“Stacey Kent…transforms songs into short stories that brim with passion, romance, and wonder. Lean into her muted declarations and Kent can bring the world to you.” – New Yorker Magazine

Stacey Kent is an American jazz singer in the mould of the greats, with a legion of fans, a host of honors and awards including a Grammy nomination, album sales in excess of 2 million and more than one billion streams, and Platinum, Double-Gold and Gold-selling albums that have reached a series of chart-topping positions.

Her worldwide fan base is testimony to her ability to express the emotional heart of her songs with delicately nuanced interpretations that transcend borders and defy categorization. Her unique multi-lingual repertoire includes standards, chanson, Bossa Nova, and originals written by her husband, Jim Tomlinson, the saxophonist/producer/composer/arranger, with the Nobel Prize-winning author, Kazuo Ishiguro with whom they have worked since 2006. She has also recorded with Brazilian legends, Marcos Valle, Roberto Menescal and Danilo Caymmi, and the celebrated French string quartet, the Quatuor Ébène.

Her 2021 album Songs From Other Places is a duo project with pianist and long-standing collaborator, Art Hirahara. Exploring the themes of travel and transformation, Songs From Other Places won Stacey the prize for ‘Best Vocal Performance’ at 2022 Jazz Music Awards in Atlanta, Georgia, and the Prix Ella Fitzgerald at the 2023 Montreal Jazz Festival.

The pared down setting of Songs From Other Places was in contrast to her previous album, I Know I Dream: The Orchestral Sessions (Sony 2017). I Know I Dream won Album of the Year in the vocal category at the 2018 Jazz Japan Awards, achieved certified Gold status, and received glowing reviews, including a coveted five stars in Downbeat. All About Jazz described it as “intoxicating understatement at its finest…one more jewel in a discography with many, it’s one that deserves singling out for its luster.”

Stacey, a comparative literature graduate with a passion for music, travelled to Europe to further her studies after receiving her degree from Sarah Lawrence College in NY. Through a series of twists of fate, she found herself in London where she enrolled in a graduate music program at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, where she met her future husband and musical partner, Jim Tomlinson.

Kent’s musical journey began with childhood piano lessons. A keen ear and true voice lead her to search out opportunities to express her love of music. However, nothing suggested the shift from the academic path to the one that propelled her to international recognition as one of the foremost jazz singers of her generation. With a catalogue of 14 studio albums, including the Platinum selling, Grammy-nominated Breakfast On The Morning Tram (Blue Note/EMI 2007) and an impressive list of collaborations, Stacey has graced the stages of nearly 60 countries over the course of her career.

Kent paid her dues in the jazz clubs of London, before releasing a series of albums for the Candid label, beginning with Close Your Eyes in 1997. Those early albums brought her to the attention of a worldwide audience, resulting in appearances on US television and radio with shows like CBS Sunday Morning and NPR’s All Things Considered. Awards followed, with Stacey winning Jazz Vocalist of the Year at the BBC Jazz Awards. The Boy Next Door (2003) was Stacey’s last Candid release and her first album to achieve Gold status.

During this period, Stacey cemented her reputation as a singer capable of putting a distinctive stamp on an impressive repertoire of standards. Her ability to communicate emotion through a nuanced and minimalist approach was showcased on Jim Tomlinson’s album, The Lyric (Token) which was awarded Album of The Year at the 2006 BBC Jazz Awards. This album brought her to the attention of Blue Note records with whom she signed. With each successive album, Stacey’s style has become more honed as her artistic outlook has broadened, leading her beyond the Great American Songbook to French Chanson and Brazilian music which form an ever-larger part of her repertoire.

Stacey’s repertoire also includes a growing number of songs written for her by Jim Tomlinson with lyricists Cliff Goldmacher, with whom he penned the title song for I Know I Dream and also, most notably, the Nobel Prize-winning author, Kazuo Ishiguro. Kent’s friendship with Ishiguro began in 2002 when he selected her recording of They Can’t Take That Away From Me on the BBC Radio show, Desert Island Discs. He also wrote the liner notes for her subsequent album, In Love Again. In 2006 they began collaborating, with Jim Tomlinson as composer, on songs that distilled the themes of memory, travel and longing, themes that frequently surfaced both in Kent’s repertoire and Ishiguro’s novels.

