Sarah Ellen Hughes previews the second Revoice!
After an incredibly successful festival last year, ReVoice! returns to Pizza Express for 9 days in October.
Tirelessly promoted by Georgia Mancio, herself an Internationally acclaimed award-winning vocalist, last year’s festival brought stars Maria Pia de Vito, Karin Krog, Rebecca Parris and David Linx for a 5-day celebration of vocal jazz.
“It was an opportunity to bring some artists together who inexplicably never or rarely play in the UK,” says Mancio, “and I felt that European vocalists were particularly under-represented here.”
A few years ago, Mancio won a jazz singing competition in Brussels and was invited back the following year to be part of the judging panel, thereby meeting a selection of other International stars such as Belgian singer David Linx - whom she invited to perform at last year’s festival, and will also be featured this year. The judging experience she says, “was such a great learning experience listening to very diverse vocalists back to back; to be influenced but also to retain and strengthen your own musical fingerprint.” So ReVoice! was born - a chance for others to be influenced by a diverse range of vocalists, and to bring together singers from different jazz scenes.
This year, the festival has grown, kicking off with the Norma Winstone Trio on October 6th, and followed by artists such as Grammy-nominated Gregory Porter (his shows are sold out) , Sachal Vasandani and Kenny Wheeler (vocals from Diana Torto).
Over the festival, Mancio chooses from a plethora of British talent to accompany her on the opening set to each gig, including Laurence Cottle, Jim Mullen and James Pearson, and finishing with a festival special double bill with Ian Shaw on October 14th.
Let’s rejoice in jazz voice!
Revoicefestival.com
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