RESIDENCY AT NYC’S BIRDLAND SET FOR DECEMBER 12-16
“Stacey Kent…transforms songs into short stories that brim with passion, romance, and wonder. Lean into her muted declarations and Kent can bring the world to you.” The New York Times
“The voice of jazz singer Stacey Kent has been compared to many things fine and distinctive, including the taste of vermouth and the compositions of Erik Satie.” NPR “Weekend Edition”
Grammy nominee Stacey Kent’s new album Summer Me, Winter Me is out now via naïve Records. A collection of fan-favorite tracks never before recorded in the studio by Kent, Summer Me, Winter Me features three original songs, including “Postcard Lovers,” which was co-written by Nobel Prize winner and Kent’s longtime collaborator Kazuo Ishiguro, alongside a number of well-loved jazz standards.
Of the new record, Jazz Weekly raves that “Few…can sound both conversational and melodic, and Kent does it here with the warmth of an early morning baguette,” while The Arts Fuse praises Kent’s “light, focused voice and approach to lyrics that [makes] her stand out among singers of Great American Songbook standards.”
“‘Which album is that song on?’ is a question I often get asked after a concert at signings,” notes Kent. “Since our set lists invariably include a mixture of old and new repertoire, the answer is sometimes, ‘it’s not on any album.’ So, whilst not exactly a requests album, Summer Me, Winter Me is a response to that informal and unscientific sounding, a representative selection of some of your ‘requests.’ I hope you are pleased with this selection, and I look forward to seeing you at my next concert and to being able to say, ‘It’s on this album.’”
Of the collaboration with Ishiguro, Kent’s saxophonist, arranger, producer, and husband Jim Tomlinson adds, “The observant among you will notice a reworking of my song with Kazuo Ishiguro, ‘Postcard Lovers.’ It was originally written for our live album, Dreamer in Concert. In subsequent years, I came to feel that I’d left the writing room a little too soon, and so I began the process of revising the song around Stacey’s suggestion of transposing it to 3/4 time. The result is what you hear on this album, lyrically unaltered, but compositionally completed.”
In addition to the upcoming album, The Summer We Crossed Europe in the Rain, a collection of Ishiguro’s lyrics for Kent’s songs from 2007 through present, is due to be published by Knopf in the U.S. and Canada on March 5 and in the U.K. via Faber on March 7. The full-color book includes 16 lyrics, complete with specially commissioned illustrations by Italian artist Bianca Bagnarelli and an introduction by Ishiguro. “I’ve built a reputation over the years as a writer of stories,” Ishiguro notes, “but I started out writing songs.”
Stacey Kent is an American jazz singer in the mold of the greats, with a legion of fans, a host of honors and awards, including a Grammy nomination, album sales in excess of two million, Platinum, Double-Gold and Gold-selling albums that have reached a series of chart-topping positions and over half a billion Spotify streams. Her worldwide fan base is testimony to her ability to cut to the emotional heart of her songs with delicately nuanced interpretations that transcend borders and defy categorization. Her unique multi-lingual repertoire includes originals written by Jim Tomlinson, her saxophonist/producer/composer/arranger husband, in collaboration with the Nobel Prize-winning author Kazuo Ishiguro, with whom they have worked since 2006. She has also recorded with Brazilian legends Marcos Valle, Roberto Menescal, and Danilo Caymmi and the celebrated French string quartet the Quatuor Ébène.
TRACK LIST
SUMMER ME, WINTER ME
1. Summer Me, Winter Me
2. La Valse des Lilas
3. Thinking About The Rain
4. Under Paris Skies
5. If You Go Away
6. Happy Talk
7. Show Me
8. Postcard Lovers
9. Corcovado
10. A Song That Isn’t Finished Yet
11. Ne me quitte pas
STACEY KENT RESIDENCY AT BIRDLAND
December 12 /// New York, NY /// Birdland
December 13 /// New York, NY /// Birdland
December 14 /// New York, NY /// Birdland
December 15 /// New York, NY /// Birdland
December 16 /// New York, NY /// Birdland