Stacey Kent

An American language student visits Europe to study French, Italian and German for a Masters degree in comparative literature. Her life takes an unexpected twist that sees Stacey Kent become one of the world's foremost jazz singers.

Stacey, a recent addition to the Blue Note roster of recording artists, now boasts six best-selling albums, a string of awards, including the 2001 British Jazz Award and 2002 BBC Jazz Award for 'Best Vocalist,' the 2004 Backstage Bistro Award and the 2006 "Album of the Year" for 'The Lyric' as well as a fan base that enables her to sell out concert halls around the world.

The twist of fate that took her life in this new direction was a chance meeting in Oxford with saxophonist, Jim Tomlinson. Like Stacey, Jim was embarked on an academic path, but their meeting sparked in each other the desire to pursue their love of music together.

After a year's study at the Guildhall School of Music, Stacey set about honing her skills on the London jazz scene in the company of, now husband, Jim Tomlinson.

A demo tape, sent simultaneously to Polygram, Candid Records and broadcaster, Humphrey Lyttelton, secured her a role in Ian McKellen's film version of Richard III, a recording contract and national airplay and endorsement from Britain's most respected jazz broadcaster.

Since the release of Stacey's first album, Close Your Eyes (1997), she has achieved, without compromise, both critical and popular success, with her fresh and heart-felt interpretations of the finest love songs of the twentieth century.

Her most recent album, The Boy Next Door, a celebration of many of her heroes, was launched with an extensive, worldwide concert tour, lasting two years. Among the many highlights were shows at New York's Carnegie Hall, a month-long sell-out run at The Algonquin Hotel, a sell-out performance at Taipei’s Chiang Kai-shek Concert Hall and in France, where The Boy Next Door earned Stacey the 'Gold Disc' for sales of 100,000. The album also remained in USA's Billboard Charts for 35 weeks.

Stacey's admirers are not limited to the loyal fans that buy her albums and pack out her concerts. A track from her third album, Let Yourself Go, was selected by Kazuo Ishiguro on his recent appearance on Desert Island Discs, and Best-selling crime writer, John Harvey, has Stacey sing, if only fictionally, in his latest novel, Still Water.

Clint Eastwood invited Stacey to sing at his 70th birthday party, Michael Parkinson, invited Stacey to sing on his television show, as did Sir David Frost, who asked her to join him one Sunday morning in January 2003, to sing a song and review the morning papers on "Breakast with Frost."

Most tellingly perhaps, Stacey is appreciated by the writers of the songs she sings.

Three-time Oscar-winning songwriter, Jay Livingston, wrote of her, "Stacey Kent is a revelation. There is nobody singing today who can compare with her. She has the style of the greats, like Billie Holiday and Ella Fitzgerald. And she sings the words like Nat Cole - clean, clear and almost conversational with perfect phrasing. And that's as good as it gets."

If there is one theme that runs through Stacey's music, it is that of romance. Stacey is herself an avowed romantic, and the songs she sings are timeless stories that touch young and old alike, fulfilling a desire for sophisticated love songs that is not catered to by today's pop music industry. She receives fan email from people of all ages and nationalities and, in an age where music is more likely to divide than unite the generations, it is quite common for three generations of the same family to attend her concerts.

Her most recent studio recording underlines this romanticism. Jim Tomlinson, 'The Lyric ... featuring Stacey Kent' (Token 0501) is the most complete collaboration between Stacey and husband, Jim. On this album, Jim’s saxophone and Stacey’s voice achieve a level of empathy only hinted at on earlier recordings. As the New York Times’, Stephen Holden put it, “Sometimes the chemistry between musicians and the chemistry of love get all tangled up in wonderful ways. When watching the jazz singer Stacey Kent make music with her husband, the tenor saxophonist Jim Tomlinson, it is easy to imagine yourself eavesdropping on intimate pillow talk by besotted partners in a luxury suite atop some faraway pop-jazz Olympus.”

It is not easy to account for Stacey's success and she herself remains characteristically coy. What is sure is that Stacey has a voice that grabs you. It demands to be listened to and yet never draws attention to itself. Instead, her natural and unaffected delivery allows the craft of the songwriters, whose work she performs, to shine through. She has an appeal that transcends category.

When CBS Sunday Morning gave Stacey national exposure in the USA, it was followed by a surge in demand that placed her album, The Tender Trap, at No. 1 at Amazon.com and No. 2 in the Billboard Charts. The following year, after a feature on National Public Radio in the USA, all four of her albums simultaneously made the top 10 charts at Amazon.com, again, including the No.1 slot. Her appearance on The Parkinson Show in the UK had a similar effect and an appearance on Swedish television propelled her album, Dreamsville, into the Scandinavian Pop Charts.

