Customer Reviews

The Boy Next Door

5 star:		(29)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This CD cements my total and committed adoration for Stacey Kent. The girl can' t go wrong. She can sing the side effects of a calcium channel blocker cardiac medication and I can bet she can still make you swoon. By now you probably have a couple of her CD's and that you know she is famous for updating classical music with romantic swing and precision, but do you know she can also sing comtemporary ones. Pay attention to an old James Taylor standard "You've Got A Friend" and how she sings the song like it was written for her. The acompaniment of Colin Oxley's guitar is so quite and sparse that it almost seems like Stacey is softly reading the lyrics. "You've Got a Friend" is difinetely the highlight of this Album. And it is amazing how she can turn a smaltzy song like Bacharach's "What the World Needs Now," into something pleadingly true. Overall all 16 tracks are great to listen to. It turns you pensive and makes you notice her lovely voice.

As an admirer of and collector of Stacey Kent's CD's I did not think she could possibly outdo any of her previous recordings. However - I was wrong - her latest album supasses them all for perfection ofher slightly husky voice and choice of songs. "Say it isn't so" is gorgeous as are "The Trolley song" and "Too darned hot" (sorry Mel and Ella but this version is a strong contendere) and "Making Whoopee" which to me supasses many other recordings. I particularly enjoyed "Ooh.Shoo-be-doo-be" which I was not familiar with - a cute swinging number. I also considered "You've got a friend" -poignently and exquisitely done and a real winner!Well done Stacey - I hope I can get to see you live one day soon in Washington DC.

Ok, Stacey Kent fans, let's all fess up. I don't think she's really put a bad CD, or even a "good but not great" CD yet. But the last two, while good, often quite good, just didn't *quite* get the airplay on my player as maybe some of the earlier ones. Oh, "Dreamsville" had a few killer songs, but sometimes I felt there were a bunch that just didn't hit me. Her last attempt was pretty solid, but I don't always gravitate towards it when I reached for something to listen too...maybe because it was all from one composer (Richard Rodgers), who knows. It didn't help that around the same time Diana Krall did her live CD which I love either... that seemed to get more attention in my stack than Stacey's did, which isn't always the case.

I think, however, that "The Boy Next Door" is a landmark of sorts. She just seems, for lack of a better word, "arrived and confident". Her voice is in top, top form, with gorgeous phrasing, wonderful clarity, great feel, and finally, ever improving each time he took her to tape, Curtis Schwartz has recorded it dead on... the recording quality of this disk moves up into the upper echelon; the whole band and her voice integrate wonderfully. Way to go!

But I don't expect most of you pay much attention to that sort, so it's back to the music. I think she's hit on a really good collection of songs here, and while they aren't going to appeal to the lyric-content-meaning freaks who have to analyze what a song says, let's be honest, Stacey Kent is about the ephemeral delivery of the meaning and soul of the song, not about the literal content of the lyrics, and that's where nobody right now that I can think of (that sings) has her beat. She *nails* getting that so-hard-to-do "feel" right, and it's a large reason I have most everything she's done in my collection and keep going back to her.

Nitpicks? - One review mentioned the band doesn't get as much solo time as in others, and that is true. I would love a touch more of Dave Newton's wonderful Piano, but man, I'm nitpicking. The rest of the band is also in top form, complementing each piece wonderfully, with stellar playing more focused on quality and not, this time, on soloing. Newton digs down on organ on "Makin' Whoopee" which is a nice change-up from his stellar acoustic piano work, I'll also note.

Faves? There's probably 8 or 9 songs on here I really, really like, which is pretty good for me. But I gotta say.... her rendition of James Taylor's "You've got a friend" left me slack jawed. A great reading of a classic tune and played on something nice in terms of a playback system, it forces you to immediately stop what you're doing, forget whatever crap and tension you had in your day and spend a few minutes listening. Which, at the end of the proverbial day, this sort of music is all about.
Highly, Highly recommended.

I don't think there's a better female jazz vocalist right now than Stacey Kent. Her latest album, The Boy Next Door, is absolutely perfect. Her voice has incredible subtleties, and she has a stage presence (I saw her at New York's Algonquin) that is second to none. Her renditions of "What the World Needs Now is Love" (track 7) and "'Tis Autumn" (track 12) are wonderful. I don't think anyone could ever rival Billie Holiday's version of "I Get Along Without You Very Well" (track 14), but she comes awfully close.

