Stacey Kent
STACEY KENT has established herself as one of the new century’s brightest jazz revelations: voted best jazz vocalist at the 2001 British Jazz Awards, and the 2002 BBC Jazz Awards, she was also a 2009 Grammy nominee. Her greatest success came with the release of her 2007 Blue Note debut album “Breakfast On the Morning Tram” which clocked up worldwide sales of over 300,000. France became her special stomping ground, with 150,000 album sales, a sell-out nationwide tour (including a memorable gig at the Paris Olympia) and the National Order of Arts and Letters decoration, bestowed by the French Minister of Culture in spring 2009.
Kent’s personal connection to France runs deep. Her grandfather was a long-term resident and she spent time studying there as an undergraduate. The first signs of Francophilia, which was passed on to her by her grandfather, were already visible on "Breakfast On the Morning Tram”, which featured several tracks from the French repertory: Samba Saravah (from Lelouche’s film A Man and a Woman) and two Serge Gainsbourg covers, Ces petits riens and La saison des pluies.
With her upcoming release, scheduled for March 22, she goes the extra mile with an all-French album entitled RACONTE-MOI... (Tell Me) Here, Kent revisits great classics of the French musical heritage with songs by Barbara, Paul Misraki, Georges Moustaki, Henri Salvador, Michel Jonasz, Keren Ann and Benjamin Biolay, and also showcases original work by talented young songwriters like Claire Denamur, Camille D'Avril (who collaborated with Jim Tomlinson on one title) Pierre-Dominique Burgaud and Emilie Satt, whose “La Vénus du mélo" is the debut single.
So is this jazz or French chanson? Yet again, Stacey Kent bridges the divide between genres, elegantly and daintily stamping her own personal hallmark on this shining album.
