But Fiona was no hothouse flower, no rarefied blossom, defenceless outside the protection of a legitimate theatre or sound studio. She had a lust for jazz. At the age of fourteen she lied about her age and talked her way into gigging on weekends in jazz clubs throughout London, from the classy nightspots of the elite to some rather seedy pubs that were no place for an ordinary teenager. There were never any contracts to sign, it was always cash in hand at the end of the night. No one even suspected that a voice that startling in its maturity and passion could belong to a singer barely into her teens. "I will never forget going home to my parents," Fiona says, " telling them that I had a job singing and playing Jazz as a solo artist in a club in London, I was so thrilled, but they were furious - well, I was only 14 at the time."

When not gigging in nightclubs as a teenager, Fiona attended the prestigious Arts Educational School (the English equivalent of New York's High School for Performing Arts) where she excelled academically. This also opened up doors for her, though perhaps she didn't know as much at the time. "It was just another singing job," she says of performing "White Christmas" with her classmate and friend, Adam Cooper, for Cliff Richard. "I only got nervous retroactively when I finally found out who he was."

Fiona's career has taken her all over the musical map. She has been the musical director for regional productions of Jesus Christ Superstar, Oliver!, and Guys and Dolls (to name a few), has composed scores for new versions of Dylan Thomas's Under Milk Wood and Sophocles'Oedipus Rex, and has performed with the English National Opera in the acclaimed production of Orpheus in the Underworld, designed by Gerald Scarfe. All this time she continued performing in the West End, appearing as Nelly in Annie Get Your Gun, Bianca in Kiss Me Kate, and being cast as the lead in the ill-fated musical version of Carrie. She even sang back-up for a rock and roll band called Rocking Willie and the Y-Fronts.

But despite success at whatever she tries her hand, Fiona was always drawn back to her first love: jazz. In recent months she tried in vain to find a songwriter to work with and finally decided-with her typical bravado-to try her own hand at writing material. This was the missing piece of the jigsaw. In a few fevered months Fiona produced a breathtaking array of compositions, from blues and heartfelt ballads to Latin-flavored jazz. With a mastery and skill that only comes from years of training and honing her vocal and musical gifts Fiona has gone into the studio and produced A Twist of Blue, an album of such passion, such technical virtuosity, such sexiness, that, although this may be the first we've heard from her, she already sounds indispensable in the world of jazz. All of the songs are originals except for two: a cover of "New York State of Mind" that makes you forget that anyone else ever sang it, and a shatteringly beautiful rendition of Bessie Smith's "Wasted Life Blues" which, at six minutes, still seems too short.

A Twist of Blue is a stunning album. Fiona Ross is dazzling new light on the world's jazz stage.