(Vocal Jazz) Georgia Mancio - Silhouette - 2010, MP3, 320 kbps

Trapeze, the critically acclaimed second album by award-winning vocalist Georgia Mancio has cemented her position as one of the UK’s brightest young jazz stars. Since turning professional in 2000 she has performed with: Bobby McFerrin (as part of an acapella choir at the 2003 London Jazz Festival); Sheila Jordan and David Linx (in Belgium 2006); Liane Carroll (guesting at Ronnie Scott’s) and most recently in concert with Ian Shaw, Norma Winstone and Anita Wardell (The True Jazz Voice, The Lighthouse, Poole). Her current 23 date Jazz Services Tour with her band - Gareth Lockrane, John Pearce, Dave Green, Dave Ohm and Anselmo Netto – began with a support slot opposite Cedar Walton at Ronnie Scott’s and includes The Pizza Express Jazz Club, The Hawth, Swanage Jazz Festival, Harri’s, The Fleece, The 606, Swindon Arts Centre and Chichester Jazz Club. She is also making a name for herself on the continent having won first prize at the First Brussels International Young Jazz Singers’ Competition in 2005 and subsequently playing venues and festivals in Italy, Belgium and Portugal (including a live T.V. performance on Culture Club).
A natural, instinctive musician with a pure, honeyed tone, Mancio’s deceptively simple delivery is always shot through with sincerity and gravitas. Her music is an intriguing reflection of her Anglo-Latino background. Predominantly a standards singer, she also specialises in South American and European music and is a lyricist. As a child she played classical flute, went on to train as an actor and film-maker before returning to her musical roots (her Italian grandparents were a concert pianist and opera singer respectively) to study jazz and voice. She co-produced (with Andrew Cleyndert) her 2003 debut album, Peaceful Place which features pianist Tim Lapthorn, her songwriting partner. Both that album and the 2008 Trapeze have received extensive press (The Guardian, The Standard, The Observer, Jazz UK, Jazz Review, Jazz Journal International, JazzReview.com, BBC On Line, Jazzwise) and radio play (Jazz FM; Best of Jazz (Radio 2); Jazz Line-up, Jazz Record Requests (Radio 3); Loose Ends (Radio 4 - live broadcast); LaGuagua (Radio Palermo, Argentina); TheJazz; Sky Digital; RBF (Belgium/France); Radio Citta Futura (Italy).
Other work includes: guest spots with the New Squadronaires and Memphis Belle Big Bands; featured soloist on the soundtrack to the BBC2 film The Iceberg That Sank The Titanic; jury member of the 2006 Brussels International Young Jazz Singers’ Competition and appearances at: The Vortex; Mill Hill Jazz Festival (The Next Big Thing); Jagz; Ealing Jazz Festival; The Stables; Langholm Music and Arts Festival and The 100 Club. Mancio is also featured in the 2007 editions of Who’s Who In Jazz and Cabaret and Entertainment Divas - Jazz and Cabaret.

Silhouette, the third album by award-winning singer, Georgia Mancio, marks the end of her first decade as a professional performer and the beginning of her next as an accomplished writer and interpreter. Beginnings and endings; roads and journeys - both literal and metaphorical-; losses and gains are the recurring themes in this collection of 10 songs - 7 of which are written/co-written by Mancio.
Brought up bi-lingual in an Italian household, Mancio has always been fascinated by language and languages and excelled at English. Her talent for lyric writing, hinted at on the title track to her 2003 debut album, Peaceful Place, and in her new English translation of the Cuban classic, Tres Palabras, on the acclaimed 2008 release, Trapeze, now beats at the heart of Silhouette with startling maturity. Mirroring her performance style, Mancio's writing achieves that enviable combination of simplicity and strength: there are no wasted words, no hackneyed rhymes - this is a writer with something to say. Themes are refreshingly sophisticated: the modern day homage to Buddy Can You Spare a Dime? for our own 1929 (Finisterre); the South American road to ruin or salvation depending on your political point of view (TransOceanica); the old man (inspired by Citizen Kane) looking back at the end of his life (Silhouette); the sardonic swipe at religion and politics in the authorised lyric to Pat Metheny's Question and Answer now appropriately renamed Question The Answer. Into this mix are: a joyously intricate arrangement of the jazz standard, Just in Time; the heart-wrenching, near classical beauty of Antonio Carlos Jobim's Modinha and a hauntingly sparse bass and cello treatment of Tom Waits' Take it with Me.

Georgia Mancio: vocals; Julie Walkington: double-bass; Dave Ohm: drums, percussion; John Pearce: piano (2, 5, 8); Kate Williams: piano (1); Tim Lapthorn: piano (3, 6, 7, 9); Dave Colton: guitar (6); Gareth Lockrane: flute (1, 2, 5, 9); Gregor Riddell: cello (4, 7); Ian Shaw: vocals (7, 11).