Stacey's next album, out on Blue Note, is due for release in September 2007. Show less

Stacey Kent: Summer Me, Winter Me

Read "Summer Me, Winter Me" reviewed by Neil Duggan

by Neil Duggan
November 15, 2023

With her album sales measured in millions, Stacey Kent is one of the great success stories in modern jazz. Her multi-lingual abilities allow her to record in various languages and she has appeared in over fifty countries. Her appeal is global and it is her vocal ability which has taken her to these heights. Her voice is light but commands attention with her ability to engage and communicate the narratives of love and regret, often in a simple and minimalist ...

Radio & Podcasts

Stacey Kent reflects on tension, collaboration, and the art of interpretation

by Leo Sidran
July 4, 2022

Stacey Kent says she tends to be attracted to the “feeling of unrest," and she thinks that her fans like to feel it too. Over the course of a 30 year career that has produced over 20 albums (including including the Grammy-nominated Breakfast On The Morning Tram), Stacey has mined that feeling again and again in different ways. Maybe she understands how to express the complicated emotions around identity, romance, displacement and longing because she has lived them ...

Radio & Podcasts

Free Association, Vol. 4 with Stephanie Byrne

by Ludovico Granvassu
May 11, 2021

Free Association is a series of collaborative mix-tapes curated by Mondo Jazz in association with musicians and selectors of various backgrounds. Free Association mix-tapes develop as a conversation. The first selector sends a tune cherry-picked to suit, and ideally surprise, the second selector who then, in turn, returns the favor. An hour or so into this exchange, after unexpected turns and joyful revelations, the two look back at the results of this game of musical table tennis and ...

Radio & Podcasts

Dr. Billy Taylor, Art Ensemble of Chicago and More

by Joe Dimino
May 6, 2019

We begin the 593rd Episode of Neon Jazz with singer Stacey Kent. From there, we take a listen to the cool of Art Blakey, Billy Taylor and Mark E. Walker. Over the course of the show we profile the mighty Dayramir Gonzalez, Chris Jentsch and listen to a new cat on the NYC scene known as Fumi Tomita. We finish things off with style with Frank Kimbrough doing his take on Mr. Thelonius Sphere Monk. Playlist Stacey Kent ...

Album Review

Stacey Kent: I Know I Dream

Read "I Know I Dream" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky

by Dan Bilawsky
December 22, 2017

Stacey Kent has practically done it all over the past twenty years, selling north of two million albums, putting her gorgeously delicate stamp on standards, introducing fresh tunes into the canon, racking up awards, and bringing her flawless voice to fans in more than fifty countries. But one thing she hadn't done prior to this point is record an album with an orchestra. Cross that one off the list now and bathe your ears in this spellbinding music.

New York Beat

Marcos Valle and Stacey Kent at Birdland

by Nick Catalano
December 20, 2014

Another of Brazil's music luminaries from the sixties, Marcos Valle, came to Gotham on December 9, 2014 to team up with Stacey Kent and Jim Tomlinson and advance the Brazilian omnipresence here of late. Last month I wrote of the dramatic emergence of the Spokfrevo Orquestra at Lincoln Center and everywhere this month there are appearances by Romero Lubambo, Nilson Matta, Duduka da Fonseca, Hendrik Meurkens and many other Brasilieros. And the jazz audiences I joined both at Lincoln Center ...

Bailey's Bundles

Jazz Vocals July - Stacy Kent, Patrice Jegou, and Vanessa Perea

by C. Michael Bailey
July 28, 2014

Stacy Kent The Changing Lights Warner Bros. Records 2013 Stacey Kent has had an impressive musical run: Breakfast on the Morning Tram (Blue Note, 2007, for which she was nominated for a Grammy Award), Raconte- moi... (Blue Note, 2010), Dreamer In Concert (Blue Note, 2011) just being her previous three recordings of her ten releases as a leader. She is intelligent, polyglot and capable of performing in any genre ...

