by JAY LIVINGSTON
Three-time Motion Picture Academy Award winning songwriter: Buttons & Bows (The Paleface), Mona Lisa (Captain Carey), Que Sera Sera (The Man Who Knew Too Much).
It's very exciting to come upon a young singer who has all the qualities of the greats from the past, plus her own individual style. I first heard Stacey Kent when I was having dinner at the Landmark Hotel in London. She was singing with an instrumental group, and I found myself attracted to her great sound amid all the restaurant din. And when she sang my favorite song of all I have written, Never Let Me Go, I had to go up and talk to her. She gave me a CD, and when I played it at home without the clatter of silverware and the chatter, I knew that she was something special. When I put the CD on, my wife came out of the bedroom and said, "Who in the world is that?" That's what Stacey does -- she grabs you.
Stacey has the soul of Billie Holiday and the fine rhythm phrasing of Ella Fitzgerald. And she sings the words like Nat Cole -- straightforward, clean and clear. I love the way she will sing a line naturally, not waiting to catch up with the notes, almost conversationally. Then when she does get on the notes, the beat is powerful. Nobody, today or yesterday, ever sang a rhythm song any better than Stacey does on COMES LOVE. Marvellous beat and phrasing.
The musicians on this album are superb. The pianist David Newton, plays background fill-ins like the legendary Buddy Cole, and his solos on THE TENDER TRAP and IT'S A WONDERFUL WORLD are brilliant. The tenor sax, Jim Tomlinson, doesn't honk like so many of the new players and he doesn't run up or down the chord to show his technique; he plays melodies against the chords like Benny Carter.
The difficult augmented intervals in DON'T BE THAT WAY don't phase Stacey. Her warmth on EAST OF THE SUN is especially poignant. As for the other songs, there is not a dud in the bunch. Nobody singing today is as good as Stacey. In the days before rock and roll and country dominated the charts, she would have been an instant star. Today it will take longer, but there is no doubt in my mind that she will make it big.
