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AT SCHOOL in Tower Hamlets in east London, Elaine Mitchener’s flute teacher was a jazz and free-improvising musician who introduced her to the greats — from musicians Charlie Parker to John Coltrane, vocalists from Billie Holiday to Janet Baker and composers such as Bela Bartok and Karlheinz Stockhausen.

Thus her inspiration, she stresses, is “environmental. I am definitely not a jazz singer.” As well as a vocalist, she’s a movement artist and composer who's been described the Finanacial Times as a “genre-crossing virtuoso.”

When she was making her compelling album Uproot with pianist Alex Hawkins, double bassist Neil Charles and drummer Stephen Davis, she told Hawkins that she’d only sing in a quartet if her voice was regarded as an instrument. He understood.