Stacey Kent is star ascendant. Television performances on Parkinson in the UK and CBS and ABC in the US, her own show on BBC Radio 3, three albums in the amazon.com top ten at once, a date sheet that is always sold out and a fanbase that includes Bill Gates and Clint Eastwood all show why Stacey Kent is the singing sensation of the new millennium. Comparisons with the greats are made daily.
Quotes such as "Stacey’s voice conjures up images of a young Ella Fitzgerald with a smattering of Billie Holliday thrown in" bear testament to the greatest ballad singer in a generation. Stacey, like Ella before her, is moving seamlessly into the mainstream.
Stacey’s intimate style defies categorisation, the plaudits growing for her savvy interpretation of the Great American Songbook. She has a remarkable repertoire of standards and delivers them with relaxed assurance, sometimes revealing the influence of Mildred Bailey or Ella but sounding like no-one but herself.
"The music I'm singing definitely applies today. Look at the extraordinary success of Tony Bennett and Andy Williams, they are still hip! The stories I tell through the songs are timeless and romantic. I can’t tell you how often young people come up To me after the shows, the ones who haven’t been exposed to these songs before, and they’ll ask me in wonderment, ‘Did you write these songs?’ That’s great to hear because it proves that the repertoire might as well have been written today, they sound so fresh, so relevant. Love never goes out of fashion." Indeed a reviewer for the times recently wrote that he "could barely move for twentysomethings" at Stacey’s shows.
Stacey Kent grew up in New York, a childhood steeped in the music of the giants of the Great American Songbook. Singing was a pastime but as she sailed through a degree in comparative literature a year early and was about to start a masters, she came to London and fell in love! The gentleman concerned was Jim Tomlinson, a young philosophy graduate fresh out of Oxford. On a whim Stacey applied for and was accepted onto a one year postgrad course at the Guildhall School of Music, the same course as Jim. "I came over for a break after finishing my degree, with no intention of staying, but instead of leaving when the holiday was over, I thought ‘What’s another year?!’" Stacey’s teachers quickly recognised her talent, a talent that soon had her working at London’s Ritz Hotel, singing with the resident big band.
It was infront of another big band that Stacey was to gain widespread attention, landing a plum role as sultry chanteuse in Ian McKellen's film Richard III. The UK and US press loved her, as did Alan Bates, MD of legendary jazz label Candid Records, which celebrates its 40th anniversary this year. In the autumn of ‘96 Stacey signed to the label and shortly afterwards released her first album, Close Your Eyes. Jazzwise Magazine made it their Album Of The Month and with rave reviews and constant airplay, Close Your Eyes became one of the best selling jazz albums of ‘97. Stacey’s second album on Candid, The Tender Trap, came out in June the following year to universal acclaim. Britain’s best selling music magazine Mojo made it Album Of The Month, and Stacey’s rise to stardom was underway.
Again one of the year’s best sellers, the album featured in nearly every list of ‘Best Albums of ‘98’. In the USA, constant touring, including dates at New York’s Birdland and Blue Note clubs, and a CBS TV documentary, helped propel Stacey into America’s consciousness and the album to the top of the charts. Sales on internet retailer CDNow were enormous, and on Amazon.com The Tender Trap eclipsed even new albums by Diana Kral and Cher, putting Stacey at number one. Her last album, Let Yourself Go, a tribute to her idol Fred Astaire, has brought her yet more acclaim, even more fans, and the profile in the UK and US she deserves.
Integral to Stacey’s winning formula are the musicians she plays with - they are simply the best in the business. Dave Newton on piano, Simon Thorpe on bass, Colin Oxley on guitar and Candid tenor star and Stacey’s husband Jim Tomlinson on sax. Most of her success stems from her natural, uncomplicated approach to life which is mirrored the way she sings a song. Deservedly, Stacey’s rise to the top shows no sign of slowing. Her broadcasting goes from strength to strength, concert offers are coming in from all around the world and record sales have gone through the roof, whilst her new album ‘Dreamsville’ is sure to place her name even more firmly in hearts of music lovers the world over.
