Today's cd/Breakfast on the Morning Tram

If you've been coming by to read my letters for a while, you know that I am a huge Stacey Kent fan. I own all her albums, and play them often. Well, I am happy, happy, happy to report that she has a new one. She has gone in a new direction and is on a new label, the famous jazz label, Blue Note. She has been, to my mind, the queen of interpreting all the old standards, and on this one, she does new songs that may become standards someday. There are a few old songs on this cd; one which Louis Armstrong did so well, What A Wonderful World.

I hear babies cry. I watch them grow. They'll learn much more than I'll ever know.

The song that ends a cd is really important to me, for that is the song that stays with the listener, and this one is just the ticket - optimistic, beautifully sung, good words to keep in your head all the day long. She also does one you rarely hear sung these days, Hard-Hearted Hannah (the vamp of Savannah). She sings three songs in French, and I have to tell you I've always been a sucker for French songs. In my youth, I was buying Charles Aznavour and Francoise Hardy. And no, I'm not a linguist. I understand a word once in a while, but it doesn't matter. I just love the way they sound. And one of my favorite, favorite songs of all time is on this cd, Samba Saravah. Have you seen the 1966 film, A Man and A Woman? In it, the woman's husband sings to her about his trip to Brazil. It is, to my mind, one of the most romantic scenes in all moviedom. He is intoxicated with love for the country and shares it with his wife, constantly, at all times of day and night. She says something about she was there without even traveling. You may see the scene on you tube here.

So, what do I think? I love it. You will be perhaps surprised to learn that a few of the songs were written by Kazuo Ishiguro, the writer, with music by Jim Tomlinson, Stacey's husband. And what songs they are! Really interesting musical stories. And the icing on the cake is that she does another favorite song of mine, Stevie Nicks' Landslide.

But time makes you bolder, even children get older, and I'm getting older, too.

She does it beautifully, as she does every single song on this great, great new album.