LA REPUBLIQUE DU CENTRE

Stacey Kent, Salle Touchard, Orleans, France, 29 Mars, 2009

Délicieuse Stacey Kent, chanteuse de jazz éblouissante de naturel et de sensibilité

31 Mars 2009

Énergie, ballade, swing délicat. Tout est follement ciselé. (Photo : Céline Bachelet)

900 spectateurs ont assisté, dimanche, au Théâtre, au concert donné par une artiste émouvante et radieuse.

Tout simplement naturelle et rayonnante de bonheur, éblouissante de sensibilité et de fraîcheur, Stacey Kent donne, ce dimanche, un plus que joli concert programmé par la Scène nationale en lien avec Stéphane Kochoyan, directeur d'Orléans'Jazz. Délicatement entourée par Jim Tomlimson, saxophone, Graham Harvey, piano, Matt Skelton, batterie, et Jeremy Brown, contrebasse, celle qui a grandi à New York avant de vivre à Londres, donne un set de deux heures tout imprégné du souffle de « Breakfast on the morning tram » (Blue Note). L'un des titres qui y figure, écrit par son mari, Jim Tomlinson, et Kazuo Ishiguro, charme la salle. « The Ice Hotel » est, en effet, une ballade en forme de souriante déclaration d'amour dont la chanteuse a le délicieux secret. Salle Touchard, place aussi à « Ces petits riens » et à « La saison des pluies », de Serge Gainsbourg, à ce touchant « Au coin du monde », de Benjamin Biolay, ou à ce « Jardin d'hiver » en hommage à Salvador, cet « être tendre, élégant, adorable et chaleureux ». Confiant au public son bonheur d'être là, que la vie et l'amour la comblent comme un privilège, remerciant par ailleurs ses musiciens et le public de l'inspirer, l'artiste est au fil du concert de plus en plus émouvante. S'enchaînent une samba plaisir qui fait tourner les têtes, un « Que reste-t-il de nos amours ? » adorable, ou le « What a wonderful world », de Satchmo, de toute beauté. Fin de concert avec « You've got a friend ». Souriant et merveilleux, un ange vient de nous prendre par la main. --

Jean-Dominique Burtin

Refrains of the day

Jazz Singer Stacey Kent Teamed Up With Kazuo Ishiguro For Her Latest Record, Breakfast On The Morning Tram
Mike Doherty, National Post

Published: Tuesday, September 11, 2007

Well before he became a Booker Prize-winning novelist, the young Kazuo Ishiguro dreamt of making his living as a songwriter. Music publishers, apparently, found his work "hideous," so he drifted into writing fiction. But now, with the help of jazz singer Stacey Kent, he is beginning to realize his first ambition, and his day job can wait.

Ishiguro has penned lyrics for four songs on Breakfast on the Morning Tram, the seventh solo album by the London-based Kent, whose husband, saxophonist Jim Tomlinson, has written the music. Ishiguro was drawn to Kent's way of looking at the past through a modern lens, which he himself does in novels such as Remains of the Day and When We Were Orphans.

"She has some way of bridging the gap of the years," he says over the phone from his London home. "There's no nostalgia when Stacey performs classic songs. They seem to me pertinent and relevant."
Stacey Kent's collaboration with Kazuo Ishiguro worked from the start; the author "was describing me, and I already existed."

Ishiguro selected Kent's austere, wistful rendition of Gershwin's They Can't Take That Away from Me as one of his "Desert Island discs" on the BBC radio program of the same name. She could already count the likes of Clint Eastwood and Ian McKellen as famous fans, having sung at both of their birthday parties, but as a graduate from Sarah Lawrence College in comparative literature, she found the regard of a novelist of Ishiguro's stature an unmissable opportunity. At first, she asked him to write liner notes for her 2002 album In Love Again.

Sitting with Tomlinson in a Toronto music store, the effusive singer recalls: "It was a perfect match, kind of like that movie Stranger than Fiction:He was describing me, and I already existed. He had this way of understanding where I came from."

From there, it was a no-brainer for her to seek a musical collaboration, especially at a time when, having tackled novels and screenplays (The Saddest Music in the World, The White Countess), Ishiguro wanted to return to his first artistic love.

In sorting out how they might work together, as Ishiguro recalls, "the question was, do we try to create a kind of ersatz 1930s song, with Broadway-type slang, or do we try and create something of today? But if we did that, there was the danger that it would pull Stacey and Jim out of the musical territory that they're so good at. We kicked around how we might come up with something that still harked back to that kind of music but nevertheless was modern."

Kent, it seems, wanted him to write lyrics for love songs, but "she needed at least a tiny bit of hope. She didn't want songs of anguish and desolation. She could see the danger, perhaps, from reading my books."

