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Stacey Kent

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Stacey Kent
Background information
Birth nameStacey Kent
OriginSouth Orange, New Jersey
GenresVocal jazz
OccupationSinger
Instrument(s)Vocals, guitar
Years active1996–present
LabelsCandid, Blue Note/EMI, Parlophone Music/Warner
SpouseJim Tomlinson
WebsiteOfficial site

Stacey Kent is a Grammy-nominated[1] American jazz singer. She is married to British tenor saxophonist Jim Tomlinson

Biography

Kent attended Newark Academy in Livingston, New Jersey.[2] Her paternal grandfather was Russian.[3] She graduated from Sarah Lawrence College in New York, and moved to England after her graduation. While studying at London's Guildhall School of Music and Drama, she met the tenor saxophonist Jim Tomlinson, whom she married on August 9, 1991.

In the early 1990s, Kent began her professional career singing regularly at Café Boheme in London's Soho. After two or three years, Kent began opening for established jazz acts across the road at the Ronnie Scott's nightclub in London.

Her first album, Close Your Eyes, was released in 1997. She has released nine further albums and has featured on three of Tomlinson's albums, most recently The Lyric (2006), which won "Album of the Year" at the 2006 BBC Jazz Awards and was re-released on Blue Note in 2011.

Kent's music was championed by critic and jazz trumpeter Humphrey Lyttelton. She won the 2001 British Jazz Award and the 2002 BBC Jazz Award for Best Vocalist. She has also presented jazz programmes on BBC Radio 2 and 3.

At the 2006 BBC Jazz Awards, Tomlinson, upon receiving the award for "Album of the Year" for The Lyric, announced that Kent had signed with Blue Note.

Kent's album, The Boy Next Door, achieved Gold album status in France in September, 2006. Breakfast On The Morning Tram (2007) achieved Platinum album status in France in November, 2007; Gold album status in Germany in February, 2008; and was nominated for Best Vocal Jazz Album at the 2009 Grammy Awards.

Kent appeared in Ian McKellen's 1995 film version of Richard III, singing a jazz version of Christopher Marlowe's poem The Passionate Shepherd to His Love.

Booker Prize-winning novelist Kazuo Ishiguro wrote the liner notes to Kent's 2003 album, In Love Again. Ishiguro has co-written four of the songs on the fall 2007 Blue Note album Breakfast on the Morning Tram. One of the songs written by Ishiguro, "The Ice Hotel", with music composed by Tomlinson, won first prize in the International Songwriting Competition in April 2008.

On March 31, 2009, Kent received the National Order of Arts and Letters (Ordre des Arts et des Lettres) – a government decoration – in recognition of her contribution to the arts, from French Culture Minister Christine Albanel.

Kent's 2010 album Raconte-moi... was recorded entirely in the French language and was a commercial success in France and Germany, gaining Gold album status.

Kent's first live album, Dreamer In Concert, was released in 2011. It was recorded on May 30–31, 2011, at La Cigale in Paris. The album includes three songs previously unrecorded by Kent, Antonio Carlos Jobim's "Waters of March", and two new compositions by Jim Tomlinson; "Postcard Lovers", with lyrics by novelist Kazuo Ishiguro; and "O Comboio", written by the Portuguese poet António Ladeira, which Kent sings in Portuguese.

Discography

Stacey Kent at stage in 2016

Studio albums

With Jim Tomlinson

Other releases

  • The Christmas Song (2003, single)
  • SK Collection (2001, compilation)
  • SK Collection II (2003, compilation)
  • SK Collection III (2006, compilation)
  • Hushabye Mountain (2011, compilation)
  • Ao Vivo (2013, Sony/BMG Brazil, with Marcos Valle)
  • Candid Moments (2013, compilation)
  • Chet Lives! (2013, with Joe Barbieri)
  • Brazil (2014, Erato, with Quatuor Ébène and Bernard Lavilliers)

References

  1. ^ "JAZZ: Drum whiz to stick here for two nights: Music". The Rocky Mountain News . 2008-12-11. Retrieved 2011-11-01. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  2. ^ Kaiser, Robert G. "Stacey Kent: A Name, And a Voice, That Lingers", The Washington Post, April 18, 2004.
  3. ^ koda Jazz Festival 2010: A sweet finale with Stacey Kent...
  4. ^ "Grammy Nominated Stacey Kent to Release the Changing Lights, September 17, 2013". Warner Music Canada. Retrieved 7 August 2013.
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