Radiant jazz singer Stacey Kent has been quietly gathering devotees around the world with her impeccable musicality and a hypnotic voice. Stacey’s powerful instrument rarely rises above an intimate murmur. It’s a sound that makes you lean in to hear what she’s confiding, tinged with the mysterious quality of saudade, an expression for bittersweet pangs of nostalgia and heartache.
Stacey Kent has an elegant and understated way with a standard but her voice is delicately devastating in the songs written especially for her by her husband saxophonist/composer Jim Tomlinson and novelist-turned-lyricist Kazuo Ishiguro.
In Portugal, Stacey performs originals and a collection of wistful bossa nova classics featured on her latest acclaimed album, The Changing Lights, a journey through a sad/romantic world of wanderlust and missed connections.
Her fluency in different languages and musical styles translates into a sophisticated stage presence that crosses boundaries, and the musical and emotional chemistry between Stacey and Jim is palpable.
This was a rare chance to be bewitched by a singular musician and her tight-knit band in songs of love beautifully lost and found.
Stacey, despite singing in English, French and Portuguese, was keen to present to the public all the songs present in Portuguese language.
The supposed end music concert in the city of Faro in the Algarve, the Stacey band was acclaimed at the end to take the stage twice with the audience clapping feet and humming the final song for more than five minutes...
Carlos Alves de Sousa
United Photo Press
United Photo Press