The results, songs such as The Ice Hotel and the title track, Breakfast on the Morning Tram, combine a light-hearted tone, a clever sense of humour and the kind of emotional subtext that Kent is so skilled at bringing out with her subtly expressive delivery.

The only potential problem was that Ishiguro tended to go on a bit. "I'm used to writing novels," he admits. "I sat down and wrote what I thought was a normal-length song. It's only when they sang a rough version of what they had that I realized, 'My God, this is an awful lot of lyrics!'"

Kent, however, was impressed: "They're long; they're complete," she says of the songs. "I love that: I get this glimpse into somebody's life, which becomes my life when I'm singing the song. We definitely wanted to stay away from that 'stanza, stanza, solo, stanza and out' formula."

As a result, she and Tomlinson came up with music that re-imagines the jazz vocal album, where there is less soloing per se, but the players are constantly reacting to Kent's performance and to the nuances in the lyrics. In this sense, their album feels more contemporary than ever -- it resembles recent work by jazz masters such as Wayne Shorter, Pat Metheny and Brad Mehldau, in which the music takes on the form of a conversation rather than a series of monologues.

"There's this notion," says Tomlinson, "that you can achieve more as musicians, as artists, if you're willing to sacrifice something of the ego to the collective."

Ishiguro found himself working in the same way -- while a novelist is used to having complete control of a fictional world (save, perhaps, for an editor's occasional input), a lyricist, in the tradition of Hart with Rodgers, or Evans with Livingston, has to be willing to share an artistic vision with the writer of the music.

"This was slightly scary," admits Ishiguro. "I was in a bit of a vacuum. Inevitably you do have to hum fairly awful melodies to yourself [while writing], but I was trying not to do so. It was a surprise every time -- Jim would come up with something that wasn't generic."

While the album is finished, the collaboration continues: "He's sending us some new material, and a couple I've just read are hilarious," Kent enthuses.

Ishiguro, meanwhile, has been writing short stories about musicians, but he finds the lyric-writing "as satisfying as anything I've done. As a big bonus, it doesn't take nearly as long." - Breakfast on the Morning Tram is released today by Blue Note.

© National Post 2007

Brimming with pop and jazz standards, The Lyric (winner of the BBC’s 2006 “Jazz Album of the Year” Award) launches with Brit tenor sax man Jim Tomlinson and trio’s warm breezy take on “Manha de Carnival” on which David Newton (piano), Dave Chamberlain (bass) and Matt Skelton (drums) provide very tasty punctuation. Easy bossa is a pleasantly recurring flavor throughout this set. A more heated, undulating “My Heart Belongs to Daddy” allows Tomlinson and his American wife Stacey Kent to get fresh with that sly old Cole Porter chestnut.

Kent’s light, airily girlish voice, with a touch of healthy seductiveness to it, is perfectly complemented by Tomlinson’s soulful, warmed up honey tenor sax. That same happy sympatico is evident throughout as Kent sings on all but two of the sides. She has a delicate, lyric clarity and her swinging buoyancy radiates smiles for miles. Even with the meditative “What Are You Doing The Rest of Your Life”, there’s still a touch of infectious optimism.

As evidenced during their recent engagement at Feinstein’s, Tomlinson and Kent make for a swellegant couple. Among current younger singers, Kent’s way with the Great American Songbook puts her at the front of the class. The set’s opener, a slow, thoughtful bossa “So Many Stars”, was followed by a bright and merry charge into Rodgers & Hammerstein’s “Cockeyed Optimist”. On these two or romantically wistful with Irving Berlin’s “They Say That Falling In Love is Wonderful” or a bossa-meandering through “It Might As Well Be Spring”, Kent’s grasp of these classics is intuitive and total. PLUS she manages to use her slightly honey and sand-sprinkled voice to float over a song without it ever sounding superficial.

Two songs particularly anchored the Feinstein’s set. Jay Livingston and Ray Evans’ “Never Let Me Go” was tender and tremulous, with especially rich interplay between Kent and Tomlinson. A complete contrast and no less deeply felt was Lerner and Loewe’s “Show Me” from My Fair Lady, which blazed with a ladylike yet very adamant demand for action from her fella. Neither song is included on their current album, a lapse which needs to be corrected on their next recording.

Stacey Kent shows us one gem after the other from the American song treasury. To a great extent, they are drawn from classical musicals: My Fair Lady, Oklahoma, South Pacific, Kiss Me Kate. Traces of Ella Fitzgerald may have been observable in Kent’s rendition of “Too Darn Hot”, or of Blossom Dearie in “If I Were a Bell” – but such a search for sources of inspiration is rather pointless. No matter how well-known and veteran the material, Kent makes it her own.

Wailing and scatting are far away. These songs have been chosen primarily by virtue of their lyrics. In her musical and intelligent treatment of them, Kent displays her mastery. Not a comma is trusted to chance; still her attitude is continuously sparkling, lively, and full of play.

