Jazz Forum (Poland)
Georgia Mancio, an incredibly ambitious and creative artist who’s not afraid of difficult challenges, has already offered us several excellent albums and numerous artistic projects, such as her London jazz festivals ReVoice! and Hang.
However, when in 2017 the first fruit of her musical collaboration with pianist, composer and arranger Alan Broadbent was released, i.e. the album entitled Songbook, even for an artist as ambitious as Mancio, the bar was set extremely high. Containing only original material, Songbook was hailed as “pure perfection” and the duo “a musical connection created in heaven”.
Their second album together Quiet Is The Star proves the deepening of the unusual artistic and emotional chemistry between the two musicians, both in the creative and performance sense. The songs are both a tribute and a confession addressed to real people, as well as discovering those more intimate, fragile and sensitive bonds that we experience in life – be they family, romantic or universal. They talk in a poignant way about love, loss and rebirth.
The recording was made in duo: only voice, piano, and dialogue. In the studio, apart from Mancio and Broadbent, only producer Andrew Cleyndert was present. “Everything was organic, and rather intense, because they are very personal and emotional songs,” says Mancio.
Quiet Is The Star is not an album exploring sadness. It is rather a record about feelings, moods and considerations related to relations – reflective, but not sad. The songs say, among other things, that even in the worst moments of life you can always find something beautiful that weaves into this depth of dark emotions, which gives some faith in a better tomorrow. And just like in the touching ballad “Let Me Whisper to Your Heart”, dedicated to the singer’s mother, moments of sadness must exist, but there is also a sense of hope.
The release of the album coincided with the publication of the book The Songs of Alan Broadbent and Georgia Mancio, which is a collection of 33 original songs written by the duo over the past 7 years. The beautifully published 94-page volume contains sheet music, suggestive graphics by Simon Manfield from both albums, and photos and song descriptio
Details
Publication: Jazz Forum (Poland)
Author: Tomasz Furmanek
Date: Apr-2021
Related Press:
Quiet Is The Star (2021)
Jazz Views (UK), Best of 2021 Albums
Jazzwise (UK), Best of 2021 Albums