“a sublime pairing … and a wonderfully successful one … Don’t miss this … Superb presentation too.”
This is the third collaboration between these two to be issued on record, with Mancio as bot vocalist and lyricist, and composer Broadbent her playing companion. Mancio is based here, Broadbent in the US. Each has their own claims to fame, Mancio as an award-winner in her own right, and one of the most persuasively original vocal performers on the local scene and Grammy-winner Broadbent (born 1947 in New Zealand) as an internationally renowned composer, arranger and pianist. So, in prospect a sublime pairing and on past evidence, a wonderfully successful one.
With each recording that appears, there’s a tour that follows; the same goes this time with Mancio’s website detailing an intriguing series of dates. In sum, ‘an exquisite playing and writing partnership’ honed via their recordings and their many tours ranging across Europe and the US. If these songs were conceived at first as instrumentals, it’s Mancio’s lyric concepts that gives them life. Another reviewer summed up their performances as ‘pure perfection’. A view that pertains here.
The words are thoughtful, considered and often insouciantly poetical, this evident on Then And Now, Broadbent moving Mancio into harmonically intriguing country, his ‘luminously delicate’ solo supported ably by bassist Andy Cleyndert and drummer Dave Ohm. ‘In The Afternoon’, has a laid-back bluesy feel, while The Love I Left Behind is heard in both English and Italian versions. Same Old Moon gets quite a going over, Ohm taking centre stage.
Ten songs in all, the words compelling one’s attention, all adorned by Broadbent’s ‘intense musicality’ in Chris Parker’s words. It’s all too easy in these days of jazz urgency to overlook beauty and subtlety. Mind you, there’s a boppish feel to From Me To You, Ohm percussive on solo. Don’t miss this but make sure you hear them live . Superb presentation too.