Popular culture routinely leaves a slot open for the late-night siren who has been unlucky in love. Billie Holiday spent most of her career in it, chanteuses from Julie London to Eva Cassidy visited regularly. And now here's 23-year-old Melody Gardot gently melting hearts in the fusty splendour of the Bush Hall as she yearns for a man to ease her worrisome heart.

The New Jersey-born Gardot has won over critics in America with her smoky jazz-blues but is perhaps as famous for her poignant backstory. Almost killed when she was knocked off her bicycle at the age of 19, Gardot discovered her songwriting muse during long months of recuperation. The major labels were soon vying to sign her. On stage, the walking stick propped against the grand piano and the dark glasses needed for sensitivity to light are evidence of continuing trauma. Nevertheless, lit by the chandeliers, she cuts a glamorous figure with her tumbling tresses and short skirt. Her voice is warm and clear, with a hint of vibrato, and playing guitar or piano, and backed by trumpet, drums and double bass, the effect is seductive.

Compared with, say, the early, shy shows of Norah Jones and Madeleine Peyroux, Gardot is relaxed and confident, joking with the audience about her headgear for her slot on Later...with Jools Holland last week. She entrusts a bangle knocking against her guitar to a member of the audience for safekeeping (and gets it back). The singer will soon learn, though, that trying to persuade a London audience to sing along on the first number, a full-throated a cappella spiritual, probably won't work.

Stylistically, her rootsy songs tread a well-worn path, and the mix of gentle tempos, brushed snare and muted trumpet sometimes risks slipping into nostalgic, dinner-jazz cliché. However, her version of Ain't No Sunshine, propelled by double bass, has real punch, and her own songwriting - notably Love Me Like a River Does - shows real potential. The band, too, aren't afraid to stretch out on Goodnite, as the drummer and bassist trade licks and Gardot flaunts her scatting skills. She encores with Over the Rainbow, reinvigorating it as a Latin shuffle.

It all amounts to a memorable show, and given the momentum that she's building, perhaps the last chance to see her in the capital in such intimate surroundings.

Tour continues at the Glee Club, Birmingham (0871 4720400), tonight

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