Alice Faye @ Spiegeltent, Edinburgh, 23 Jul

Walking into the Spiegeltent is like stepping inside a Tiffany lamp. The plush red interior and glinting stained glass windows make you feel miles away from the grassy food truck festival outside. Alice Faye, adding to the magical-realism time-travel fantasy, is wearing a little black dress with a glamorous long white scarf attached, a very en vogue yet timeless piece. Here in this venue, as she pounds on a baby grand piano, making sweet, sweet music, it's like we've wandered into a 1940s New York jazz club. The only thing breaking that illusion is that it's smoke-free and well lit, with a clear view of Faye and her band.

Joining Faye on stage are Lewis Docherty on guitar, Chris Dickie on drums, and Richard Anderson on double bass, who gives an incredible performance and shines on solos during the jazz classics, putting his whole physicality into it and earning big cheers from the jazz-savvy audience, who clearly know the work that goes into making it look easy. This one-hour slot is described as her take on the Great American Songbook; she gives us fresh takes on beloved jazz classics and crooner favourites.

Early on, she performs a glorious rendition of Singin' in the Rain, which feels full of the energy and joy that can only come from someone with a true love of the classic musical. I Got It Bad (And That Ain’t Good), famously sung by Frank Sinatra and Nina Simone, feels perfectly suited to Faye's jazzy, airy voice, as she leans into the intrinsic humour of the song. This offers a peek behind the curtain of Alice Faye, as we get to understand her influences and the songs and styles that have shaped her music.

It's been a big year for Faye, winning BBC Introducing Scottish Act of the Year 2026 and headlining Celtic Connections. She was a standout on the BBC Introducing stage at TRNSMT earlier this summer, but she seems much more at home here. Alongside jazz classics, she performs some of her own songs like Bitter Minded Lover and Tell Them I'm an Actor, which fit the theme of the set well but feel slightly less exciting than her takes on the standards, perhaps only because she spends much of these songs facing the piano, meaning some of the lyrics are lost. She does, however, move neatly between her own songs and covers, keeping the audience locked in. Towards the end of the set, What a Little Moonlight Can Do is particularly exciting; sparkly, beautiful and romantic, in her nonchalant yet plungingly deep way.

The one-hour set melts away, leaving us desperate for more and in uproar for an encore. The band seem truly surprised to be coming back on stage, saying they hadn't prepared anything, and the audience starts shouting out requests. Faye and the band settle on fan favourite Later, Later On, which is a pleasure to hear live accompanied by her band. This is a truly magical experience at the Edinburgh Jazz and Blues Festival, to step into the Spiegeltent and into the inner world of Alice Faye, the "old soul" of the contemporary Scottish music scene, and get a glimpse of the music that makes her who she is.