A SCHOOL performance hall was transformed into a packed jazz club for a midsummer jazz concert performed by Jo Wallfisch.

One of the most exciting new talents on London’s jazz scene, Jo performed several numbers from Wild Swan, her recently released debut album, which she recorded in New York with some of the city’s top jazz musicians.

She was accompanied for the performance at Beechwood Park School in Markyate by her three-piece band – Rob Brockway (piano), Andy Robb (bass), Jon Desbrulais (drums) – and treated the audience to a selection of her own compositions including Black Cities as well as special arrangements of well-known standards such as On the Sunny Side of the Street and L�o Ferr�’s Avec Le Temps.

Beechwood Park’s headmaster, Patrick Atkinson, rounded off the evening by thanking Jo for bringing a flavour of Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club to Markyate.

He added: “I feel sure that just as Jo’s passion for jazz started when, aged 12, she heard Ella Fitzgerald, some of the pupils in the audience tonight will have been inspired by Jo’s exciting performance and her distinctive and strong voice. She is most definitely a young singer with a great future ahead of her.”