Podcast 417: A Conversation with Stacey Kent

Over the past five years, Stacey Kent has grown from a fine vocal interpreter of the Great American Song Book to one of the most continually interesting and moving jazz singers of our time. Beginning with her 2007 release Breakfast On the Morning Tram, Ms. Kent left the comfortable world of standards for songs by European composers and poets, pop interpretations (“Landslide”) and exciting original songs. The latter material, written for her by long-time collaborator Jim Tomlinson and award-winning novelist Kazuo Ishiguro, is among the finest being recorded today With the release of The Changing Lights, Ms. Kent adds three more Tomlinson-Ishiguro tunes to her collection, while she continues to re-imagine classic songs from the biggest names in Brazilian music, including Tôm Jobim, Dori Caymmi, Marcos Valle and Roberto Menescal. The results are always a cut of above interpretations from other less adventurous singe I spoke with Stacey from her home in France, where she was resting up from a Far Eastern leg of her tour, which runs well into 2015. She spoke in a n animated and excited fashion of her recent collaborative album with Valle (criminally unreleased in the US) and The Changing Lights. Podcast 417 is our conversation, which covers topics from how she chooses her material, how the Tomlinson-Ishiguro collaboration began, and why she has such an affinity for Brazilian music. Music selections from The Changing Lights (“This Happy Madness”, the title song, “The Summer We Crossed Europe in the Rain” and “O Barquinho”) and her duet with Marcos Valle on “Summer Samba (Samba De Verão)” from Ao Vivo Comemorando Os 50 Anos De Marcos Valle.