American vocalist, Veronica Swift, has been singing jazz since she was a child, joining her jazz musician parents on the road and releasing her first album at the age of 10.
She graduated from the Frost School of Music in Miami in 2016 and really started to impress audiences with her vocal ability and bebop scat stylings. Since graduating, she has performed or recorded with everyone under the sun, from Emmet Cohen to Wynton Marsalis and came second in the prestigious Thelonious Monk Competition in 2015.
Her career in the last 5 years, however, has really begun to evolve. Youtube foragers may or may not have stumbled upon her most recent restructure when buying their ticket to her concert in the Jazz Festival at Cadogan Hall on 16th November. She’s gone from singing scat lines with Chris Botti and a full symphony orchestra to headbanging over Queen’s Keep Yourself Alive and Nine Inch Nails covers.
Swift tries to label herself as a “trans-genre” artist who is blending jazz with musical theatre, rock and “even heavy-metal”. And her most recent album release – self titled and released in 2023 does give a little insight into the direction she’s heading, but this particular concert was far more heavy metal than anything else.
Credit to her is due, as she and her band gave more energy than anyone else in the building. The entertainment factor was high, with gold emblazoned jackets and knee-sliding and mic-flipping galore, it’s just a shame she wasn’t being billed as a jazz concert as she deserved to have her own jumping, screaming, mosh-pit in the front of the stage.
Sadly, her soundman wasn’t able to make the gorgeous Cadogan Hall acoustics work for them, and while London (recent Guildhall graduate) Jack Tustin held his own on bass, it overpowered most of the evening. There were momentary glimpses of Swift’s mega-chops, hearing her sing a pared-back introduction to Cry Me a River and her original tune Room With A View gave insight into her capabilities but her husband, Brian Viglione, on drums was able to shine more than Swift’s vocals. It would have been nice to hear more of Alexander Burke on the piano, too. His energy was there, but his instrument was overpowered throughout the evening. Guitarist Gary Joseph Potter Jr. was highlighted throughout and played an excellent set of rock solos and riffs.
I think the real shame is that Swift’s management haven’t cottoned onto her desires to entertain in this way and aren’t booking her stages where this style of music will be properly enjoyed. The audience was trying, but the church-hall style balcony was really killing the vibe.
3 responses
The review is understating on how poor the evening was. it was like a poverty mans version of
Queen, being – VS – impressions of Freddie Mercury – ah-la mic poses leg plus exercises on the drummers
‘kit’ were embarrassing. Fault also lies with EFG jazz for not ‘sounding out’ the format and VS
content. VS choices of clothing were bizarre – she looked like a Olympic gymnast!
R e f u n d please.
I feel exactly the same, the sound management was abysmal. I even tried telling the sound engineer twice but he wouldn’t listen. “I am busy” he said the first time, the second time he ignored me completely (this was between iamtheliving and victoria). The only thing I wanted to ask about was if the bass could be adjusted to be less boomy under the gallery. We couldn’t hear a thing. Shame that great artists like Veronica have to suffer the lack of technical ability of the sound engineer. The venue is fantastic, I have been there before and it sounds great. You just need to know how to do your job properly and make it sound ok. Hope Cadogan Hall reviews the situation moving forward.
Agreed. I was one of the ushers on the night. We were having our pre-concert briefing in the auditorium when the vocal mic was being tested and I couldn’t believe my ears when it was declared OK, which it certainly wasn’t. Boomy, as remarked, and when the concert started completely overwhelmed by the thunderous bass and drums. CH received a number of complaints and I trust this won’t happen again. Rock concerts there are damn loud but generally balanced, so it was down to VS’ sound crew. What a refreshing contrast last night with Airelle Besson: melodically, harmonically and rhythmically intricate but tasteful and engaging. Opener Gabi Hartmann was charming too: