WHEN talk centres on Jazz music words such as cool, stylish and sophisticated invariably get mentioned in describing the genre.

Likewise, when the name of Bryan Ferry is uttered, those very same words tend to get crop up when discussing the man himself and his music, both his solo output and the music of his seminal band, Roxy Music, with whom he built his prodigious reputation.

And so it wasn't such a surprise when the two, Jazz and Ferry, met head on in a project last year that resulted in an album entitled 'The Jazz Age'. Ferry has never hidden his love and admiration for Jazz and has flirted with the genre on a number of occasions during his lengthy career. 

On 'The Jazz Age' though, Ferry took the decision to re-model a selection of both his own and Roxy Music's finest compositions and have them re-presented and completely reinterpreted, without vocals, by a jazz orchestra in roaring 1920's style.

The album project was heralded by most critics and fans alike to be a fresh and quirky new spin on the singer's much loved and familiar material.

The concert tour that Ferry is presently taking around the UK and which pulled up at Manchester's Lowry Theatre last week for a two night engagement is billed as 'An Evening With Bryan Ferry' but in essence, it is ostensibly a showcase for 'The Jazz Age ' record.

Indeed for the first twenty or so minutes of the show(perhaps a tad too long in truth), there is no sign of Ferry himself as the crowd are instead treated to performances by the nine-piece Bryan Ferry Orchestra(all suited and booted in the full black tuxedo), of a number of the tracks from 'The Jazz Age' album including 'Do The Strand', 'Slave To Love' and 'Avalon'.

All were superbly presented by the highly-drilled, note perfect combo but one did detect a slight sigh of relief when Ferry finally casually sauntered on stage with his own regular band together with two backing singers to join forces with his jazz orchestra.

Looking as dapper as ever(would we expect anything less from the man?) in a floral smoking jacket, bow tie and what looked from a distance to be silk-like trousers, Ferry eased himself into proceedings with a lovely croon through 'Reason Or Rhyme' from 2010's 'Olympia album.

He then  quickly  moved through the gears as he delivered vocally perfect renditions of songs such as 'Same Old Blues', 'Oh Yeah' a truly sublime 'Carrickfergus', 'The Way You Look Tonight', 'Don't Stop The Dance' and the glorious Roxy Music favourite, 'Song For Europe', which brought the first half of the concert to an end.

After the brief interval, once again the Bryan Ferry Orchestra reappeared first and served up a couple more jazz instrumentals, quickly being joined onstage by Ferry's two backing singers, Jodie Scantlebury and Bobbie Gordon, dazzling in spectacular shimmering green dresses, who proceeded to engage in a most energetic Charleston-like dance routine.

No long wait though this time for Ferry and his band who were back on stage very shortly after the break and within minutes, Ferry started steering  the concert in a much more rock infused direction, very ably abetted by his precociously talented young lead guitarist Ollie Thompson, in possession of a sackful of delicious licks and, by his quite fabulous female drummer, Cherisse Ofosu-Osei, who pounded her kit as if her life depended on it.

The fusion of rock band and jazz orchestra together with Ferry's signature vocals, remarkably untouched by the passage of time, made for a potent blend and swirling room-filling sound.

The romp to the finish line saw Ferry give his adoring audience exactly what they most craved in the form of a selection of his own and Roxy's best-known songs that included 'Out Of The Blue', 'Street Life', 'Love Is The Drug' and 'Let's Stick Together', all of which brought pretty much the entire audience to  their feet whilst 'Jealous Guy' , Ferry's superb Lennon cover, and Roxy Music's 'Editions Of You', from 1973's 'For Your Pleasure' album, proved to be the icing and cherry to round off a great show.