Stacey Kent At Birdland

Stacey Kent
Birdland
New York, NY
December 17, 2025

Coolly attired in sedate, simple black trousers and matching jacket, Stacey Kent warmed up a sold-out crowd with an eclectic set on a frigid Wednesday at New York City's celebrated jazz bôite, Birdland. Backed by longtime pianist Art Hirahara on the Yamaha grand, Tim Hubbard on bass and reedman (and Kent's husband of 34 years) Jim Tomlinson, Kent offered up a cool recital of her much-lauded, award-winning jazz chops.

Kicking off the proceedings with Tomlinson's composition "Ice House," Kent took the samba shuffle through its paces, with the composer playing a variety of percussive toys and contributing a sweet flute solo tracking the piano theme laid down by Hirahara. And how about those lyrics by Kazuo Ishiguro? Not many jazz vocalists can count a Nobel Prize-(for literature) winning lyricist on her team. Not only is the Remains of the Day author a regular collaborator with Tomlinson—he also wrote a book entitled The Summer We Crossed Europe in the Rain: Lyrics for Stacey Kent. High praise indeed.

The Nat King Cole chestnut "The Very Thought of You" followed with Tomlinson soloing on tenor and Hirahara following suit on a lilting piano. Changing the pace to bouncy upbeat, Kent made Rodgers and Hammerstein's "Happy Talk," from South Pacific. her own with Tomlinson moving to flute to trade solos with the keyboard. Another Tomlinson composition, this time in Portuguese,  "Mais Uma Vez" from her album Stacey Kent: The Changing Lights (Warner Bros., 2013) began over a bed of bass and soprano sax with both instruments soloing until a big arpeggio button on the piano brought it home.

South Pacific found another spot on the set list when Kent sashayed thru "I'm Gonna Wash That Man Right Out of My Hair," changing time to ¾ for a bridge that found saxophone and piano looping along merrily with Hirahara pounding out big Bill Charlap-like chords at the finish line. Turning the mood somber, Kent found the mournful countenance in a lovely Leslie Bricusse composition, "When I Look In Your Eyes," from the film Dr Doolittle.

It has been too long since Kent's album Summer Me, Winter Me (Naive, 2023) was released. Thankfully, that drought ends with the release of A Time For Love, which Kent and company teased with several tracks at Birdland, including a novel reading of the Bert Bacharach-Hal David hit "Trains and Boats and Planes" with Hirahara switching to synth. Also from that album,  Johnny Mandel's  "The Shadow of Your Smile" found a plaintive, passionate piano pressing  the song forward as if answering Kent's lyrics. And switching back to Portuguese for Brazilian composer Pixinguinha's classic "Carinhoso," Kent and company delivered the romantic ballad with Tomlinson's flute pursuing the melody line while Hirahara vamped around it. A lovely vocal duet with husband and wife made the chorus shine.

Eclectic it was as the show wrapped up with an unlikely composition—Beach Boy Brian Wilson's "God Only Knows"—before sending home its happy house with the smooth samba sound of French composer Georges Moustaki's "Les Eaux de Mars," sung effortlessly by Kent in several languages. As the Birdland crowd buttoned up against the Midtown cold and hit West 44th Street, it was clear: whether linguistic or musical, Stacey Kent's appeal is well-earned and universal.

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