{"id":2447333,"date":"2019-08-08T16:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-08-08T22:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/?p=310542"},"modified":"2019-08-08T16:00:00","modified_gmt":"2019-08-08T22:00:00","slug":"jazz-singer-veronica-swift-to-headline-sold-out-aspen-shows","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/local-news\/jazz-singer-veronica-swift-to-headline-sold-out-aspen-shows\/","title":{"rendered":"Jazz singer Veronica Swift to headline sold-out Aspen shows"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
Veronica Swift<\/strong>
Courtesy photo<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

Veronica Swift has nothing against melisma, the vocal technique in which a single syllable is stretched out and crammed with as many notes as the human larynx and lungs will allow. She just doesn\u2019t do it.<\/p>\n

Instead, the 24-year-old singer \u2014 a semi-reformed goth-rock devotee who\u2019s now being championed as the \u201cit girl\u201d of rising jazz singers \u2014 engages in the more subtle, but no less powerful art of vocalese, an approach in which the voice is used as a musical instrument rather than an exercise in athleticism. Think of jazz trumpeter Chet Baker\u2019s vocal turn on \u201cMy Funny Valentine.\u201d Or the sultry bossa nova of Astrud Gilberto\u2019s \u201cGirl from Ipanema.\u201d Or Robert Wyatt\u2019s haunting take on Elvis Costello\u2019s \u201cShipbuilding.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m just a jazz singer who does vocalese and scat singing,\u201d said the Charlottesville, Virginia, native, who will headline two sold-out shows at the JAS Caf\u00e9 at the Little Nell on Friday. \u201cI mean, there are great technicians who sound great doing that, but it\u2019s not authentic to what I do and where I come from.\u201d<\/p>\n

A large part of that stems from the jazz lineage that made the singer\u2019s career choice all but inevitable. Swift\u2019s father, Hod O\u2019Brien, played piano on a number of Chet Baker\u2019s albums in the 1980s, while her mother, the singer Stephanie Nakasian, recorded and toured with Jon Hendricks, one of the best-known originators of the vocalese tradition. Veronica began touring with her parents at the age of 9 and, according to family lore, would often sleep in the bass case while the band was onstage. By the age of 13, she\u2019d already released two albums of her own, with guest appearances from jazz luminaries like Richie Cole and Harry Allen.<\/p>\n

More recently, the artist has been racking up a string of much higher-profile accomplishments. With her wide vocal range, perfect pitch and distinctive phrasing \u2014 as well as an undeniably charismatic stage presence \u2014 she took second place at the prestigious Thelonious Monk Jazz Competition, went on tour with Wynton Marsalis and earned a headlining slot at the Telluride Jazz Festival.<\/p>\n

Swift\u2019s current repertoire is largely devoted to jazz standards from the Great American Songbook and bebop eras, but there was a time when she strayed well outside the boundaries of her chosen genre. While studying at the University of Miami\u2019s Frost School of Music, Swift developed an obsession with the high-decibel output of artists like Rob Zombie and Marilyn Manson. The latter\u2019s expressionist theatricality inspired her to spend two years composing a goth-rock opera about a nun with a history of homicide. Its title, \u201cVera Icon,\u201d references a 15th-century painting of Christ, and also is an anagram for Veronica.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe opera itself is a manifestation of the frustration and the darkness that I was going through down in Florida in my times at school,\u201d said Swift in a recent phone interview. \u201cI was having some trouble with school, and I was having trouble with my father\u2019s illness, and having trouble with artistic frustrations that I wasn\u2019t able to get out in jazz. Because, to me, jazz is a subtle and more sophisticated art form. I needed an outlet for the anger and for my theatrical side, and the dramaticism of rock lends itself to that perfectly.\u201d<\/p>\n

Swift\u2019s father died in November 2016, following a long battle with cancer, just months after his daughter\u2019s Telluride gig. One of his last recorded performances was on Swift\u2019s 2015 album \u201cLonely Woman.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI grew up with people constantly expressing their admiration for my father and mother,\u201d Swift said. \u201cBut it wasn\u2019t until I kind of understood my own place in this music, apart from my parents, that I was able to appreciate my father on a different level than before.\u201d<\/p>\n

The past few years have seen Swift\u2019s life change in other ways, as well. She\u2019s moved to New York City, is writing another musical (this one will be set in the 1920s and feature original songs inspired by that era), and is taking to the road backed by the Benny Green Trio, who will be featured on her forthcoming album. She also has fully recovered from an October subway incident in which an unknown assailant appeared out of nowhere and broke a bottle over her head. According to a friend who witnessed the attack, a half dozen transit workers were among those who, instead of offering assistance, took out their cellphones to take videos of her as she lay unconscious on the platform.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been through some weird, dramatic stuff,\u201d she said, \u201cbut that\u2019s nothing compared to people losing their entire families, people who are migrating all over the world and trying to escape oppression. I mean, that\u2019s a whole different level. But yes, I\u2019ve lost a house to a fire. I lost my father, of course. My cousin passed away at 20 years old, after falling off a skateboard. People lose people. I mean, that\u2019s just how it goes. But learning how to deal with that is another story. And just being a vessel for a really great song, and for the spirit of the music, makes it much easier to get to that place.\u201d<\/p>\n

via:: The Aspen Times<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Veronica SwiftCourtesy photo Veronica Swift has nothing against melisma, the vocal technique in which a single syllable is stretched out and crammed with as many notes as the human larynx and lungs will allow. She just doesn\u2019t do it. Instead, the 24-year-old singer \u2014 a semi-reformed goth-rock devotee who\u2019s now being championed as the \u201cit […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2447333","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-24 17:12:21","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSPN The Valley's Quality Rock","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2447333","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2447333"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2447333\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2447333"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2447333"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2447333"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}