As unexpected virtuoso openings go, this one was near-perfect. On to the stage walked a stately, matronly lady wearing a blue dress, black hat and glasses. She looked like some grand diva, and her first song, Ave Maria, was treated with the power, clarity and control of a fine opera singer. But her backing band sounded as if they were at a different concert, with bass and drums, saxophone, guitar and keyboards all treating the piece as if it were a funky jazz shuffle.
It should have been a mess, but this musical collision worked astonishingly well - thanks to a remarkable performance from the singer. Without any loss of clarity or control she began to mix the operatic approach with scat singing and improvisation. Ave Maria somehow slid into a rapid-fire jazz workout on a song by Abdullah Ibrahim, with echoes of South African township styles thrown in.
Sibongile Khumalo is something of a phenomenon. She is a distinguished classical mezzo-soprano who also happens to be a musical academic and a fine jazz singer and exponent of township styles. She has starred in a series of musicals back home in South Africa, and through them she has earned a place on Africa's diplomatic circuit, providing a musical backing for major events such as Nelson Mandela's inauguration as president.
Despite all this, Khumalo's international solo career has so far failed to reflect her remarkable skills - perhaps because of the way she treats her concerts. At the Queen Elizabeth Hall she performed two full sets, but only did full justice to her extraordinary eclectic style for part of the show. After that rousing opening she drifted off into a series of slow, cool, sad-edged ballads. Some were written by contemporary South African songwriters but there was one anonymous piece from the apartheid era, which was discovered in the archives of the South African Broadcasting Corporation "where the authorities used to scratch the African records that they didn't want played on the air".
It was all gently pleasant, but hardly inspiring, and the band gradually eased back into a sophisticated, late-night jazz setting for her songs. There were some good players on stage, all of them currently British-based, and they included the rhythm section of Stephane San Juan and Dudley Philips, who have worked with Andy Sheppard, along with the impressive young Kenyan guitarist David Okumu and a versatile pianist and musical director, Steve Lodder.
What their material lacked, for much of both sets, was the vitality and energy of the great township jazz performers like Hugh Masekela. Only at the end of the concert did Khumalo decide to put this right. In her final workout she shifted back to rapid-fire scat singing and township dance songs, once again showing off the full range of her remarkable voice, while allowing her two backing singers to come into their own at last and a now wildly enthusiastic audience to wake up and start dancing. The end of her show was as stirring as the opening, but it had been a long time coming.
