Songs from Other Places (Special Edition) Stacey Kent

• 1 I Wish I Could Go Travelling Again 04:28
• 2 Bonita 04:12
• 3 Craigie Burn 05:12
• 4 Les voyages 03:09
• 5 American Tune 04:09
• 6 Tango in Macao 05:13
• 7 Blackbird 04:19
• 8 My Ship 04:09
• 9 Imagina 02:03
• 10 Landslide 03:56
• 11 Bésame Mucho 04:14
• 12 So Far Away 03:44
• 13 Memories of You 04:20
• 14 Lovely Day 03:03
• 15 Three Little Birds 02:38
• Total Runtime 58:49

Info for Songs from Other Places (Special Edition)

Stacey Kent’s Songs From Other Places Special Edition with 5 bonus tracks. Stacey Kent’s clear-as-light vocals and Art Hirahara’s lyrical piano make their duo outing exactly “what the world needs now.” On Songs from Other Places, their artistry is beautifully laid bare in classic songs including Weill and Gershwin’s “My Ship,” Jobim’s “Bonita,” and Paul Simon’s “American Tune”—once a protest against the Vietnam War, now a troubled elegy for a nation in even greater distress.

Stacey Kent is a jazz singer in the mould of the greats, with a legion of fans worldwide, a host of honours and awards including a Grammy nomination, album sales in excess of 2 Million, Gold, Double-Gold and Platinum-selling albums that have reached a series of No. 1 chart positions during the span of her career. An interpreter of The Great American Song Book and beyond, Kent's music and influences span multiple genres, a testament to her "wandering, restless spirit" as an artist.

Her long time songwriting collaborator is Nobel Prize winning author Kazuo Ishiguro.

In the spring of 2020, "I Wish I Could Go Travelling Again" was the song that was most talked about and requested by Stacey Kent's Fans when they reached out on social media. It was clear, even early on during the Covid crisis, that in lockdown, people were relying on music and imagination to transport them and to find a sense of connection with the world beyond their own four walls.

Like many of us, Kent spent the last year online, looking for ways not to lose touch with the world outside. In an effort to stay connected she landed on the idea of a collection of songs that gives expression to our collective desire to roam the world once again through the medium of music.

Accompanied on piano by Art Hirahara, 'Songs From Other Places' includes interpretations of songs by Stevie Nicks (Landslide), Paul Simon (American Tune), Lennon & McCartney (Blackbird), Gershwin, Weil, Jobim as well as two new songs written with Nobel Prize winning author Kazuo Ishiguro.

Stacey Kent, vocals
Art Hirahara, piano, keyboard, melodica
Jim Tomlinson, flute

Please Note: We offer this album in its native sampling rate of 44.1 kHz, 24-bit. The provided 192 kHz version was up-sampled and offers no audible value!

Stacey Kent
is a jazz singer in the mould of the greats, with a legion of fans worldwide, a host of honors and awards including a Grammy nomination, album sales approaching 2 million, Gold, Double-Gold and Platinum-sellingalbums that have reached a series of No. 1 chart positions during the span of her career.

Raised and schooled on the east coast of the USA, this comparative literature graduate with a musical bent, travelled to Europe to further her studies. In 1990, through a series of twists of fate, she found herself in London where she enrolled in a graduate music program at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and where she met her future husband and musical collaborator, Jim Tomlinson.

