Dreamer In Concert Explained

Dreamer in Concert
Type:	live
Artist:	Stacey Kent
Cover:	StaceyDreamerConcert.jpeg
Recorded:	May 30–31, 2011
Genre:	Vocal Jazz
Length:	1:10:47
Label:	Blue Note
Producer:	Jim Tomlinson
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Prev Year:	2010
Next Title:	The Changing Lights
Next Year:	2013

Dreamer in Concert is a 2011 live album by Stacey Kent. This was Kent's first live album, and was recorded at the La Cigale theatre in Paris.

Reception

John Fordham writing in The Guardian gave the album three stars out of five and commented that the loudest sounds on the album are "the audience cheering" and praised Kent's vocal abilities, highlighting her "expressive delicacy at low volumes, flexible phrasing and instinctive dialogues with her saxophonist husband, Jim Tomlinson". Fordham commented that "But Kent's rare and almost defiant sustained note at the close of the French-language Samba Saravah, a gritty robustness on If I Were a Bell, and the occasional Madeleine Peyroux-like elision on The Best Is Yet to Come give this set extra intrigue – even if devotees of edgier jazz will grumble that it's like having chocolate poured in your ear."^[1]

Writing for the Jazz Times, Christopher Loudon also positively reviewed Dreamer in Concert saying that "...it's hardly surprising to discover that she sounds as warm and inviting onstage as she does in the studio." Loudon singled out "O Comboio" and "Postcard Lovers" for special praise.^[2]

Track listing

1. "It Might as Well Be Spring" (Oscar Hammerstein II, Richard Rodgers) – 7:29
2. "Ces Petits Riens" (Serge Gainsbourg) – 4:01
3. "Postcard Lovers" (Kazuo Ishiguro, Jim Tomlinson) – 6:19
4. "If I Were a Bell" (Frank Loesser) – 4:07
5. "Quiet Nights of Quiet Stars" (Antonio Carlos Jobim, Gene Lees) – 5:33
6. "Waters of March" (Jobim) – 3:59
7. "The Best Is Yet to Come" (Cy Coleman, Carolyn Leigh) – 3:36
8. "O Comboio" (Antonio Ladeira, Tomlinson) – 4:27
9. "Dreamer" (Jobim, Gene Lees) – 5:16
10. "Breakfast on the Morning Tram" (Ishiguro, Tomlinson) – 5:28
11. "They Can't Take That Away from Me" (George Gershwin, Ira Gershwin) – 5:19
12. "Samba Saravah" (Pierre Barouh, Vinícius de Moraes, Baden Powell) – 4:55
13. "Jardin D'Hiver" (Benjamin Biolay, Keren-Ann Zeidel) – 4:31
14. "They Say It's Wonderful" (Irving Berlin) – 5:47

Personnel

Performance

• Stacey Kent – vocals, guitar
• Jim Tomlinson – arranger, percussion, producer, soprano saxophone, tenor saxophone
• Jeremy Brown – double bass
• Matt Skelton – drums, percussion
• Graham Harvey – fender rhodes, piano, inside photo

Production

• Nicolas Pflug – A&R
• Jean-Louis Duralek – artwork, photography
• João Paulo Nogueira – engineer
• Angloma – make-up
• Curtis Schwartz – mastering, mixing

Notes and References

1. Web site: Stacey Kent: Dreamer in Concert – review. John Fordham. The Guardian. April 18, 2015. November 10, 2015.
2. Web site: Stacey Kent: Dreamer in Concert – review. Christopher Loudon. Jazz Times. April 18, 2015. January 29, 2012.