Live Review: Laura Mvula

Laura Mvula's live show should go down as 2017's most magnificent. Not only is the cult avant-soulster a formidable performer, but she also has the wittiest stage banter. 

With 2013's trailblazing Sing To The Moon, the innovator from Birmingham, England introduced a sublime post-dubstep synthesis of choral, gospel, symphonic, pastoral, psychedelic, jazz and R&B music. She's touring Australia with Bluesfest 2017. Her Melbourne date is sold out.

Mvula hits the stage dramatically just after 7.30 pm – bejewelled and wearing a pale T-shirt (with the slogan "FEMALES OF THE FUTURE"), flouncy skirt, and giant white keytar that resembles something built by NASA. Mvula leads a tight six-piece band that includes her brother James Douglas on cello and sister Dionne Douglas on guitar. James is her foil. 

Mvula pulls out one of her biggest songs early in Overcome — the future disco-funk collaboration with Nile Rodgers that launched her current album The Dreaming Room. This evening's extended take flirts with prog rock.

The Melbourne Recital Centre patrons can be sedate, even conservative – and evidently Mvula has been briefed. She chit-chats about the rarefied surrounds: "This is very posh." Mvula then jokes about her "frock" and how it'd please her mum. This relaxes the audience. Moved by ecstatic applause, Mvula warns that she becomes "emotional" easily — and her make-up is "too fly". There's much hilarity throughout.

Still, Mvula is about the music. Among the show's myriad peaks is People, again from The Dreaming Room. The song charts the African Diaspora, a lament about racism and celebration of survival. The album version features the grime MC Wretch 32. But, tonight, Mvula gives People an epic bridge.

Mvula performs a spare Sing To The Moon, her debut's title-track, which accentuates her expressive voice. Imagine Shirley Bassey in a cathedral. The star solicits crowd participation for a hymnal Bread. Most of Mvula's band retreat as she sings the sorrowfully personal Father, Father, ending a cappella.

Astonishingly, ahead of Show Me Love, Mvula reveals that, despite two Mercury Prize nominations, she's left "the big Sony machine" to go independent (Sony quietly dropped her in January). The audience finally rise for Mvula's pastoral signature Green Garden, transformed into a mega percussive jam. Mvula closes with Phenomenal Woman and two encores – the last of which is a surprise cover. Though Mvula is known for performing her idol Nina Simone's numbers, this time she sings a delicate cover of Michael Jackson's Human Nature, accompanied by James. 

Mvula has the expansive musical imagination of Kate Bush and Bjork — and the cultural charisma and importance of Simone. Longevity and credibility are hers. Expect more tours.