Breakfast on the Morning Tram (Blue Note)
Stacey Kent
Released October 2, 2007
Grammy Nominee for Best Jazz Vocal Album 2009
YouTube:
https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_lQgl3PyOJz5zIgAQlGFlm2imKQnqfWlds
Spotify:
https://open.spotify.com/album/6XmdcBZamVqXAQflgp9ksR?si=IXuFrZF7S5e5WqmiXwJ04A
About:
After 10 years and 6 albums on the indie label, Candid, Stacey Kent finally releases her major label debut on Blue Note Records. A multi-award winner (2001 British Jazz Award, 2002 BBC Jazz Award Best Vocalist, etc) Stacey has built a huge fanbase for her cool, classy interpretations of the Great American Songbook, all recorded with husband, arranger, producer and now songwriter Jim Tomlinson (himself a winner of the 2006 Album of the Year British Jazz Award). On “Breakfast…” Jim contributes 4 new songs written with the writer Kazuo Ishiguro – one of a legion of fans that Stacey has attracted over the years (they met after he played one of her songs on Desert Island Discs!!) and this is the first time that they have featured their own songs on an album. Stacey tours constantly – she even turned down an appearance on Parkinson because she was playing a gig (admittedly this would have been her second performance on Parkinson, which in itself is quite unique) – and has built up a very sizeable fanbase which will be determined to get the album as soon as possible.
Track Listing:
1. The Ice Hotel 5:28
2. Landslide (Stevie Nicks) 3:48
3. Ces Petits Riens (Serge Gainsbourg) 3:21
4. I Wish I Could Go Travelling Again 4:06
5. So Many Stars (Marilyn Bergman / Sergio Mendes) 4:00
6. Samba Saravah 3:50
7. Breakfast on the Morning Tram 5:54
8. Never Let Me Go 4:39
9. So Romantic 5:00
10. Hard-Hearted Hannah 4:49
11. La Saison des Pluies 2:48
12. What a Wonderful World 4:26
Personnel:
Stacey Kent: vocals
Graham Harvey: piano and Fender Rhodes
John Parricelli: guitars
Dave Chamberlin: double bass
Matt Skelton: drums and percussion
Jim Tomlinson: tenor sax, alto sax, soprano sax, flute
Recorded March – April, 2007, at Curtis Schwartz Studios, England
Produced by Jim Tomlinson
Recorded, Masteres & Mixed by Curtis Schwartz
Photography by Nicola Nodland
Review:
Having previously demonstrated a knowing way with sets from the Great American Songbook and a special bent for Brazilian-flavored melodies, vocalist Stacey Kent takes on a different sort of mix here. And succeeds brilliantly, which shouldn’t surprise anyone who has been listening to her, for this porcelain princess has gradually moved into the front rank of current young singers. Her voice—is it mercury or is it clear water running over stones in a brook?—falls ever so easily on the ear, managing the neat feat of being as light as a butterfly yet emotionally substantial.
The opening tune, “The Ice Hotel, Kazuo Ishiguro and Jim Tomlinson’s newly-minted enigmatic gem, charms with her deliciously clear delivery. The title track is another newbie by Ishiguro-Tomlinson that has Kent painting a savvy word portrait of an Amsterdam morning. The more familiar “Never Let Me Go is typical of how skillfully she can wend her way through deeper moments while never losing her particular lightness. Whether it’s the playfully French “Ces petits riens or the samba mood of Bergman-Mendes’ “So Many Stars, Kent’s a Loreley to whom one surrenders unreservedly.
Andrew Velez (All About Jazz)
