Even a painful, pulled Achilles tendon didn't stop Sodi Cookey from putting on a wonderfully intimate performance. Seated for the entirety of his Camden Club showcase meant that Cookey had to work an up-tempo set while not moving too much. Used to bouncing around the stage, engaging with his band and audience, being fixed-to-the-spot didn't mean he wasn't spinning around on his stool, directing his band: the emotive bassist Michael Searle, talented pianist, Mark Rainbow and extraordinary drummer Nehemiah Ibe.

It was a wonderful two hours of Cookey weaving his usual spells on his audience. Legendary singer/songwriter/bassist, Shingai came to sit in the front row. Engaging with Michael Searle and Nehemiah Ibe, you could hear her often shouting encouragement during instrumental solos.

He performed his favourites in the first set. Tender songs of love, complication and loss, 80's soul-inspired "Show Me", love ballad "True", and soul-rock "Contradictions of Life" were made all the more poignant in Cookey's vocal range. 

The second half (along with a complete costume change by stylist, Samson Soboye) Cookey dialled the tempo up to 100. There was no easing in gently; he stamped (his uninjured foot) on the accelerator and pulled the delighted and enthusiastic audience into grooving as his backup vocals.

The fashion and funk-inspired "Looking So Good", faux-gospel "Sing Hallelujah", environmental protest song "My Mind", and hi-life feel good "Spaghetti" showed Cookey as an accomplished composer - able to weave important messages as well as comedic interludes into his compositions. 

The night drew to a close, and Cookey brought his audience gently back to earth with an encore of "Show Me".  Again, he proved no genre is out of his comfort zone. He is as proficient a singer as a writer and, on stage, an even better showman.