Performance / Tour

Birdland Presents Marcos Valle And Stacey Kent December 9-13

Source: Michael Ricci
December 5, 2014

To celebrate his 50th career anniversary as a Songwriter, Arranger, Instrumentalist, and Singer, Brazilian artist Marcos Valle, joined American singer Stacey Kent's sweet beautiful voice to express a repertoire of half a century of successes. This reunion of these two artists has resulted in a CD titled Marcos Valle & Stacey Kent LIVE, which is being released by Sony, in USA, Canada, Europe, and Asia, in November 2014. This unique collaboration comes to Birdland Dec. 9-13 to present this incredible ...
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Interview

Interview: Stacey Kent

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers
December 3, 2014

Next Tuesday, singer Stacey Kent will begin a five-night run at New York's Birdland with the legendary bossa nova singer-songwriter Marcos Valle and his band from Brazil. Marcos was part of the generation that followed Antonio Carlos Jobim, Luiz Bonfá, João Gilberto and Vinicius de Moraes in the early 1960s and the composer of dozens of hit songs, among them Summer Samba (So Nice); Chup, Chup, I Got Away; The Answer; Crickets Sing For Anamaria; She Told Me, She Told ...
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Performance / Tour

Stacey Kent at Birdland, Ottawa Jazz Fest, Montreal Jazz Festival With New Brazilian-Inspired CD "The Changing Lights"

Source: JANLYN PR - Jana La Sorte
May 22, 2014

Grammy-Nominated Stacey Kent Tours US and Canada with New CD The Changing Lights on Warner Bros Records Featuring Longtime Partner Jim Tomlinson, Famed Novelist Kazuo Ishiguro and Brazilian Legend Roberto Menescal Birdland, June 10-14, New York City Ottawa Jazz Festival, June 25, Canada Palais Montcalm, Quebec City, June 27, Canada Montreal Jazz Festival, June 28, Canada In her 15-year recording career, Stacey Kent has sold over 1.3 million records. Her storytelling, voice and style ...
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Festival

The Festival de Jazz on Tour: Jordan Officer and Stacey Kent Crisscross Quebec

Source: Michael Ricci
May 24, 2010

Following the success enjoyed by last years jazz tour starring the John Pizzarelli Quartet and Coral Egan, the Festival International de Jazz de Montral, presented by TD in collaboration with Rio Tinto Alcan, is happy to reboot the experience for its 31st edition with another full-colour tour: the adventure begins in Montreal (March 11 & 12, 2011, 8 p.m., LAstral) and continues throughout Qubec (March 10 to 27) with excellent guitarist Jordan Officer and charming singer Stacey Kent. Tickets go ...
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Performance / Tour

Cosmopolitan Jazz with a Literary Accent

Source: Michael Ricci
June 6, 2009

Stacey Kent, fresh from a tour of 27 countries, was in an exultant mood on Thursday evening at Birdland. Her latest album, Breakfast on the Morning Tram (Blue Note/EMI), has enjoyed the kind of commercial success in Europe that Diana Krall’s records achieve in the United States; it also earned her a Grammy nomination for best jazz vocal album. In March she received the National Order of Arts and Letters decoration from the French culture minister.

But more significant, Breakfast, ...
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Music Industry

Vote for Stacey Kent - International Songwriting Competition

Source: All About Jazz
February 27, 2008

Event

Stacey Kent in Worcester, Mass.

Source: All About Jazz
February 21, 2005

Celebrated jazz vocalist Stacey Kent will perform a concert on April 29, 2005 at 8 p.m. at Tuckerman Hall in Worcester, Massachusetts, USA. Proceeds from the concert will benefit The Bridge of Central Massachusetts, a human services agency headquartered in Worcester.

This will be Ms. Kent’s first appearance ever in central Massachusetts. Her most recent album, The Boy Next Door, was launched in style with a year-long concert tour of 250 appearances, including a show at New York's ...
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Event

Singer Stacey Kent Coming to Whitstable

Source: All About Jazz
February 1, 2003

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Event

Stacey Kent at The Oak Room, Algonquin Hotel, New York - January 12 - 13, 2003

Source: All About Jazz
January 7, 2003

ALGONQUIN HOTEL 59 West 44th St. (Bet 5th & 6th Avs.) NEW YORK, NY

Featuring: Stacey Kent - vocals, Jim Tomlinson - sax, Matthew Fries - piano, Pat O'Leary - bass

“A steady current of joy that animates her singing lends the popular standards she chooses with impeccable taste a freshness that feels utterly contemporary...what raises it all to another level is the intensely romantic connection between the singer and her tenor saxophonist husband, Jim Tomlinson" ...
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Event

Stacey Kent and Humphrey Lyttelton live!

Source: All About Jazz
June 12, 2002

Humphrey Lyttelton & Stacey Kent ?Between Friends? Worthing Pavilion Sunday 23 June 2002

This production, live at the Worthing Pavilion, achieves the best of both worlds ? a swinging stage show with the atmosphere of a club session!

Two internationally acclaimed jazz stars, a band handpicked for their versatility and swing, special guest star Jim Tomlinson ? what more could a music fan want?

The Inimitable Humphrey Lyttelton:

Humph has been a star for longer than most of us can ...
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