Stacey Kent: Tenderly

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Stacey Kent

Tenderly

Birdland, NYC, July 5, 2016

Reviewed by Peter Haas for Cabaret Scenes

Stacey-Kent-Cabaret-Scenes-Magazine_212With quiet joy and a contagious affection for the songs she sings, Stacey Kent returned to Birdland at the beginning of July for a holiday week-long engagement, showcasing her gentle, lilting music making. In a show aptly called Tenderly, she mixed American popular classics with her growing repertoire of Brazilian numbers to produce a colorful palette of song.

With a constant smile in her voice, Kent saluted the American songbook with such numbers as Rodgers and Hammerstein’s “People Will Say We’re in Love” and “Happy Talk,” Ray Noble’s sweet classic, “The Very Thought of You,” and “That’s All” by Alan Brandt and Bob Haymes—plus an original number, “Make It Up,” by her musical director and husband, Jim Tomlinson, writing with Cliff Goldmacker. Stacey’s and Jim’s affectionate and musical partnership was much in evidence with their performance of “Ice Palace,” with him featured on alto sax and backed by strong work by the band.

Kent’s strength, and what has set her apart from other singers, is her repertoire of international numbers, with an emphasis on those with Brazilian flavor. Much in evidence was the lilting work of Antonio Carlos Jobim, with such numbers as “Photograph” (English lyrics: Ray Gilbert), “Estrada da Sol” (co-writer Dolores Duran) and “One Note Samba” (co-writer Newton Mendonca). And it was Jobim whose work closed the show, with Kent bowing off with the favorite “Águas de Março” (“The Waters of March”).

Watch for the return of Stacey and Jim to Birdland later this year.

 

Peter Haas

Writer, editor, lyricist and banjo plunker, Peter Haas has been contributing features and performance reviews for Cabaret Scenes since the magazine’s infancy. As a young folk-singer, he co-starred on Channel 13’s first children’s series, Once Upon a Day; wrote scripts, lyrics and performed on Pickwick Records’ children’s albums, and co-starred on the folk album, All Day Singing. In a corporate career, Peter managed editorial functions for CBS Records and McGraw-Hill, and today writes for a stable of business magazines. An ASCAP Award-winning lyricist, his work has been performed at Carnegie Hall, Feinstein’s, Metropolitan Room and other fine saloons.