‘I was born with the gift a golden voice,’ sings Leonard Cohen in Tower of Song but tonight the golden voice belonged to Christine Tobin as she wowed The Spin Jazz Club.

Originating from Dublin though now very much part of the London and UK Jazz scene, Tobin and long time musical collaborator guitarist Phil Robson have released CD’s of Carole King numbers, settings of WB Yeats poems and most recently an album of eleven Leonard Cohen songs. Along the way she has acquired a reputation as a highly distinctive interpreter of others’ work, and the accolade of Jazz Singer of the Year for 2014 in The Parliamentary Jazz Awards.

So it was quite a coup for The Spin to have Tobin and Robson guesting with the resident trio for what Tobin told us was her first time singing in Oxford, other than at a May Ball (which according to her ‘was something else’).

While the set included mainstream jazz fare in the form of a couple of Jerome Kerr standards and an early Bossa Nova classic, mostly the focus was on singer songwriters and singers of the sixties and seventies. Tobin’s mellow voice has an impressive range and she used it in a variety of styles. So we had a funky take on John Martyn’s ’Go Down Easy’, Paul Simon’s ‘I do it for your love’ was done as a slow ballad, there was a driving bluesy gospel version of a number associated with Nina Simone, and even a burst of ‘Eleanor Rigby’.

The aforesaid Mr Cohen featured prominently starting with the opener ‘Famous Blue Raincoat’ which was done with more upbeat and swing than he would possibly give it. Tobin’s refinement at the lower registers of her voice and her sinuous earthy unhurried delivery makes her voice a good match for Cohen’s songs. But even more impressive was that her performance was not so much about prettifying the songs but about getting inside them, exploring what they meant for her and wrapping her voice around them. .

Perhaps wisely she avoided the most iconic of the songs. So no ‘Hallelujah’ and no going down to the river with Suzanne or saying goodbye to Marianne. Her spiky version of Cohen’s ‘Everybody Knows’ though was possibly the highlight of the night.

It added to the enjoyment that Tobin really sought to engage with the audience, singing slightly stooped towards them, seeking eye contact with the front rows and having some relaxed banter with them between numbers. For one night only she even got me to almost like scat singing, those wordless vocals beloved of jazz singers, because she had such a large variety of sounds and such vocal dexterity. One burst sounded like a brilliant sax solo.

Robson’s sympathetic understated guitar solos complemented Tobin’s delivery but it was his sensitive and unusual chord changes when she was singing that were really dazzling. They were integral to the whole vibe Tobin created. With the resident trio having hardly met Tobin and Robson before taking to the stage, it was amazing how quickly they found a way to gel. The trio wisely let Tobin and Robson take the lead most of the time, while giving them sterling support - especially Mark Doffman on drums.

It was a pity though that there wasn't one or two more of Christine’s own songs in the set list, and perhaps, yes, a little less scat singing. These are however minor criticisms on a night that proved The Spin was the place to be.