She may have sported the national colours of an American cheerleader, but the scarlet lips, chalk-white face and blue top hat of the self-proclaimed “genre defiant” box of fireworks that is Davina Lozier suggests an artist (or at least a stage persona) who is more badass than goody two-shoes.

Drawing largely from her latest of five albums Sugar Drops, many tracks from which she performed live for the first time (“I’m soooo nervous,” she repeatedly confessed), the spleen with which she lacerated in song preying floozies, wayward lovers and mansplaining producers suggests you should pigeonhole her at your peril.

“I’m gonna make a mess of you,” a delicious threat from one of several standouts Start Running from her 2011 album Black Cloud, leaving you in no doubt who’s the daddy.

Though there’s no getting away from the fact that her sassy voice, swinging from little-girl-lost intros to big mama showstoppers, bears more than a passing resemblance to the late Amy Winehouse.

Combining blues and jazz, soul and gospel, and a sprinkling of tender ballads accompanied by herself, Andrew Foreman and Connor “Chops” McRae on piano, bass and drums respectively, Davina may be the name in lights, but this was no solo showcase for her fellow musicians including Joe Goltz centre stage on trombone and her husband Zack Lozier on trumpet, the latter of whom closed the show with a roof-raising rendition of St James Infirmary from her debut album Live @ The Times, were given ample space to shine and shimmy like A.J. Peron’s “Sister Kate”.

“I’ve never done it when the sun is up,” teased Davina in introduction to their standing ovation-inducing encore. One of several saucy one-liners which after a knuckle-cracking opening and Red Bull-fired set sent her fourth of seven audiences at this year’s Edinburgh Jazz and Blues Festival homeward bound feeling like the fate-changing master of her opening track: Mr Lucky Man.

Peter Callaghan
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