Jazzwise

★★★★

The third studio release from Georgia Mancio is as thoughtful, assiduously crafted and lovingly realised an album as you’ll hear this year. Marking the milestone of clocking up 10 years as a professional singer, Silhouette sees Mancio’s talent for lyric writing come strongly to the fore. And quite an impression she makes too.

Threading its way through the 10-song collection is a terrific quartet of songs penned with pianist Tim Lapthorn – the eloquent ‘Solace’, the Jobimesque ‘Slowly’, the singular ‘TransOceánica and ruminative ‘Slice’ – any one of which is worthy of entering the standard repertoire. Jobim’s music has featured in both of Mancio’s previous albums, ‘Chega de Saudade’ on the debut Peaceful Place (2003), a striking ‘O Morro Não Tem Vez’ on the follow-up Trapeze (2008). Here, a beautiful ‘Modinha’ makes it three out of three.

The album is bookended by two hanutingly atmospheric versions of the title track (the second featuring Ian Shaw), with the singer’s newly penned lyric fitting the emotional climate of Kate Williams’ music like a glove. Add to this the brilliant gear changes of ‘Just in Time’ plus the upright bass and mournfully soughing cello accompanying Tom Waits’ ‘Take it With Me’, and you get an album that grips you to the very end. Mancio’s superb band features several long-standing musical colleagues, with drummer, co-arranger (on half of the songs), MD and co-producer Dave Ohm being a key presence.