This is a generational talent. I needed little convincing after seeing Samara Joy live at the Barbican for London Jazz Festival a couple of years ago. But she rose to the challenge of headlining the Royal Albert Hall for the BBC Proms exceptionally, performing material from ‘the Great American Songbook and beyond’ – backed by the BBC Concert Orchestra (conducted by Miho Hazama, also making her own Proms debut) and Joy’s own octet.

From the gospel of her upbringing, the blended influences of Sarah Vaughan, Betty Carter, and Carmen McRae, and the operatic leaps into her upper register – her vocal technique is at once studied and startlingly instinctive. Oft-trodden standards like “Lover Man,” “Stardust,” and “Misty” were worth revisiting merely to hear Joy’s pitch-perfect, and often daring, interpretations, such as the unexpected shift to up-tempo in the latter courtesy of bassist and arranger Paul Sikivie. If I had any criticism, it’s that the orchestration occasionally felt too dense, crowding Joy’s voice in her softer, more conversational moments. (Some of her most gorgeous recordings across her three studio albums to date are those with the most minimalist accompaniment.) But when in the Royal Albert Hall, I guess…

The repertoire for the evening strayed beyond the usual canon (I had the pleasure of a separate commission to write the event’s programme notes). An a cappella introduction to Thelonious Monk’s ‘Worry Later’ (drawing upon Jeanne Lee’s recording of Margo Guryan’s lyrics) gave way to a frenetic display of rapid-fire phrasing. But Joy’s balladeering in the concert’s second set was where she truly took flight. There was a soul-wrenching take on Billie Holiday and Mal Waldron’s ‘Left Alone’ – a simmering lament which Holiday sadly never had the chance to record herself. And, most notably, there was Duke Ellington’s ‘I Got It Bad and That Ain’t Good’, originally recorded by Ivie Anderson and performed live on Broadway by the exquisite Phyllis Hyman. Transformed into a melodramatic aria, it was one of the most virtuosic vocal performances I’ve seen in recent years.