One piece is a charming digression from the traditional repertoire: the Parisian chanteuse Keren Ann’s “Jardin D’Hiver”. Stacey Kent does it full justice in excellent French and quite as impressive as the original.

Everything is tasteful, well-wrought, and effectively arranged. Kent’s way of approaching “It Might As Well Be Spring” is refreshingly original: a rather brisk bossa nova instead of the “ordinary” melancholy interpretation. The ballad touch is brave; Kent knows how to make use of delicate shades and of silence. “Quiet Nights of Quiet Stars” does start very quietly, as do the tender “Surrey With a Fringe on Top”, “Polka Dots and Moonbeams”, and the intimate “Never Let Me Go”. The lyrics get plenty of room and time to digest.

The quartet swings impressively in up-tempo numbers like “Show Me”, “A Cockeyed Optimist”, and “My Heart Belongs To Daddy” while the ballads get silk glove treatment. The sound in the house is excellent and it gives great pleasure to listen to the fine nuances of Matt Skelton’s delicious brushwork and the nearness of Jim Tomlinson’s getzy sax tone. Graham Harvey is mercury at the piano. He and bassist Dave Chamberlain are full of devices that seem to be highly appreciated by Stacey Kent.

Her smiles, gestures, and shouts show a warm feeling and contact with the band and the audience. At the same time, she reigns supreme; the gentlemen will obey her every beckon. But her tongue in cheek is never far away and the telepathy, not least with her husband’s tenor, is phenomenal.

Sven Bjerstedt

Hungarian daily "Magyar Hírlap", Jun 23, 2006

A Jazz diva with company: Stacey Kent
Concert

[photo caption: Stacey Kent's name already sounds familiar for Hungarian audiences. This time the vivid performer has shared the spotlight with her husband, Jim Tomlinson (right). (photo by Dávid Merényi)]

CLICK HERE FOR PHOTO AND HUNGARIAN TEXT

What is a jazz diva like? Contrary to common beliefs, she is not a femme fatale and has nothing to do with an ageless bar singer in her seventies either. A jazz diva is the first to arrive on the stage and the last to leave it; a real pro whose spontaneous moves can surprise not only the audience but her musicians as well; amazing yet friendly, ethereal yet casual. Because jazz is by no means a genre for the "elite audiences" -- about love and sadness, one cannot sing down from a high horse. A jazz diva is the one to introduce her musicians to the audience but she herself needs no introduction for divas are known by everyone. And last but not least a jazz diva is the one to select with a perfect taste. For what is merely a changing fad in pop culture, is a valuable merit in jazz: to chose well from the musical lore.

Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald, Barbra Streisand and Diana Krall are the ones to be usually referred to as jazz divas, and most recently Stacey Kent too. The American born singer is a goddess-like yet deeply human phenomenom. She is a performer to be loved -- it comes through from her every move that she loves music and loves her audience that in turn adore their singer.

They adore her even if she confesses that she can't speak a word of Hungarian but she has a favourite song from France, "Le Jardin d'Hiver", which she translates into English for us to understand: "Winter Garden". The audience welcomes the anouncement with such enthusiasm as if she tried to sing their favourite folk song in broken Hungarian.

It is a pity that the name of this world-famous jazz singer has hardly been known in Hungary so far. Stacey Kent was born in New York and studied to be a literary scholar but in the end she ended up as a cosmopolitan jazz singer living in England most of the time. I suspect, however, that her prior studies has not much to do with the quality praised by so many of her music critics: her crystal clear pronounciation. (It is a rare experience to hear classic jazz pieces sung with such clearness that even poor speakers of English can understand them with ease.) Stacey Kent has met her husband and regular performing partner, Jim Tomlinson tenor saxophonist in England. It was him who persuaded her to pursue a career as profesionnal singer.

All that I wrote about jazz divas are certainly true for Stacey Kent who, for Hungarian audiences, debuted on Thursday at the Béla Bartók National Concert Hall. She selects with an excellent taste. Instead of their own original compositions, she and her band rather performs the great classics of jazz from Cole Porter and Gershwin to Paul Simon and Duke Ellington. She approaches this classic lore with due respect yet in a way that is unmistakenly unique: she plays with the lyrics, the tune and even with her microphone; yet her every move and gesture have a clear place and importance, which is also true for the brief periods of silence in her sometimes staccato performance. During these silent intermezzos the only noise to be heard in the hall is the quietly resonating sound of the air conditioner...

Kent treats her partner musicians with the same respect that she shows to her great predecessors of jazz. At her Budapest concert, apart from several classic pieces, she mainly sang from her new record (The Boy Next Door) and from her husband's third album (The Lyric). For Jim Tomlinson is mostly known as Kent's accompanying musician, although he is an outstanding musician himself. The diva seemingly gave the critics "the finger" in her own subtle way when unexpectedly anounced her favourite solo tune from her husband, the tune that Tomlin had played to her every night for months. Now we could also hear it, and while her husband was playing Kent moved out of the spotlight to the edge of the stage.

