Elkie Brooks’ Long Farewell Tour is a peerless masterclass in jazz and soulful blues

Following her passion for jazz, soul and blues music, Elkie Brooks – born Elaine Bookbinder in the Jewish community of Salford – developed her singing skills as a young teenager at bar mitzvahs and weddings. That primed her for winning a local talent contest at 15, for which the prize was performing on a pop tour promoted by the legendary manager Don Arden, father of Sharon Osbourne. It set Brooks’s musical pathway.

That pathway has now culminated in a peerless masterclass in jazz and soulful blues interpretations as her Long Farewell tour arrived in Chelsea’s Cadogan Hall.

Making her charismatic entrance in a beautiful white dress, Brooks unleashed her impressive vocal range on the opener Goin' Back, written by the much-garlanded Jewish songwriter Carole King. Digging a rarely aired song from her 1978 Shooting Star album, Learn to Love, Brooks showed off her lauded wild stage presence as she strutted the stage before diving headlong into Aretha Franklin's Do Right Woman, Do Right Man.

Cherished leading lady Elkie BrooksKevin Nicholson

This rush of energy required a collective pause for breath as the resounding applause revealed unconditional love for this indefatigable 80-year-old artist who is currently in the process of recording a new album. Performing tunes composed by her idols that predate her Vinegar Joe band origins that brought her to public attention (and which she memorably fronted with her Addicted to Love pre-fame co-star Robert Palmer), Brooks classily interpreted her soul-blues songbook.

She also delivered a judicious choice of modern anthems which gave her further chart hits, including her sublime hit single Lilac Wine, The Moody Blues' Nights in White Satin, Chris Rea's Fool (If You Think It's Over), and a spellbinding version of Rag'N'Bone Man's Human that fully tested the acoustics of this venue. Her enduring timeless hit Pearl's A Singer, accompanied by enthusiastic audience participation, brought this full house to its feet.

The concert was also a reminder that Elkie Brooks’s band and solo career have progressed through decades of seismic music, cultural changes and events. She shared first-hand anecdotes of meeting Jimi Hendrix “sporting a beautiful afro” at The Speakeasy Club; touring air bases abroad fronting jazz bands; and discovering Dinah Washington's saucy Long John Blues at an American airbase record shop.

Yet it was her smoky and vintage soul voice that held the crowd under her spell. Her vocals reigned over songs from Prince's Purple Rain to Bob Seger's We've Got Tonite.

A true journey through the musical life of this cherished leading lady of a sadly disappearing golden age of gutsy female blues artists.