I probably lack the writing skills and the correct Jazz vernacular, however, in layman's terms, I found Stacey Kent's album "The Boy Next Door" to be nothing short of spectacular. Ms. Kent has an unbelievably clear and pleasing voice, with an amazing ability to perfectly enunciate, YET be completely melodic in her delivery. In short, her voice tickles and relaxes the mind as one listens. EVERY song on the CD is a treat. Nobody came close to touching Diana Krall on my all-time favorite contemporary jazz artists list until now. Ms. Kent is a "sure thing." Now I just wish she'd tour the U.S. more often (and more specifically the interior). Peace. :-)

Stacey Kent: From Girl Next Door to Contemporary Jazz Diva

The Boy Next Door (Candid 79797)

by Michael Oh

Stacey Kent never intended to be a jazz singer. She was on course for a career in academia, but through an unexpected twist of fate, she found herself enrolled at the Guildhall School of Music with Jim Tomlinson, who would later become her husband and musical soul mate. The rest, as they say, is history. Today, the London-based New Yorker has six bestselling solo albums to her credit, a clutchful of jazz awards on her mantelpiece, and continues to perform to sellout audiences across the world.

Ms Kent's unique, distinctive style could best be described as classic chic, the musical equivalent of the "little black dress". Just as the little black dress has the power to let a woman's personality shine through, Ms Kent's delicately nuanced interpretations of the Great American Songbook eloquently showcase the complex melodies and classy, sophisticated lyrics of American popular music during its golden ages.

Vocally, Ms Kent has never sounded better. And there is so much to admire: her dulcet-toned mezzo soprano, with its shimmery jazz lilt and translucent vibrato, her innate sense of swing and instinctive timing, her subtly shaded line readings, and the exquisite delicacy of her phrasing. A master storyteller and communicator, Ms Kent also brings a comparative literature graduate's acute interpretive skills to her singing, eschewing shopworn sentimentality for a piquant romantic lyricism.

Ms Kent's latest album, "The Boy Next Door", is a heartfelt and reverent tribute to her musical heroes, which include legendary crooners Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin, octogenarian jazz master Dave Brubeck and Manhattan cabaret doyen Bobby Short. The stylish jazz chanteuse's repertoire also finds her working outside the Great American Songbook for the first time, with contributions from latter-day pop songwriters Burt Bacharach, Paul Simon and Carole King. Ms Kent puts her own indelible stamp on each number as she weaves her magic on a delectable collection of pop-jazz standards that encompass infatuation, seduction, love, loss and reminiscence.

"The Best Is Yet To Come", the opening track of this album, begins with a beguiling quietness. Abetted by Dave Chamberlain's supple, tantalizing bass line, Ms Kent's wonderfully lithe voice floats across the melody in light, flirtatious tones. "The best is yet to come, and babe won't it be fine," croons Ms Kent seductively, and you know she's on to a winner. The cheeky uptown swagger and brash bravado that Tony Bennett brought to the number have been replaced by a relaxed, confident sexuality as she sashays appealingly through Cy Coleman and Carolyn Leigh's zesty, jazz-inflected tune, which also features a brisk, scintillating piano solo by David Newton.

"The Trolley Song", so long regarded as Judy Garland's signature tune, has been dusted off the shelves and given a new life by Matt Home's punchy, throbbing beat. Ms Kent registers a thrilling sense of giddy exhilaration here, with Tomlinson's playful obbligatos dancing around her sparkling vocals. As she peals joyfully through the Irving Berlin swinger, you can just imagine Ms Kent, with her elfin figure and puckish smile, as the fresh-faced ingénue whose adventure on public transportation would inevitably change her life, and Tomlinson as the dapper, dashing gentleman who sweeps Ms Kent off her feet.

"Too Darn Hot", Cole Porter's second-act showstopper from "Kiss Me, Kate", pulses with a palpable sense of urgency that underpins the edgy, syncopated rhythms of the song. Ms Kent's vocals are preceded by a catchy, insinuating jazz riff, and she infuses the number with a restless, insistent energy. Ms Kent's effervescence and vivacity are also a perfect match for Porter's vocal dexterity, wit, warmth and humor; nowhere is this more evident than in "You're The Top", which in Ms Kent's capable hands, is transformed into a patter song.