With the release of her Grammy-nominated, Platinum-selling Blue Note debut album, Breakfast On The Morning Tram (Blue Note 2007), Stacey transformed from being a singer of the Great American Songbook, to a singer with a highly distinctive and personal repertoire. The first collaboration between Ishiguro, the lyricist, and Tomlinson, the composer, The Ice Hotel, won first prize in the jazz category of the International Songwriting Competition. Since then, all of Stacey’s albums have been punctuated by original songs composed by Tomlinson with a variety of lyricists in English, French and Portuguese.

Kent has continued to pursue a frenetic recording and touring schedule. Her first album for Blue Note was followed in 2010 by the Gold-selling, all-French, Raconte-moi which was biggest selling French language album outside of France that year. She was invited to perform an all-French program at the Francofolies Festival and was awarded the Chevalier Dans L’Ordre Des Arts et Des Lettres. Her first live album, Dreamer In Concert (Blue Note/EMI 2011), was followed by The Changing Lights (Warner 2013), which, more than any other album, reveals the ever present influence of Brazil in Stacey’s music. Among French, Italian and German, Stacey also speaks Portuguese. She has toured widely in Brazil and collaborated with many of her heroes including Edu Lobo, Dori and Danilo Caymmi, Roberto Menescal, and most notably Marcos Valle, who invited her to celebrate his 50 years in music on the album, Ao Vivo (Sony 2013). A DVD and documentary of their collaboration and friendship was also released on Sony in 2016.

With one of the founding fathers of Bossa Nova, Roberto Menescal, Stacey recorded Tenderly (Sony 2015), an intimate collection of standards that showcases her crystalline voice and Menescal’s warm guitar. Jazzwise Magazine referred to the album as “an extremely beautiful meeting of minds” It is Menescal’s only full album as a jazz guitarist and demonstrates the debt he owes to the great Barney Kessel. As Kent’s first standards album in a decade, it shows her increasingly honed and impressive interpretative gifts.

Throughout 2020-2021 with her concert appearances on pause, Stacey remained busy recording from home and staying in touch with her fans through social media. She released several recordings, including Bob Marley’s Three Little Birds and Bill Wither’s Lovely Day, as well as the EP, Christmas In The Rockies (Token 2020). Songs From Other Places (Token 2021) was also produced during this time and its mood of quiet contemplation reflects the circumstances of its making.

Renewing her concert appearances, Stacey released Summer Me, Winter Me in Nov 2023 (naïve). With a program chosen from from the most often requested songs of her as-yet unrecorded concert repertoire, the album entered the French jazz charts at number 1 and has quickly established itself as a new highlight in her considerable discography with a mixture of standards and originals including the Tomlinson/Ishiguro song, Postcard Lovers and collaborations with Cliff Goldmacher, Thinking About The Rain and A Song That Isn’t Finished Yet.

2024 was marked by the publication of the Kazuo Ishiguro book, The Summer We Crossed Europe In The Rain; Lyrics for Stacey Kent. This collection of lyrics, beautifully illustrated by Bianca Bagnarelli, has been accompanied by multi-media concert presentations of the Ishiguro Songbook.

Her latest album, A Time For Love (naïve), revisits the intimate duo setting of Songs From Other Places. Accompanied by Art Hirahara’s sparkling and expressive piano, it is a meditation on the nature of love at a time when it is needed more than ever. Joined on several tracks by Jim Tomlinson on saxophone, flute and vocals, it features songs by composers Johnny Mandel, Serge Gainsbourg, Burt Bacharach and Hal David, Brian Wilson, and Stevie Wonder among others. It also debuts the stunning Cliff Goldmacher/Jim Tomlinson song, What Goodbye Is For. The first single, The Shadow Of Your Smile, is streaming now with further singles and an EP to follow before its full release on 3rd April 2026.