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Stacey Kent's 'The Changing Lights' Will Light Up Your Valentine's Day

Courtesy photo

This Valentine’s Day, WEMU will premiere the romantic music of singer-guitarist Stacey Kent and the new CD, The Changing Lights released on  Warner Brothers/Parlophone Reacords.  Each of her previous recordings have been a marvel of delicacy, swing, precision, subtle passion and just-barely disguised emotional frailty.  It is hard to believe that she and her band could top Breakfast On The Morning Tram or Dreamer In Concert  but The Changing Lights further explores Ms. Kent’s gifts as a story-teller through song and as a gentle and fleet Brazilian finger-style guitarist. 

She embellishes lyrics with just  a delicate touch of vibrato to get the heart of the emotion without histrionics.  Like a Lover , The Face I Love  and even the over-recorded One Note Samba are transformed  in to new experiences thanks to brilliant use of alternate syncopation.  Ms. Kent also has the rare gift of being able  to interpret the modern life and love quandary songs penned by lyricist Kazuo Ishiguro.  Equally rare in much of music today is Ms. Kent’s collaboration with her husband, saxophonist-arranger Jim Tomlinson who complements Ishiguro’s lyrics with tender melodies.   

The Changing Lights is a delicate balance of repertoire, arrangements and emotion from playful joy to wistful longing.  It’s a perfect Valentine’s Day treat on 89.1 Jazz with Linda Yohn.

Linda Yohn simply cannot remember a day in her life that was not filled with music. Her early life was full of changes as the daughter of a well-respected cancer research scientist who moved his family about, but one thing was constant: the love of music instilled by her mother. So, when it seemed life was too hard to bear, young Linda would listen to her radio, play her guitar, dance her heart out and sing at the top of her lungs. So, it isn’t so strange that “older” Linda still does all those things!