Stacey Kent was featured by NPR this Sunday morning music interview, An American Jazz Diva Plays French Chanteuse. The interview focuses on her latest album Raconte-moi released last year. Raconte-Moi… is an intensely personal collection of chansons françaises dedicated to Kent’s grandfather. [Kathryn Shackleton, BBC Review] Kent told NPR's Jacki Lyden that her love of the language began with her grandfather, who read the work of French poet Charles Baudelaire to her as a child.
Kent's voice has been compared to the taste of vermouth and the compositions of Erik Satie. Kent's altogether low-key, crystal-clear, witty and playful voice is best known for singing jazz standards in fine style. [Shaunna Morrison Machosky, NPR review]
However, Raconte-moi, as Christopher Loudon points out in Jazz Times, "draws from four sources: classic French chansons, contemporary French pop, classics in translation and new compositions."
From the undulating waves of Jobim’s “Les Eaux De Mars” and dreamy expectation of “C’est Le Printemps” (“It Might as Well Be Spring,” as translated by Henri Salvador),
to the accelerating tumult of the Barbara tour de force “Le Mal De Vivre” and carousel swirl of Paul Misraki’s “L’étang,” Kent’s selections are as varied and vibrant as they are affecting.
Most beguiling are two of the new compositions: “Le Vénus du Mélo,” with its coy, rippling romanticism, and “Mi Amor,” with its femme-fatale smolder.
Discography
Close Your Eyes (1997)
The Tender Trap (1998)
Let Yourself Go: Celebrating Fred Astaire (2000)
Dreamsville (2001)
Brazilian Sketches (2001)
In Love Again: The Music of Richard Rodgers (2002)
The Boy Next Door (2003)
Collection (2001)
Collection II (2003)
Collection III (2006)
Breakfast On The Morning Tram (2007)
Breakfast on the Morning Tram limited edition boxset CD/DVD (2008)
Raconte-moi… (2010)
