London Jazz News – Songbook preview

Our friends at London Jazz News kindly previewed Georgia’s forthcoming dates with her songwriting partner, double Grammy-winning pianist/composer, Alan Broadbent.

Next tour date this Wednesday 7th at Pizza Express Jazz Club. Book online here

 

New Zealand-born, American-based pianist and composer/arranger ALAN BROADBENT has won Grammys for his work with Shirley Horn and Natalie Cole, was a fixture in Charlie Haden’s Quartet West, and has been Grammy-nominated three times for his own albums. 

For the past two years he has been in a songwriting partnership with Georgia Mancio. They have recorded an ALBUM together, entitled “Songbook”. It won’t be out until next spring, but two of the tracks (detailed below) are available for a limited period to preview on Soundcloud.

They also embark on a four date UK tour. Georgia Mancio explains how her lyric-writing led to the partnership with Alan Broadbent. She writes:

“The first lyric I wrote was for pianist and composer, Tim Lapthorn – the title track of my first album Peaceful Place in 2003. We co-wrote a good part of Silhouette in 2010 with the title track by myself and Kate Williams and also an approved lyric to Pat Metheny’s Question and Answer. I’ve written lyrics and vocalese to songs by Chick Corea, Horace Silver, Jon Hendricks, Joe Zawinul, Osvaldo Farres (translating from the original Spanish) and Frank Griffith but the balance of my repertoire has always been weighted in favour of standards or covers.

I started writing with Alan in Summer 2014 and we are now on our 18th tune. I’ve never written so prolifically either alone or with someone else and the process, the craft and his music increasingly fascinates me. When we first previewed our songs last year, I really enjoyed focussing on the storytelling aspect – both with the actual lyrics and putting them in context for an audience who had never heard them before. I appreciate that it’s asking more of the listener but I actually found that drew them in deeper. We found after performances people were always keen not just to show their appreciation but to ask more, share their own interpretations or stories.

I’ve lived with our songs a little longer now, we’ve recorded them all (set for release next Spring) and I’ve played them with other people so they are starting to take on their own identities. So here’s to these live dates and the next 18 songs!”

 

Hear album preview tracks below!

https://soundcloud.com/georgia-mancio/sets/alan-broadbent-georgia