Of all the hosts the mayor’s charities could have picked for this whirlwind jazz fundraiser, few could have been a neater amalgamation of presenter and performer than Claire Martin.

At the top of her universally popular swing game, and with her own show on Radio 3, the student of the Great American Songbook emanated the casual sheen of a consummate master of ceremonies as she sauntered on stage, her confidence expounded in the expert hands of her three-man backing band.

Martin’s is a soundtrack to the carefree, and she hissed, purred and roared her way through impassioned and cheeky takes of Sting’s Saint Augustine In Hell and Joni Mitchell’s Sex Sells, as well as a string of intelligently sassed-up standards from her well-received albums.

Jim Mullen, the eccentric, silver-haired guitarist who has frequently inspired and partnered Martin, almost stole the show as he arched and gurned through a series of intricate chords, and Gareth Williams added surprisingly silky vocals to the backbone his keyboard noodlings provided.

But it was human cannonball Liane Carroll – a Hastings ivory pounder and self-confessed “secret stalker” of Martin – who dominated the second half.

With friends like these, Martin is in fine company.