Stacey Kent © Andrea Canter

“Her singular voice glides along a spectrum that runs from brittle and piercing (think of a jazzy Sandy Duncan) to a delicate whisper that trails into a light, flirtatious vibrato (Blossom Dearie)…Her stripped-down interpretations of standards reveal the lyrics with an unblinking clarity.”—Stephen Holden, New York Times

Now garnering the attention in the U.S. that has followed her career in Europe, Stacy Kent “has a voice that a less musically savvy performer might use as a building block for creating a cute, smiley persona, but…carries it in more sophisticated directions” (Stephen Holden, New York Times). Kent will bring her magical voice (and super band with husband/saxophonist Jim Tomlinson plus Twin Cities' pulsesetters, bassist Gordon Johnson and drummer Phil Hey) to Birdland in Manhattan, June 2-6.

In My Life

“Charleston has the chops that can leave us in awe, but always makes it about the song, which in the end is the greatest compliment that one can pay a singer.” —Bob Blumenthal (liner note, In My Life) 

Few musicians of any genre can count Emmy and Peabody Awards in their resumes, but Rondi Charleston’s path to the stages of top jazz clubs was hardly the norm. The multi-talented Chicago native “heard Miles Davis records in utero, met Duke Ellington when I was six, and would find classic novels next to my cereal bowl," she recalls via Bob Blumenthal’s liner notes for her latest CD/DVD release, In My Life. A preview was released in late 2007, and now the Bennett Studios CD and accompanying DVD, recorded Live at Dizzy’s Club Coca-Cola, is released in full on Rondi’s EmmaMuse label. In celebration of the release, Rondi and her bandreprise the live recording date at Dizzy’s in New York on June 1st.