One of Stacey Kent's best albums, certainly as good as Breakfast On The Morning Tram and up there with Close Your Eyes and The Boy Next Door, Dreamer In Concert is the singer's first live album, so maybe it should leap to the top. Its title song is by Jobim with words in English from the pen of the late Gene Lees writer of ‘Quiet Nights’ the English lyrics to ‘Corcovado’ which also features on Dreamer. Kent's style has changed little over the years but it's one that was fully formed, it's almost shocking to say, from the off. It doesn't really matter, some 14 years on from her debut, that she owes a strong debt to the late Blossom Dearie whose own version of ‘The Best Is Yet To Come’, from May I Come In, Stacey more than lives up to. What has changed, though, is that the Duchess has completely outgrown her main influence. The process probably began with Breakfast and in Dreamer she shows a complete command of the beautifully played material from her well drilled very retro band, whether it is songs from the Great American Songbook, French chanson or Jobim. Of the new songs ‘Postcard Lovers’ works like a charm, a lovely little trinket. One day the Stacey hush could even turn into something profound.

Jazzwise talks to Stacey Kent about the album

Why sing these songs?

I wanted to get the balance right of playing some new songs, things that were just written for me, as well as some of the older songs that I was really longing to go back to for a long time. Things like ‘They Can't Take That Away From Me’. It's hard for me to articulate why this would be because I’m the same personality, I’ve the same sensibility, and yet there are shifts as you grow older and you mature, and so it was exciting for me to think about which songs from my older albums did I feel like emotionally that I wanted to add them to the repertoire.

The songwriting relationship with Kazuo Ishiguro goes back some time. How did it begin, and develop in terms of your collaboration together?

This was a turning point for me in my whole career, the most important moment for me I would say, the most wonderful moment. How it started was Ishiguro was on Desert Island Discs and coincidentally he played my ‘They Can't Take That Away From Me’ on the show. He chose my disc; I was a huge Ishiguro fan, I felt so close to him as a writer without ever having met him. I didn't know him, and I got in touch with him through the BBC. We had an email conversation and realised we both lived in north London and we met up for lunch one day and we became friends. That was the start of it. He wrote the liner notes to my 2002 album In Love Again and that was a really interesting moment. He hadn't written for me yet; we just knew that we shared so many combinations, so it was so much fun to strike up a conversation with him. We saw the world in the same way. The lyrics allow me to talk to myself.

Why do a live album at this stage in your career and tell me about the venue.

Everything sings and pings, and I did two nights because you’re not sure how the night's going to go. The second night we already felt we had the album in the can and we could relax. I love playing with this band and I really wanted to document this particular band at this time.

In terms of French songwriters, the ones you zone in on, what is it for you that makes a great chanson?

I feel very grateful for the fact that I’m fluent in this language. If I didn't have it I wouldn't know that it's missing. My relationship with France has been part of my life since the beginning. Even if I didn't tour here this music would be part of my repertoire. My grandfather was a Russian who lived here for many years. He worked here and studied at the Sorbonne and eventually he went to the US but he never felt at home there. He almost felt like a Frenchman and always maintained his relationship. He was crazy about poetry and he taught me to speak French. There was no English in our life. He would recite poetry to me. I adored this man. My grandfather was not happy in America. It was sort of a joke in the family. It was a beautiful little universe that the two of us had and I shared the same sensibility that he had. So French music has always been part of my repertoire; it's always been there. I really wanted to delve in and find songs that are truly personal.