Bay Area Cabaret Continues Season with Jazz Artist Stacey Kent 12/11

Bay Area Cabaret continues its 2011-2012 season December 11, 2011 with Grammy Award nominee and internationally-renowned jazz vocalist Stacey Kent, making her first Bay Area appearance in more than six years. This special one-night-only engagement will take place at the historic Venetian Room of The Fairmont San Francisco, 950 Mason Street, 5pm Sunday, December 11. Tickets ($45 general / $40 subscribers) are available at www.bayareacabaret.org or by phone at City Box Office (415) 392-4400.

Kent, a recipient of numerous awards and accolades including the BBC Best Jazz Vocalist, Backstage Bistro Award for best live performance, and Chevalier Dans L'Order Des Arts et Des Lettres from the French Minister of Culture is also a favorite of the celebrity set. Clint Eastwood invited Kent to perform at his 70th birthday party, she was a featured singer on Michael Parkinson's television show, Sir David Frost asked her to join him on his "Breakfast with Frost" show, and Aerosmith front-man and American Idol judge, Steven Tyler , in a recent interview, named Kent as being among his favorite singers. Kent's latest album, due for release October 24, 2011, DREAMER IN CONCERT (Blue Note/EMI) is a live album, recorded in May of this year at La Cigale, in Paris.

Her talent is also routinely noted by music critics around the world. The New York Times', Stephen Holden claimed, "Sometimes the chemistry between musicians and the chemistry of love get all tangled up in wonderful ways. When watching the jazz singer Stacey Kent make music with her husband, the tenor saxophonist Jim Tomlinson, it is easy to imagine yourself eavesdropping on intimate pillow talk by besotted partners in a luxury suite atop some faraway pop-jazz Olympus."

Three-time Oscar-winning songwriter, Jay Livingston, wrote of her, "Stacey Kent is a revelation. There is nobody singing today who can compare with her. She has the style of the greats, like Billie Holiday and Ella Fitzgerald. And she sings the words like Nat Cole - clean, clear and almost conversational with perfect phrasing. And that's as good as it gets."

Since the release of Kent's first album, CLOSE YOUR EYES (1997), she has achieved, without compromise, both critical and popular success, with her fresh and heart-felt interpretations of the finest love songs of the twentieth century. Since then, her career has continued to expand internationally, with Kent traveling worldwide to concert halls from Taipei's Chiang Kai-shek Concert Hall to Carnegie Hall to the famed Olympia in Paris.

Kent, who joined the Blue Note (EMI) roster of recording artists in 2007, now boasts eight best-selling albums, including the Grammy nominated, Platinum-selling, BREAKFAST ON THE MORNING TRAM (2007), THE BOY NEXT DOOR (2003) and RACONTE-MOI (2010), both of which achieved Gold status, a string of awards, including the 2001 British Jazz Award, the 2002 BBC Jazz Award for 'Best Vocalist,' the 2004 Backstage Bistro Award for best live performance, the 2006 "Album of the Year" Award for Jim Tomlinson's album, THE LYRIC, as well as a fan base that enables her to sell out concert halls around the world.

Bay Area Cabaret's 2011-2012 season continues in 2012 with two-time Tony winner Christine Ebersole on January 15, jazz guitarist/singer John Pizzarelli on February 26, and Tony winner and star of NBC's new series The Playboy Club, Laura Benanti on May 12. For patrons of Bay Area Cabaret, The Fairmont San Francisco offers a three-course dinner in the Laurel Court Restaurant & Bar for $40 (plus tax and tip), plus free parking for all who dine in the Laurel Court Restaurant & Bar. For Bay Area Cabaret 2011-2012 season subscriptions, or for more information including audio and video samples, visit www.bayareacabaret.org.

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