That is how divas are.

(by Roland Borsos)

Stacey Kent
at the Béla Bartók National Concert Hall

Tomlinson is not only a high class saxophonist: he is also a very fine writer, and was responsible for the chapter on Stan Getz in the recent MASTERS OF JAZZ SAXOPHONE, to which I also contributed. I mention that chiefly because, with the possible exception of the late Joe Henderson on his Verve album, Double Rainbow, I had ever known any tenorist get anywhere near Getz's sound. Until now. Tomlinson is no mere Getz clone - you've only got to listen to a few bars of his solo on Caminhos or Ligia to realize he's his own man. But his tone and phrasing recall that grand master in a fashion I've never encountered before. Moreover, he is steeped in what might be termed the ethos of Stan Getz - the desire to build melodies as beautiful as possible while remaining equally committed to that most fundamental of jazz properties, muscular swing. Indeed, my only complaint about this lovely, stimulating CD, is that Tomlinson doesn't play enough. He is surrounded by top-quality musicians - not least his wife, Stacey Kent - and one can understand and indeed applaud the generosity he shows in giving them so much scope. But for all Kent's bewitching vocals and the cogent commentary of both pianists and guitarist, Oxley, I wan to hear more of JT's gorgeous tenor. Let's hope I - and you - get that extended opportunity very soon; in the meantime, this CD should delight readers of all persuasions. Playing time may be on the modest side, but every moment captivates and edifies. If needing to sample. go for So Danco Samba. That number is almost ineluctably associated with Getz via the Getz/Gilberto and Jazz Samba Encore albums plus countless concert performances, but Tomlinson and his confreres make it absolutely their own.

Those of our readers who enjoyed Stan Getz's excursions into the world of bossa nova in the 1960s will enjoy this album from that most lyrical of tenor saxophone players, Jim Tomlinson.

The scene is set with the very first number, Dreamer, in which Stacey Kent wordless vocal fits seamlessly into the gentle mood which the other musicians quickly establish, and we are soon lost in the seductive combination of traditional Latin American dance rhythms, cool jazz and intimate singing.

Jim Tomlinson works most often these days with his wife, the singer Stacey Kent, and is a key component in her success. His tenor is the ideal complement to her presentations of standard songs and he's a fine soloist in his own right. Given his predilection for Stan Getz's approach to tenor and his obvious skills as an accompanist, it's no surprise, then, that he should be drawn to the Getz-Gilberto collaborations and to bossa nova in general. Thus, this collection of bossa nova specials by Jobim and Luis Bonfa (except for I Concentrate On You by Cole Porter) with Ms. Kent guesting pleasingly on 4 tracks.

Until receiving this disc for attention a day or so ago, I have to confess that the name 'Jim Tomlinson' didn't strike positive responses. But after playing it through, things radically changed. This young musician is a real discovery, during these days when flash and frolic seem, unfortunately, to have nudged aside the mellower moods of simple lyrical statement and deep thoughtfulness from out of the fashionable arena.

But this is certainly not the case here: Tomlinson's gorgeously-toned tenor saxophone (and I suspect that Jim has listened long to the great Getz -- and that can be no bad thing!!!), speaks beyond the surface sounds, directly to the heart through its calm, gentle phrasing and lush quality of tone. There is a total rejection of superfluous histrionics. And so far as this collection is concerned, Tomlinson is the boss, his authority profound and deeply emotional, influencing his fine colleagues with a subtlety and an understated power which is palpable.

His immediate accompanists are: Colin Oxley, whose magnificent guitar is dazzling and deliciously melodic in concept, likewise the delicate piano work of John Pearce in both solo and supportive roles, then bassist Simon Thorpe and percussionist Steve Brown organize a master-class in unobtrusive, unabrasive ultra-correct support. And the two special guests who appear on three tracks each: trumpeter Guy Barker, a much in-demand soloist with a whole repertoire of styles (Ellington growls, Gillsespian flurries and an admirable understanding of the blues) which peak during his splendid obbligati behind vocalist Stacey Kent in Duke's I'm Just A Lucky So-And-So -- her little-girl delivery possessing such qualities of delicious phrasing and perfect diction and intonation. And, of course, there is the ever-welcome saxophone of her husband, Jim Tomlinson, to demonstrate the melodic attractions of a truly sensitive musical mind.

Here, surely, is a partnership of some note. I like all of this music for its superb good taste and immense contribution of unhurried and peaceful, ever-authoritative understatement. Yes, a new and welcome policy enters the arena: we need much more exposure to
such effortless strength.