R&B singer Alicia Keys returned to the Montreux Jazz festival, giving a high-energy 90-minute concert mixing early hits with recent tracks from her chart-topping “As I Am” album.

“One of my all time favourite things is coming to the Montreux Jazz Festival. There is something different in the air here,” the Grammy Award-winning American singer and pianist told the crowd on Thursday night.

“There is so much incredible talent here,” she added.R&B singer Alicia Keys returned to the Montreux Jazz festival, giving a high-energy 90-minute concert mixing early hits with recent tracks from her chart-topping “As I Am” album.

“One of my all time favourite things is coming to the Montreux Jazz Festival. There is something different in the air here,” the Grammy Award-winning American singer and pianist told the crowd on Thursday night.

“There is so much incredible talent here,” she added.

The New Yorker made her debut at the prestigious Swiss festival on the shores of Lake Geneva in 2004. Two years ago she went through a troubled period that nearly derailed her life and career, but came back to win a Grammy as best female R&B performer for “No One” from her new album in February.

Quincy Jones, the Grammy Award-winning producer and composer celebrating his 75th birthday in Montreux, made a surprise appearance to introduce the “sweet little talented girl” whom he met early on with her mother.

“One of the privileges of being a producer is you get to see people before everybody else see them. She not only has the nerve to be talented, beautiful and smart but she has a good heart,” he said, referring to her humanitarian work in Africa.

“This baby sister is going to knock you on your booty,” Jones told fans who paid 105 Swiss francs ($103.1) to stand in sold-out Stravinski Auditorium.

Keys thanked Jones, whom she called “the Godfather of Montreux”. The African-American, who co-produced the event from 1991-93, was feted at a marathon concert on Monday night which brought together stars including Herbie Hancock, Patti Austin, Mick Hucknall, Al Jarreau, Nana Mouskouri and Petula Clark.
Keys played crowd-pleasing tracks from “As I Am”, including “No One” and “Teenage Love Affair”. She dedicated “Superwoman” to “women and sisters who feel the weight of the world”.

She also performed hits from her Grammy winning 2001 inaugural release, “Songs in A Minor”, including “How Come You Don’t Call Me”, “Fallin’” and “A Woman’s Worth”.

Dressed in a white tunic and black trousers, she laid down on her stomach on the piano, leaning over the keyboard to kick off “Secrets” from the 2003 album “The Diary of Alicia Keys”.

Jermaine Paul opened and then joined her as back-up vocalist.