They’re all too rare: singers who step back from the spotlight, melt into the music, and let the songs take center stage. That was the style of jazz artist Stacey Kent as she packed Birdland for three nights in June during her also-all-too-rare visit to New York. With her slightly smoky voice and clarity in delivering a lyric, she wove her singing in and out of her band’s warm arrangements to provide smooth satisfaction from start to finish.

The group offered several familiar standards, such as “It Might as Well Be Spring,” “They Can’t Take That Away from Me,” “What Are You Doing the Rest of Your Life?” and “They Say It’s Wonderful”—all delivered in fresh-sounding arrangements. Newer songs, reflecting a continuing updating of Stacey’s repertoire, were two numbers co-written by Kazuo Ishiguro and Stacey’s husband, the band’s virtuoso saxophonist, Jim Tomlinson: “Breakfast on the Morning Train” and “Postcard Lovers.”

In recent years, Stacey told the audience, she has been studying Portuguese; her increasing fondness of the language took the form of such lilting numbers as “Corcovado,” on which she accompanied herself on the guitar; “Samba Saravah,” a hopeful-spirited song, featuring an intricate solo bass break by Gordy Johnson; and, as a finale to the evening, the popular “Waters of March,” sung in composer Antonio Carlos Jobim’s own English translation. Rounding out Stacey’s smooth backup ensemble were Phil Hey on drums and Graham Harvey on piano.

Peter Haas
Cabaret Scenes
June 9, 2011
www.cabaretscenes.org