You dare not evoke the timeless sound of the ultra great Nina Simone and not blow the audience away. Even if it rained something fierce only hours before.

But that’s exactly what Tina Simone Mowatt did with a larger than expected crowd that nicely filled out the Chaser’s Café, Belmont Road in Kingston on a rain-beaten Thursday evening last week.

Ossie D of the famed Ossie D and Stevie G duo introduced her as a friend but, the magic he works with his dancing feet, believing apparently that he would need to pep up the audience for this pretty debutant, was hardly necessary.

It was a night when the clichés were finally appropriate. The satiated audience danced and sang along, some forgetting the finger food and the fine liquor before them on the table.

Tina Simone titled her first full-length solo show “Metamorphosis” to mark her transition from a group singer. She could have fooled you, especially when she belted out Jennifer Hudson’s One Night Only that would have made the Ray actress proud.

Prouder even might be Noel Dexter, the musical director of the elite University Singers who trained Simone’s powerful voice; and ex-Peter Tosh manager, Herbie Miller who had asked her ‘why don’t you become the artiste?’

The story behind that question is that Tina Simone “disliked singing by myself and preferred to sing in a group” (the group meaning the University Singers and the University Chorale). Moreover, Tina Simone wrote songs and recorded for Internet radio but never saw herself as a solo act… until Herbie Miller.

“In December 2008, I left the University Singers to pursue that solo career. But I started the ball rolling with a classical recital with Charles Munroe. Up to that time I did the classics, but now I was exploring other genres. So in February this year I resigned my nine-to-five as a retail operator and really launched my career.”

Tina Simone chose Christopher’s jazz café for her first full-length solo gig in October. But Thursday evening it was to Chaser’s Cafe that she turned for her first full-length solo act organised and produced by her own team.

Chaser’s George McLeish could not believe his luck. He had wanted to have live shows as a staple at the club for sometime and decided to test the waters with Tina Simone. The torrential rains earlier seemed to be a bad omen. But when the singer and her backup vocalists — Melissa Simpson and Cadia Gritton, backed by Desi Jones’ Skool Band — took the stage at 9:05 pm and quickly sealed the deal with the audience, he knew he had found a winner.

The repertoire included Reasons by Earth Wind and Fire which she performed with Damon Riley on saxophone; Portuguese Love by Teena Marie; Fire and Desire featuring Teena Marie and Rick James which she did with Christopher McDonald; Santa Baby by Eartha Kitt and Tina Turner’s Simply the Best.

Tina Simone was clearly showing off when she pulled of a titillating rendition of a reggae medley covering Dawn Penn’s No No No; Marie Griffith’s Dreamland and Judy Mowatt’s Thank You, Lord. But she was not finished yet. Her own hit-in-the-making, Tomorrow’s Destiny was to be the icing on the cake.

There are few things more gratifying than being on spot to witness the birth of a star and the metamorphosis of Tina Simone.