Niki King could sing the phone directory and it would take you to a smoky, sultry bar in Paris, with a glass of something crisp and cold and a night brimming with promise ahead of you. She has won a clutch of prizes as a songwriter and as a singer: the 2024 Scottish Jazz Vocalist Award, the UK Perrier Jazz Vocalist Award and The Spirit Of Scotland Music Medal. She released the songs for this show, ‘TIME’, as an album last year and tonight, she’s here with a five-piece band and the soaring Sally Jaquet on backing vocals at the Famous Spiegeltent to share it.

By way of a warning, there’s a lot of chat about death in her show. King recently lost her mother and many of these songs show her trying to find a way through her crushing grief. ‘Dark Cloud’ is a soulful window into the world of someone who struggles to find any light at the end of the tunnel. ‘Without You’ is a haunting elegy. And ‘Blanket of the Stars’ is a little piece of heartbreak, underscored by a mournful, deeply resonant double bass.

But there’s also hope in here. The jaunty ‘1 in 400 trillion’ marvels at the fact that mankind managed to survive at all, given the myriad of opportunities we’ve had to ruin everything. There’s a determinedly resolute self-care message in the gospel-inspired ‘Peace of Mind’: if you don’t look after yourself, Niki reminds us, you can’t hope to support anyone else. And the upbeat ‘Sands of Time’ reminds us not to brood.

King has a brilliant band on stage with her: Kate Miguda on the violin, Paul Gilbody on the double bass, Aki Remally on guitar, Phil Alexander on the keyboard, and Rich Kass on drums. The music is intersected with pre-recorded commentary from people aged seven to 90, musing on why we ought to make the most of our time on this earth. Niki King’s ‘TIME’ is a loving tribute to everyone we’ve loved and lost and a reminder to seize every one of our moments as we don’t know when they’ll run out.

‘TIME‘ has ended its Fringe run