<<  -- 3 --  Malcolm Miller    FRESH AND INVOLVING

A Fine Romance in a jazz garb brought out more of the qualities of Mancio's voice, its natural grain coloured by a husky hushed timbre. Her Brazilian exuberance well suited Jobim's Favella, with its bubbly textures in which John Pearce allowed himself greater freedom to etch out a really sazzy solo figuration, and there were great solos all round in Without a Song before an Italian pop song Senza Fine ('Without End') by Gino Pauli found Mancio in a far more colourful range of voice, the final number by Charles Trenet, I Wish You Love, had the audience entranced.

Despite a certain simplicity of form to each song, one could sit back and enjoy the solos, and the extra richness of all four together; more than relaxing mood music, this was artful jazz improvisation, and Georgia Mancio's ability to communicate with the audience kept it fresh and involving throughout.