September 15, 2023: Transgenre vocalist Veronica Swift releases her self-titled album today via Mack Avenue Records. The 11 tracks on the album are a love letter to all the artists through time that have influenced Swift, featuring earbending covers as well as inspired original tracks which combine elements of pop, bebop, swing, funk, rock and jazz. Immediately following the release of her new work, Swift will bring her exciting brand of vocalese and dynamic band to clubs across the country. Veronica Swift is her third release with the label and is available on vinyl, CD and digitally today and can be purchased
here.
Swift describes her new recording as “transgenre.” She says, “I grew up immersed in the culture of jazz music, blessed to have had some of the greats as mentors, and I felt a deep familial duty to uphold that tradition.” Swift continues, “But as rooted in jazz as I’ve been, there’s a uniquely visceral power in rock and soul music that’s always fueled my creative passion, and rather than mask or confine that part of my identity, the people I admire most show themselves unabashedly and that’s the kind of tradition I want to be a part of.”
Stream “I Am What I Am”
hereThe latest single, a funkified cover of Nine Inch Nails’ industrial rock anthem “Closer,” follows the album’s kickoff track, a glorious rendition of Jerry Herman’s “I Am What I Am.” For Swift, the song has become a declaration of artistic freedom: “I have immense gratitude for the artists and composers who have, in their own ways, risked it all to express themselves in their own words, i.e. The Puccinis, Freddie Mercurys, Nina Simones, Amanda Palmers, Beatles, and Janis Joplins of the world.” Swift continues, “I am what I am because of you.”
Raised in Charlottesville, VA, in a family of musicians – Swift’s father is the late bebop pianist Hod O’Brien and her mother is jazz singer and educator Stephanie Nakasian – Swift recorded her first album, Veronica’s House of Jazz, when she was 9 years old and began touring with her parents around that time. At age 11 she appeared in the Jazz at Lincoln Center series Women in Jazz and went on to continue her studies at University of Miami’s Frost School of Music. After graduation she moved to New York City, performing Saturday nights at the legendary club Birdland. Swift has continued to record her own material while also collaborating and touring with such artists as Chris Botti, Benny Green, Wynton Marsalis and Michael Feinstein.
The album is co-produced by Swift along with Mariano Aponte and Brian Viglione of the punk cabaret duo The Dresden Dolls. Viglione also serves as drummer on the project. The collection reflects her growing “transgenre” ethos. Selections include the Duke Ellington and Bob Russell classic “Do Nothing Till You Hear from Me,” which Swift recasts as a Mississippi Delta blues burner, and a poignant extrapolation of Queen’s “The Show Must Go On,” which she underpins with infectious Afro-Cuban rhythms. The original composition “Severed Heads” is inspired by an excerpt of a Puccini opera, now turned bossa nova where her gentle vocals are reminiscent of young Judy Garland, and also showcases Swift’s incredible writing and arrangement talents. The project wraps deliberately with a wild free-for-all Ramones-esque version of “Don’t Rain on My Parade.” For the final track, Swift comments on the Funny Girl hit stating, “I bookend the album with another gay anthem, I’ll march my band out – I’ll beat my drum, which mirrors the lyrics from the first song, ‘I Am What I Am’ – I bang my own drum. To me the song has a super punk rock message in the lyrics, which really inspired my interpretation.”
While her first two albums solidified her position in modern jazz, Veronica Swift shows that she’s more than a jazz singer. On this “transgenre” excursion Swift explores French and Italian opera, European classical music, bossa nova, blues, industrial rock, funk and vaudeville. She pulls the feat off without the results sounding callow or pastiche. Swift’s expansive artistic voice remains firmly intact regardless of genre.
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Veronica Swift Tracklisting:
1. I Am What I Am
2. Closer
3. Do Nothing Till You Hear from Me
4. The Show Must Go On
5. I’m Always Chasing Rainbows
6. In the Moonlight
7. Severed Heads
8. Je Veux Vivre
9. Chega de Saudade
10. Keep Yourself Alive
Encore:
11. Don’t Rain on My Parade
Tracklisting note: “Don’t Rain on My Parade” does not appear on the vinyl release, but is included as a digital download with the vinyl package. It does appear on the digital and CD versions.
Veronica Swift on Tour
9/18/23 – The Cabaret – Indianapolis, IN
9/19/23 – The Cabaret – Indianapolis, IN
9/20/23 – Beachland Tavern – Cleveland, OH
9/21/23 – City Winery – Chicago, IL
9/22/23 – The Dakota – Minneapolis, MN
9/23/23 – The Howard – Osh Kosh, WI
10/12/23 – SFJAZZ Center – San Francisco, CA
10/17/23 – Pepperdine University – Malibu, CA
10/19/23 – Auburn University – Auburn, AL
10/21/23 – Middle C Jazz Club – Charlotte, NC
10/28/23 – Musikhuset Aarhus – Aarhus, DK*
10/29/23 – DR Concert Hall – Copenhagen, DK*
11/3-4/23 – Brass In Jazz – Real Teatro Santa Cecilia – Palermo, IT
11/7-8/23 – Duc de Lombards – Paris, FR
11/10/23 – Ronnie Scott’s – London, UK
12/30-31/23 – Eschio Estate – Umbria, IT
*performing with the Danish Radio Big Band
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