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At age 23, Veronica Swift is now being recognized around the country as one of the top young jazz singers on the scene.
In the fall of 2015, she won second place at the prestigious Thelonious Monk Jazz Competition. In 2016 she was asked to perform a concert of her own at the Tribeca Performing Arts Center in New York City and she was a guest artist with Michael Feinstein at Jazz at Lincoln Center with the Tedd Firth Big Band and Marilyn Maye and Freda Payne. Veronica’s first appearance at Jazz at Lincoln Center was at age 11 when she performed at the “Women in Jazz” series at Dizzy’s Club Coca-Cola.
In the summer of 2016 she headlined at the Telluride Jazz Festival, her 10th appearance there – but her first as a headliner. She first appeared there at age 10 with Dave Adams’ Young Razzcals Jazz Project and the great saxophonist Richie Cole and later she sang a duet with the featured artist, Paquito d’Rivera.
Veronica finished her undergraduate degree (BM in Jazz Voice) at the Frost School of Music at the University of Miami in December 2016, where she was a full scholarship student. It was after that that she moved to New York City, where she was almost immediately started performing every Saturday night at the legendary Birdland Jazz Club, a gig she continues to maintain when she isn't on the road.
Veronica has been on tour with her parents, renowned jazz pianist Hod O’Brien and celebrated jazz singer and educator/author Stephanie Nakasian. She has appeared on stage with Jon Hendricks, Annie Ross, Esperanza Spalding, Joe Lovano, Bob Dorough, Kim Nazarian, Danilo Perez, and others. With her family she has appeared at The Great Waters Music Festival in NH, Blues Alley Jazz Club in DC, the Jazz Standard in NYC, the Jazz Cruise, and for the New Jersey and Hilton Head Jazz Societies.
Veronica recorded two CDs as a child – one at age 9 with Richie Cole and her father’s rhythm section and her mother, and one at age 13 with saxophonist Harry Allen.
Her 2015 Album “Lonely Woman” features some of the hottest young jazz players on the scene including Emmet Cohen, Benny Bennack III, Daryl Johns (with whom she shared the Grammy Choir/Band experience), Matt Wigler, and Scott Lowrie.
In addition to performing the Great American Songbook and Bebop and Vocalese classics, Veronica is also a passionate devotee of 20s and 30s music and has sung with Vince Giordano, Terry Waldo, and Drew Nugent.
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Veronica SwiftVocalist
7
Catching Up With
Veronica Swift: Breaking It Up, Making It New
by Mike Jurkovic
Easily on track to become the Streisand-in-the-mosh-pit" of her restless generation, singer and urban changeling Veronica Swift likes to shake things up and keep things moving. Especially her music. Especially on an album that bears her name. Veronica Swift, her latest. I want to inspire people to fight against the forces that curb our creativity" she says without fear offailure, as All About Jazz spent a few minutes talking to and catching up. All About Jazz: ...
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4
Album Review
Veronica Swift: Veronica Swift
by Mike Jurkovic
Leave it to the irascibly spirited and octane-charged Veronica Swift to release the party record of the year! From the pure joy scatting of the blast-off opener I Am What I Am" (from Broadway's grand musical La Cage aux Folles) to the rabble rousing, mad-cap Joan Jett jam with The Ramones finale Don't Rain On My Parade" (only available on the CD and digital versions), the incredibly talented and free-swinging Swift swings for the fences and wins the home-run derby ...
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2
Album Review
Veronica Swift: Veronica Swift
by Katchie Cartwright
Veronica Swift is a masterful jazz singer. Her craft is immaculate. She scats like nobody's business and her texted improvisations are inventive. What's more, she always seems to sing straight from the heart. All that might be enough for some people, not Swift. She is an artistic adventurer who wonders aloud on social media: What would it sound like if you put together Ella Fitzgerald and--I don't know--Jimi Hendrix?" An answer is the third track on her self-titled ...
