I've always had a soft spot for Randy Crawford. Ever since I caught her eye backstage at a recording of Top of the Pops and she smiled at me. It was like bathing in Mediterranean sunshine. Of course, I now know Crawford smiles like that at everyone. She beams and sings Rainy Night in Georgia in tones that imply every kind of weather, good and bad. Audience members, entranced, shout: "We love you Randy," mid-song.

She is an unusual star in the soul firmament - a popular singer with the technique, musicality and emotional maturity of a jazz singer. There aren't many left: Mel Tormé and Nina Simone are no longer around to pull off this trick.

Crawford is completing a tour with pianist Joe Sample to promote Feeling Good, possibly the classiest MOR album of the decade so far. The CD is refreshing because of the way Sample's acoustic trio arrangements complement Crawford's interpretations of songs such as End of the Line and the title track, which is reinvented as a fleet shuffle. Everybody's Talking gets a Caribbean makeover, while Rio de Janiero Blue coasts along on an understated groove, driven by funky brushes and inspired piano interjections. The collaboration works because it is integrated like a jazz partnership, rather than just "singer plus accompaniment".

The stripped-down approach comes adrift on older, more "produced" hits such as Street Life, and on John Lennon's Imagine, which brings out the worst in Crawford. But a memorable, exquisite performance of the songs from Feeling Good, and One Day I'll Fly Away, prompt the audience to leap to their feet, basking in the rays of that smile.