WAMC Performing Arts Studio
News and Reviews
| KENT DELIVERS CLASSICS ELEGANTLY By Michael Eck, Special to the Times Union (First published in the Times Union of Albany, NY: Saturday, April 24, 2004) Expatriate jazz singer Stacey Kent made her area debut Friday night with a sparkling performance of selections from the Great American Songbook at the WAMC Performing Arts Studio. Kent, a New Jersey girl who lives in London, has a thin, pleasant voice and a real passion for standards. There were no surprises, no odd left turns in her show, but plenty of good, spare singing. Kent eschews decoration in favor of cleanly doling out the tunes with an ear for melody and meaning. If she does not have the sheer vocal power or the dynamic microphone technique of some of the great singers of the past, she does have the sense of song. The opening rendition of "Shall We Dance," for example, was refreshingly simple. No scatting or vocal histrionics; no overemoting. Her backing quartet kept everything in the pocket and, like the boss, stuck close to the classic way of doing things. An extra mellow reading of "Say It Isn't So" seemed to float in the room. "The Best Is Yet To Come" had a certain strut. And "Let's Fall In Love" was appropriately winking and witty. Kent's husband, saxophonist Jim Tomlinson, laid a beautiful, fully realized solo into the middle of Kent's Fred Astaire tribute, "Shall We Dance." He spent much of the date waiting quietly before inserting a few select notes at the end of a tune. Tasteful and spare again. Guitarist Colin Oxley was Kent's secret weapon. He gently broadened the band's palette and his steady right hand kept a bounce in even the softest tunes. His tapping accompaniment to "Too Darn Hot" was percussive and inventive and his solos throughout the evening (especially in "Tea for Two" and "Come Rain, Come Shine") were nicely formed and bopping, replete with classic tapewound tone. Pianist Dave Newton and bassist Pat O'Leary also provided solid accompaniment, with Newton turning in an elegant, richly voiced solo in the night's best number "Surrey With The Fringe on Top." The latter, one of two tunes from Rodgers & Hammerstein's "Oklahoma," was delivered with a sultry, sashaying beat and a little swing of the hips from Kent. The singer, dressed in a transparent blouse and jeans, exuded a wholesome sexiness which gave the tune a kick without knocking it over. Other highlights included a nifty "The Trolley Song," which featured an insistent sax riff from Tomlinson, "People Will Say We're in Love" (the other "Oklahoma" number) and a simmering, slow rendition of "Stardust." The band also charmed the crowd with a humorous take of the Dizzy Gillespie chestnut "Ooh-Shoo-Be-Doo-Bee." Back to News and Reviews |
| Used with permission of the Times Union of Albany, NY. Re-use rights may not be assigned to a third party without prior written permission from the Times Union. |