Kent's musical journey began in her childhood with piano lessons. An unusually keen ear and true voice lead her to participate in school musical productions, and throughout her time at Sarah Lawrence College in New York, she could often be heard singing at impromptu musical events in the college's cafe. However, nothing suggested the shift in career that has propelled her to international recognition. With a catalogue of 10 studio albums including the Platinum-selling, GRAMMY-nominated 'Breakfast On The Morning Tram' (EMI/BLUE NOTE 2007) and an impressive list of collaborations, Stacey has graced the stages of more than 50 countries over the course of her career. Kent paid her dues in the jazz clubs of London, including the famed Ronnie Scott's Cub, where she still performs every year, before releasing the first of a series of 6 albums, 'Close Your Eyes' (1997), for the Candid label. Her second album, 'The Tender Trap' (1999) brought her to the attention of jazz audiences in the USA when ‘CBS Sunday Morning’ and NPR's 'All Things Considered' featured her. After that, albums and awards followed. Let Yourself Go, a celebration of Fred Astaire was released in 2000, ‘Dreamsville' (2001) led to Stacey being awarded the Jazz Vocalist of the Year in the 'BBC Jazz Awards'. 'In Love Again', a collection of Richard Rodgers songs followed in 2002. 'The Boy Next Door' (2003) was Stacey's last Candid release and her first album to achieve Gold status.

During this period, Stacey cemented her reputation as a singer capable of putting a distinctive stamp on an impressive repertoire of standards. Her ability to communicate emotion through a nuanced and minimalist approach was showcased on Jim Tomlinson's album, 'The Lyric' (Token) which was awarded Album of The Year at the '2006 BBC Jazz Awards'. This album brought her to the attention of Blue Note records with whom she signed in 2007. With each successive album, Stacey's style has become more honed as her artistic outlook has broadened. Stacey's search for songs had led her to look beyond the Great American Songbook, with French chanson and Brazilian music forming an ever-larger part of her repertoire. During a lunch with Jim, and friend and author, Kazuo Ishiguro, the conversation turned to repertoire and the idea was hatched to write a series of songs for Stacey that distilled themes of memory, travel and love, that so frequently surfaced in her repertoire. From this conversation, the songs for 'Breakfast On The Morning Tram' were conceived. Stacey transformed from being a singer of the Great American Songbook, to a singer with a highly distinctive and personal repertoire. The first collaboration between Ishiguro, the lyricist, and Tomlinson, the composer, 'The Ice Hotel', won first prize in the International Songwriting Competition song. Since then, all of Stacey's albums have been punctuated by original songs composed by Tomlinson with a variety of lyricists in English, French and Portuguese. Stacey has continued to pursue a frenetic recording and touring schedule. Her first album for Blue Note was followed in 2009 by the Gold-selling, all-French, 'Raconte-Moi'. She was invited to perform an all-French program at the Francofolies Festival and was awarded the Chevalier Dans L'Ordre Des Arts et Des Lettres. Her first ever live album, 'Dreamer In Concert' (EMI 2011), was followed by 'The Changing Lights' (Warner 2013), which more than any other album, reveals the ever-present influence of Brazil in Stacey's music.

Stacey's first visited Brazil in 2008 when she was invited to perform at the TIM Festival. She vowed not to return until she spoke Portuguese. True to her word, she enrolled with Jim on the Middlebury College Summer Schools immersion program, where she had previously studied French, Italian and German. She returned to study the following two summers and now counts Portuguese among the other languages that she already speaks. On subsequent visits to Brazil, she met many of her musical heroes, including Marcos Valle and Roberto Menescal. She has recorded with both Valle and Menescal, having been invited to record with Valle to celebrate his 50 years in music on the album, 'Ao Vivo' (Sony 2013). A DVD and documentary of their collaboration are also due for release in Aug 2016.

With Roberto Menescal, Stacey recorded her most recent release, ‘Tenderly' (Sony 2015), an intimate collection of standards that showcases her crystalline voice and Menescal's warm guitar. Jazzwise Magazine referred to the album as "an extremely beautiful meeting of minds” It is Menescal's only recording as a jazz guitarist and demonstrates the debt he owes to the great Barney Kessel. As Kent's first standards album in a decade, it shows her increasingly impressive and maturing interpretative gifts.

Following a recent successful concert series with the Bordeaux Symphony Orchestra, Stacey is currently planning an ambitious album for release in 2017 on SONY. She continues to tour with sold-out concerts and festival appearances around the world.

This album contains no booklet.