Blossom Dearie-toned Stacey Kent has been mixing her honeycomb-sweet voice with Brazilian songs and sounds for quite some time, and has it down to a perfect salsa, with this latest release possibly being the apotheosis. She mixes and matches musicians as well as languages here, with a samba beauty with pianist Graham Harvey on “This Happy Madness” and a lazy lilt with acoustic guitarist John Parricelli on “The Summer We Crossed Europe in the Rain.” Kent tells a cute story with keyboards on “Waiter, Oh Waiter” while the percussion by Joshua Morrison on “One Note Samba” sizzles under Kent’s sweet pepper of a delivery. Her French lyrics with electric guitar on “Chanson Legre’” is Bohemian pluse, Bartok-like strings on “Quiet Nights of Quiet Stars” are stirring under Kent’s sparkle, and Jim Tomlinson’s Getzy tenor on “Meditation” evokes images of Asturd Gilberto. Lovely sauces of sounds meld into a delicious paste here. Savor it!
Warner Brothers Records