In a funky, bluesy version of "Makin' Whoopee", Ms Kent pounces on the dire warning to would-be Romeos lurking beneath the song's playful surface: that once the honeymoon is over, marriage can become a trap from which there is no escape. Or in the language of song: "Now don't forget folks, that's what you get folks, for makin' whoopee," she notes wryly, and with a knowing smile.

If the upbeat numbers on the album showcase Ms Kent and her formidable jazz sidemen at their collective best, it is the ballads which highlight the sublime musical partnership she has forged with her husband.

Ms Kent brings a slight shade of huskiness and just a touch of midnight intimacy to "Say It Isn't So" as she implores her lover to come clean, directly and painfully, with Tomlinson's horn providing a haunting melodic counterpoint to her fragile, melancholic lamentations.

"People Will Say We're In Love" has been reconfigured as a sultry, breathless bossa nova, where Ms Kent's demure vocals are elegantly framed by Colin Oxley's warm, flesh-toned chords and thoughtfully punctuated by Tomlinson's lustrous solo.

"'Tis Autumn" is a lush, gentle meditation on the arrival of fall, which Ms Kent infuses with the enveloping warmth and softness of a pashmina worn on a crisp October morning. Taken at a languorous pace, it is beautifully lucid and sensuously dreamy.

Ms Kent receives impeccable support from her sleek, urbane jazz quintet, whose rhythmic fluency is further enhanced by the tasteful, literate arrangements. Newton and Tomlinson, both accomplished musicians in their own right, also display hitherto unknown musical talents as they join Curtis Schwartz to provide tongue-in-cheek backing vocals for Ms Kent's deliciously bouncy rendition of "Ooh-Shoo-Be-Doo-Bee".

It is difficult to imagine Ms Kent's future releases surpassing "The Boy Next Door". Fortunately, she has provided live audiences with a glimpse of what may be in store: a blissfully idyllic "Tea for Two", a quietly contemplative "What Are You Doing For The Rest Of Your Life?" and a touchingly poignant "Garden In The Rain". Could it be that, as she sings, "the best is yet to come?" I certainly hope so!

As fans of jazz vocal I know we all sometimes wonder where have all the divas gone. I think we can say that Stacey Kent has helped to put that question to rest. This is a great CD. It showcases a great artist really coming into her own. Her voice is pure, beautiful, and unique. Stacey could hold her own in any era. The songs are great and the band is hot. Get this CD. It is destined to be a classic.

If you like Diana Krall and Norah Jones but haven't heard Stacey Kent, you're in for a treat. She does not have the level of success or fame of those other two, but she's got a voice that just brings you in to the music. She's got the slightest accent to her singing, which adds to the appeal. This album is a good place to start with Stacey Kent, with "In Love Again" as another strong choice. This is one of those albums that is well recorded and engineered to the point that audiophiles will put it on to demonstrate their sound systems, but it's not just about the quality of the sound, its about the quality of the music. Highly reccommended!

When it's mentioned that this recording is easy listening, music to "space out" by is not what's meant. IMHO, it's a refernce to the listener wanting to take this music in. I find her singing clear with a quality of head voice I just don't seem to tire of, accompanied by musicians doing more than playing notes well. Both voice and band opperate in the truer sense of the word "ensemble" and push the title past being just another cover "album". Melencholy songs feel that way. Upbeat songs swing and celebrate where you'll be hard pressed to keep yourself still. Additionally, there are some solo instrumental gems to listen for too.

Just 1 song played on the local 24hr. jazz station found me adding her latest 4 releases to my CD library.

I think Stacy Kent has real talent, (and her husband sax player Jim Tomlinson has even more) she can put a kittenish sexy twist on songs. Washington Post called her voice "adult sexuality". She's a big hit in England.

At first she's a revelation. But...There's a problem. She is like a three speed bike, she has three deliveries, slow, moderate and fast. She has a handful of albums out. But the more you listen, the more the songs all sound the same, same inflection, same arrangement, same timing, regardless of which song she is singing.

What she need's is to sing with dynamic range and to get some new arrangements, put more of herself, more feeling in the music, instead of making more coy cookie-cutter albums.

And maybe give Tomlinson and his Stan-Getz sax tone more space.

Her Richard Rodger's album remains her best.