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5
Live Review
Veronica Swift at the Newman Center
by Geoff Anderson
Veronica Swift Newman Center Denver, CO November 19, 2021 I don't know about you, but I love to watch pigeonholes explode. Not with pigeons in them of course, that would be too messy. No, the fun stuff is when those small boxes that the human mind loves to construct turn out to be way too small and the things you stuffed in there suddenly blow up leaving splinters, shards and expectations scattered all over the ...
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11
Interview
Veronica Swift: A Musical Journey
by Mark Robbins
It should be no surprise that Veronica Swift is recognized as one of the top jazz singers on the scene today. Her father was jazz legend Hod O'Brien, a true master of bop and swing piano. Her mother is renowned jazz singer and educator Stephanie Nakasian. Veronica recorded her first album at the age of 9, Veronica's House of Jazz (SNOB, 2004), followed by It's Great to Be Alive! (SNOB, 2007) at age 11 and has continued performing at many ...
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2
Radio & Podcasts
by Ludovico Granvassu
This week we focus on music about fake news: Veronica Swift (pictured) and Daniel Casimir, Spaza, historic British jazz reissues by Neil Ardley and young compelling reeds players Rahsaan Barber, Pauli Lyytinen, Tobias Meinhart, Michael Thomas, Leonhard Skorupa of the Austrian angular trio Znap!, and Nathan Daems of the Belgian power-outfit Echoes of Zoo. Happy listening! PlaylistBen Allison Mondo Jazz Theme (feat. Ted Nash & Pyeng Threadgill)" 0:00 Rahsaan Barber The Pink Piranha" Mosaic (Jazz Music ...
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9
Album Review
Steven Feifke Big Band: Kinetic
by Jack Bowers
Jazz connoisseurs who lean toward big bands that swing as earnestly and often as the renowned architects of the epic big-band era should find plenty to cheer about on Kinetic, the debut recording by New York-based pianist, composer and arranger Steven Feifke's audacious and fiery ensemble. This is a band that fires on all cylindersbut it couldn't even leave the garage unless Feifke supplied the fuel. With one exception (noted below), Feifke's intense and high-powered charts neatly pave the way, ...
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Performance / Tour
Have chops, will travel
Source:Ken Franckling's Jazz Notes
Rising-star jazz singer Veronica Swift is quite the traveler. She disembarked from The Jazz Cruise on Saturday, January 26 in Fort Lauderdale. Her Sunday afternoon gig was a mere 200 miles away in Sarasota, a relatively short three-hour journey across Alligator Alley and up Interstate 75. But she took a different 5,200-mile route. Swift hopped a plane to Los Angeles, performed Saturday night with trumpeter Chris Botti, then took a red-eye flight back to Florida for her matinee performance with ...
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1
Performance / Tour
Young jazz singer draws on her inner bop
Source:Ken Franckling's Jazz Notes
Veronica Swift was born with jazz in her blood. It sounds like singing in the genre comes as natural to her as breathing. Swift, the 22-year-old daughter of singer Stephanie Nakasian and the late bebop pianist Hod O'Brien, was first runner-up in 2015's prestigious Thelonious Monk International Vocal Competition. She graduated last month from the University of Miami's Frost School of Music with a Bachelor in Music, majoring in jazz voice. On Friday, January 24, she shared her artistry with ...
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“A master class on space and dynamics... an adept lyrical interpreter... tremendous tonal command.”
— JazzTimes
“It's not often you hear one so young interpret the sounds of a seasoned jazz performer and make everything she touches her own [...] that's Veronica Swift!”
— Theater Pizzazz
“In the family business [...] Swift's discipline and drive have served her well.”
— Hot House
“The real deal.”
— Jonathon Schwartz
Kaitlyn Fay
vocals
Charlotte Mclean
vocals
Heather Ferguson
vocals
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Last Updated: September 13, 2023
Veronica Swift
Instrument: Vocals
Management: Unlimited Myles
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