Stacey Kent

Stacey Kent is a Grammy-nominated American jazz singer. She is married to saxophonist Jim Tomlinson.

Biography

Kent attended Newark Academy in Livingston, New Jersey. Her paternal grandfather was Russian. She graduated from Sarah Lawrence College and moved to England after graduation. While studying at Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London, she met saxophonist Jim Tomlinson, whom she married on August 9, 1991.

In the early 1990s, she began her professional career singing regularly at Café Boheme in London's Soho. After two or three years, she began opening for established acts at Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club in London. Her first album, Close Your Eyes, was released in 1997.

Novelist Kazuo Ishiguro wrote the liner notes to Kent's 2003 album, In Love Again. Ishiguro co-wrote four songs on the album Breakfast on the Morning Tram. One of the songs written by Ishiguro, "The Ice Hotel", with music composed by Tomlinson, won first prize in the International Songwriting Competition in April 2008.

Kent's album, The Boy Next Door, achieved Gold album status in France in September, 2006. Breakfast on the Morning Tram (2007) achieved Platinum album status in France in November, 2007 and Gold status in Germany in February, 2008. Raconte-moi... was recorded in French and achieved Gold status.

Dreamer In Concert (2011) was recorded on May 30–31, 2011, at La Cigale in Paris. The album includes three songs previously unrecorded by Kent: "Waters of March" by Antonio Carlos Jobim, "Postcard Lovers" by Jim Tomlinson with lyrics by Kazuo Ishiguro, and "O Comboio" by Portuguese poet António Ladeira.

Kent appeared in Ian McKellen's 1995 film version of Richard III, singing a jazz version of Christopher Marlowe's poem The Passionate Shepherd to His Love.

Awards and honors

• British Jazz Award, 2001
• BBC Jazz Award, Best Vocalist, 2002
• Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, 2009
• Grammy Award nomination, Best Vocal Jazz Album, Breakfast on the Morning Tram, 2009
• Sang on The Lyric by Jim Tomlinson, which won Album of the Year at the BBC Jazz Awards, 2006

Discography

• Close Your Eyes (Candid, 1997)
• Love Is...The Tender Trap (Candid, 1999)
• Let Yourself Go: Celebrating Fred Astaire (Candid, 2000)
• Dreamsville (Candid, 2001)
• In Love Again: The Music of Richard Rodgers (Candid, 2002)
• The Boy Next Door (Candid, 2003)
• Breakfast on the Morning Tram (Blue Note, 2007)
• Raconte-moi... (Blue Note/EMI, 2010)
• A Fine Romance with Jim Tomlinson (Candid, 2010)
• Dreamer In Concert (Blue Note, 2011)
• It's a Wonderful World (Candid, 2012)
• The Changing Lights (2013, Parlophone/Warner, 2013)
• Ao Vivo with Marcos Valle (Sony, 2013)
• Brazil with Quatuor Ébène, Bernard Lavilliers (Erato/Warner, 2014)
• Tenderly (Okeh, 2016)

With others

• Between Friends, Humphrey Lyttelton, Jim Tomlinson (2000)
• The Lyric, Jim Tomlinson (2005)