Picnic Jazz at The Pavilion has put together another sensational package of talent for 2013. As well as the popular resident musicians Natasha Hodge, Nick Raison and Jazz Bazaar this quintessentially English afternoon of Pimms and Picnics will feature two highly gifted singers with some pretty tasty backing from Tim Lapthorn on piano, Oli Hayhurst on bass and Dave Ohm on drums. 

Georgia Mancio is a regular presence on the UK circuit and sole curator of London’s jazz vocal festival ‘ReVoice!’; an event held between Soho’s ‘Pizza Express Jazz Club’ and Islington’s ‘Union Chapel’ which brings together a diverse mix of European talent for a week long showcase in the capital.

Georgia has one of the finest voices on the London jazz scene today and she has fitted Jazz at The Pavilion into her 23 date UK Spring Summer tour. A natural musician with a pure honeyed tone, her delivery epitomises the cool, laid-back sound of cocktail jazz, with its effortless swing and instinctive phrasing. Georgia’s repertoire mines the rich vein of “standards”, jazz originals and Latin numbers which have provided the inspiration for all the great jazz singers such as Ella Fitzgerald, Frank Sinatra and Sarah Vaughan in the past, and still fill the songbooks of contemporary performers such as Diana Krall and Stacey Kent. Elegant, sophisticated, swinging, with just a hint of Latin spice, 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) to study jazz and voice.

Since her professional debut, Georgia has been steadily making a name for herself on the London jazz scene and earning the applause of audiences and the plaudits of critics, club owners and fellow musicians. She has performed regularly at top jazz nightspots including The Pizza on the Park, The 606 Club, Mezzo, Oxo and The Axis. She has guested at Ronnie Scotts and her music has been featured on Jazz FM. Time Out magazine’s John Lewis described her as “stylish and pure-voiced”.

Polly Gibbons is well known in Suffolk. Her roots are here and she appeared locally in a number of very interesting performances through 2012.

In July she performed on Orford Ness with “Untrue Island”

The haunting landscape of Orford Ness, with its Atomic Weapons Research Establishment laboratories, formed the backdrop for the Untrue Island project in July. Initiated and developed by Commissions East and the National Trust, it brought together writer Robert Macfarlane, jazz musician Arnie Somogyi, and visual artists Jane and Louise Wilson.

Robert Macfarlane’s narrative was set to a new composition by Arnie Somogyi, one of the UK’s leading jazz bass players, whose album Accident and Insurgency was developed at Aldeburgh Music.  Improvisations and sound recordings of the Ness are woven into the music by Arnie and were performed by Polly Gibbons, percussionist Jim Hart, and multi-instrumentalist Neil Yates.

Also in July, Polly played the lead role of Jesus in the Mouth To Mouth Theatre Company travelling production of GODSPELL. This exciting new production of the highly acclaimed, rock musical was performed at a number of venues around Suffolk including the garden of The Jolly Sailor in Orford.

In November Polly was singing at the new centre for jazz in London, Boisdale of Canary Wharf.

Her busy diary continued into December with her appearing in “Where’s Elvis” at The Cut in Halesworth.

http://www.orford.org.uk/community/picnic-jazz/

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