Stacey Kent - Songs From Other Places - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

Reissued for the first time on blue color vinyl. Chicago blues harpist Billy Boy Arnold, together with English blues rock group The Groundhogs.

See You At The Maypole, the sixth full-length album in Half Waif's prolific catalog, is a recognition of personal sadness, and a call to ecstatic togetherness. It's gathering the colors of our spirit, in all it's shades, and making something intricate and remarkable. The ceremonial folk dance performed around a maypole is filled with fauna and flora, with ribbons woven into complex braids incapable of unraveling; these dances are survivals of ancient ritual, honoring the living trees, and the return of Spring and fertility. These patterns-this dance-cannot be completed alone, and so, Half Waif welcomes others to join her, a collective of bleeding color. InchWe are so much stronger for the colorful experiences we go through,Inch she says. InchThat's where we find our humanity and find each other.Inch While the seclusion of grief feels infinite, Rose brought the songs to her trusted friend and longtime collaborator of the past decade, Zubin Hensler. The pair worked away from others for Mythopoetics, carefully crafting each note and flourish themselves but something else was needed for See You At The Maypole. To that end, Hensler and Rose welcomed a wealth of players and friends into the world of the record Jason Burger and Zack Levine on drums and percussion; Josh Marre (Blue Ranger) on guitar; Hannah Epperson and Elena Moon Park on violin; Kristina Teuschler on clarinet; Willem de Koch on trombone; Rebecca El-Saleh on harp; and Spencer Zahn on upright bass. Andrew Sarlo (Big Thief, Bon Iver) lent his deft mixing skills to many of the tracks, including lead single 'Figurine.' InchThis wasn't just my story, I wanted to say. It was every story of loss-the loss of a life, the loss of a dream, the loss of trust and hope and faith. A story of finding a way back again,Inch Rose explains. InchMy own avenue back to the land of the living was through my relationships with peopl

The entire project is both spare and impossibly rich. While this may sound like a contradiction, it has everything to do with the virtuosic musicianship of pianist Art Hirahara and Jim Tomlinson, as well as Stacey's elegant and unadorned vocal approach.The opening track, Lucky To Be Me, works as an invitation to the theme of the album and uses the open space between vocal phrases to draw us in. And, while all of the tracks are worth an unadulterated listen, I'm going to list a few of my favorites, starting with La Javanaise, which is delivered with an almost offhanded musical precision and sung in Stacey's pitch-perfect French. The surprising warmth of Stacey's lower vocal range makes A Time For Love the intimate ballad it was meant to be. Jim's tenor sax does the same, so that his playing is the ideal complement to Stacey's voice.The entire album is a joy to listen to both musically and sonically. It was lovingly recorded and mixed by Jim (yet another of his talents) at their home studio in Virginia.- Cliff GoldmacherStacey 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.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 led her to search out opportunities to express her love of