Mojo (UK), CD of the month

★★★★

This collection of 12 Alan Broadbent/Georgia Mancio compositions glows with the kind of craft, style and elegance that was routine in the Golden Age of Song but is a rare delight today.

Broadbent’s graceful music is both unpredictable and entirely memorable while Mancio’s heartfelt lyrics balance pithy, simple-profound sentiment with a discreet dexterity. Songs like the samba Someone’s Sun and a neatly resolved The Journey Home (with flavours variously of Jobim, Frishberg, Mandel, et al) reveal a music/words team who know their past masters without being in thrall to them.

This easy-swinging commitment to old school qualities exudes a timelessness rather than any self-conscious returnees, an achievement enhanced by Broadbent’s measured pianistics and Mancio’s serene, warm vocals.