Glasgow Jazz Festival, Jarrod Lawson/Hamish Stuart Band, Rio Club

Rob Adams FOUR STARS

There was a moment during Jarrod Lawson's Glasgow Jazz Festival debut on Friday that chimed with another Glasgow debut last summer. Friday was Lawson's drummer, Josh Corry's birthday and if having a cake, complete with candles, delivered onstage left the drummer abashed, then hearing his boss leading a chorus of Happy Birthday to You must have been a reward on a par with the divine Lalah Hathaway literally singing her guitarist, Ben Jones' praises at the end of his solos at the 02ABC.

Lawson has a voice, songwriting depth and piano-playing talent that have been likened to Hathaway's late father, Donny. He's also acknowledged Stevie Wonder's influence but while both of these masters sprang to mind, as well as a few others - vocal harmony sophisticates Take 6, for example - his live performance confirmed Lawson as a strong enough character to stand on his own two feet.

His songs don't shy away from big ideas, or even big words, but they're carried on strong melodies, classy arrangements and inventive, mobile basslines that, along with blue-eyed soul singing that speaks of honesty and authority, makes them life-affirmingly attractive. His duet on All the Time with Tahira Memory, one of two backing vocalists who created a fabulously lush, church-choir-with-added-snap team with Lawson, was magnificent and the Afro-Latin swing of Sleepwalkers, the generous bounce of All That Surrounds and the grooving urgency of Gotta Keep fed the mind while keeping whatever body parts folks felt like shakin' sweet on the beat.

On the more familiar end of the Glasgow audience's radar, former Average White Band singer-guitarist Hamish Stuart and his superb band honoured the stay-true-to-the-groove sentiment expressed in one AWB classic, Queen of My Soul, as well as reconfiguring and deliciously slowing down another, Cloudy, in a late-night set of sincere soul searchin' and feelgood rhythm and blues.