Jazz Hot (France)

After Songbook (2015-16, Roomspin Records), this is the second album by British singer and producer Georgia Mancio and New Zealand pianist, composer and arranger Alan Broadbent. 

 

It was in 2012 that Georgia Mancio made contact with Alan Broadbent whose work she admired with Irene Kral. After a few duo concerts, the singer  proposed writing lyrics for one of Alan’s songs, “The Last Goodbye”, which would be the first piece of the Songbook  album exclusively made up of originals with  words by Georgia Mancio.

 

Quiet Is the Star is the extension of this first experience which, this time, does so without rhythmic support. A piano-voice duo therefore, which further accentuates the intimate dimension of the meeting. The exchange is sober and refined. Georgia does not deploy any flirtatious tricks in her beautiful clear voice which expresses itself in the spirit of jazz. The osmosis with the beautiful pearly playing of Alan Broadbent, sometimes tinged with pretty nuances of the blues (“When You’re Gone From Me”) is remarkable.

The other asset of this album is the quality of the compositions that one might think were taken from the American Songbook . “If My Heart Should Love Again” particularly deserves to integrate with the great repertoire of jazz.

 

In this regard, 33 songs co-written by the duo were the subject of a book published at the same time as the disc, offering scores and lyrics. The author of the music, Alan Broadbent, will celebrate his 74th birthday on April 23, 2021, let us take advantage of this column to wish him a happy birthday, long and beautiful years of work of the same quality as this recording.