Jamie Cullum - 6/11/06

Barcelona's International Jazz Festival kicked off last night with Jamie Cullum playing to a capacity audience at the Auditori. Although his self penned songs have little to do with jazz at all - at least in the recorded versions - Cullum's performance demonstrated his precocious musical talent and the ability to fuse a multitude of influences into something that soars.

But the surprising thing is that what Cullum does is jazz when it comes down to it, with much of the set improvised by both Cullum and his band. At points in the show he would issue instructions to the orchestra, or, at one point, picking up a saxophone and handing it straight to the saxophonist for his turn in the spotlight.

But the result is sublime, with the music taking off unexpectedly, completely tangental to what had gone before. And after a few minutes, well after you could actually remember what song was actually being played, the music would drift down to ground level again and step back into its previous stride.

As well as the more familiar songs, Cullum also delved into other areas - he sang Justin Timberlake's SexyBack, tapping out the percussion on the lid of his piano as well as a short piano medley that included a theme from Star Wars.

For nearly two and a half hours though, he just didn't stop. His energy, musical talent, stage presence and humour make him unmissable, and perhaps one of the few performers you could go and see without having heard a note played by him previously and enjoy the concert to the full.

If Jamie's back for the Jazz festival next year then so are we.