AMG Review of Love Is...The Tender Trap

Scott Yanow
All Music Guide

Stacey Kent has an attractive voice and a lightly swinging style. For Love Is...The Tender Trap -- her debut as a leader -- she is joined by tenor saxophonist Jim Tomlinson (who recalls Scott Hamilton and Stan Getz in spots), guitarist Colin Oxley, pianist David Newton, bassist David Green, and drummer Jeff Hamilton. Kent uplifts each of the familiar tunes slightly but does not add much of herself to the material. Certainly these versions of "I Didn't Know About You," "Comes Love," "East of the Sun," and "They All Laughed" would not qualify as definitive, or dwarf one's memory of earlier renditions. But Stacey Kent has potential for the future once she grows a bit more. A pleasing if insubstantial effort.