Photo by Andea 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

Despite critical acclaim, Stacey Kent is only beginning to garner widespread recognition as one of the top jazz vocalists of the new century. Her name is not as readily recalled as Krall, Monheit or Sutton; her voice is best suited to small intimate venues rather than large concert halls or arenas. In 2004 with her sixth recording, The Boy Next Door, the London-based New Yorker initiated a year-long concert tour of 250 appearances, including gigs at New York's Carnegie Hall and a month-long sell-out run at the famed Oak Room at The Algonquin Hotel; the recording also earned the “Silver Disc” in France four months after its release and remained on Billboard’s Charts for 35 weeks. Finally garnering the attention in the U.S. that has followed her career in Europe, 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). Having toured the U.S. extensively last fall, Britain's First Lady of Jazz now returns to the Dakota in downtown Minneapolis (March 12-14), where she has become an annual attraction.

Photo by Andrea Canter

Stacey Kent’s rise to the top of the heap of jazz vocalists was anything but a straight trajectory. Visiting Europe to study French, Italian and German for a Masters degree in comparative literature, the Sarah Lawrence graduate happened to meet young saxophonist and student, Jim Tomlinson, at Oxford. Like Kent, Tomlinson had followed a different path despite his early years as a choristor and clarinet-turned-sax player, later returning to school to study music. And so for Kent, academic pursuits soon took a backseat to music, and she enrolled at the Guildhall School of Music. Now married to Tomlinson, Kent found herself a part of the London jazz scene. After receiving a demo tape, jazz broadcaster Humphrey Lyttelton helped Kent gain a role in Ian McKellen's film version of Richard III, a recording contract, and national airplay. Lyttelton noted that her “choice of songs, the musical interplay, the glorious voice -- leaves one searching for a more superlative word than 'greatest!'”

Stacey Kent has released six best-selling albums, is a major attraction on Jim Tomlinson's new French label release (Lyric), and has won a number of awards, including the 2001 British Jazz Award, 2002 BBC Jazz Award for “Best Vocalist,” and the 2004 Backstage Bistro Award. Her fan base has grown rapidly and she now sells out concert venues around the world, is voice on BBC Radio 3, and presenter of Jazz Line Up. Wrote three-time Oscar-winning songwriter, Jay Livingston, "Stacey Kent is a revelation. There is nobody singing today who can compare with her. She has the style of the greats, like Billie Holiday and Ella Fitzgerald. And she sings the words like Nat Cole -- clean, clear, and almost conversational with perfect phrasing. And that's as good as it gets."

Stacey Kent, Jim Tomlinson and the band perform three nights at the Dakota, March 12-14, two sets each night at 7 and p pm. Visit www.dakotacooks.com for reservations and more information. From Minneapolis, Kent travels to Pennsylvania for a peformance March 17th at Penn State University in University Park; and then to Bethesda, MD for a night at Strathmore Hall.

Photo by Andrea Canter