff.

Dazzling: Esperanza Spalding

When not fronting a dazzling trio with Argentine pianist Leonardo Genovese and Californian drummer Lyndon Rochelle, she teaches there. But at Ronnie Scott’s on Saturday she was just having fun, albeit in an educational way. “You may recognise this, but don’t try to sing along with it,” she warned before an artfully oblique version of Autumn Leaves.

A fan who asked for a certain song was rebuked with: “This is not a request evening, though we may distribute karaoke kits next trip.”

Pardon me for breathing, he might have replied, but it’s impossible not to warm to someone who dances while playing the double-bass. And she’s still only 25. Esperanza, Spanish for hope, is the perfect name for her.

Last word on the festival came from the cat in the hat, bass-guitar funkmeister Marcus Miller. “I got young guys because I wanted to do this in a way Miles wouldn’t hate,” he told Barbican fans last night after a steaming revival of Tutu, his classic album with Miles Davis.

Drummer Ronald Bruner, trumpeter Christian Scott and saxman Alex Han did him proud but so, too, did older keyboarder Federico Gonzales Peña.

Madeleine Peyroux is no longer a Billie Holiday clone. Backed by an excellent group featuring guitarist Patrick Ferguson and keyboarder Gary Versace, she sang with newfound power and confidence at the RFH on Friday. Next thing she might even enjoy being on stage.