VERONICA SWIFT

Veronica Swift’s new eponymously titled album, her third for Mack Avenue Records, is a masterful coming-out story. On her previous albums, Confessions (2019) and This Bitter Earth (2021), she ascended to the upper echelon of early 21st century jazz singers because of her virtuosic brilliance, interpretive ingenuity, bracing songwriting, and keen arrangements. Simply put, Swift is not only one of the most dazzling singers to emerge in her generation, she’s one of the most versatile.

While her first two albums solidified her position in modern jazz, Veronica Swift shows that she’s more than a jazz singer, exploring 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.

Swift describes this personal artistic statement on her new album as “transgenre.” “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,” she says, reflecting on her parents – jazz singer and educator, Stephanie Nakasian, and bebop pianist, Hod O’Brien.

“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.”

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DELFEAYO MARSALIS & MARTHA REEVES

Motown Meets The Big Easy – Delfeayo Marsalis & Martha Reeves will bring a magical evening, filled with music from two of America’s iconic cities and their complex musical cultures, to Keystone Korner Baltimore!

Grammy-winner Delfeayo Marsalis is one of the top trombonists, composers and producers in jazz today. Known for his technical excellence, inventive mind and frequent touches of humor, he is “one of the best, most imaginative and musical of the trombonists of his generation,” (Philip Elwood, San Francisco Examiner). In 2011, Delfeayo and the Marsalis family (father Ellis and brothers Branford, Wynton and Jason) earned the nation’s highest jazz honor – a National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Masters Award. Marsalis has toured internationally with jazz legends such as Ray Charles, Art Blakey, Max Roach, Elvin Jones and Slide Hampton, as well as leading his own groups. As a cultural activist, he has founded three non-profits – Uptown Music Theatre, Uptown Jazz Orchestra and Keep New Orleans Music Alive – all of which are designed to strengthen the community in his hometown of New Orleans.

Martha Reeves has made her imprint in the history books and in pop culture for her string of hit Motown songs in the 1960’s and early 1970’s including such hits as “Dancing in the Street”, “My Baby Loves Me”, “Come and Get These Memories”, “Nowhere to Run”, “Quick Sand”, “(Love is Like a ) Heatwave”, “Jimmy Mack” and “Bless You”. Martha was front and center as the lead singer of the legendary Motown girl group, Martha Reeves and the Vandellas, who are listed among Rolling Stone magazine’s 100 Immortal Artists of all time. Martha Reeves and the Vandellas were also nominated for a Grammy Award for Best R&B Performance for “Heat Wave”. She was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1995 and is also the recipient of the Dinah Washington Award, a Rhythm n’ Blues Foundation Pioneer Award, and a Black Woman in Publishing Legends Award. 2023 marks Martha’s 60th anniversary of her first two albums with Motown both from 1963, Come and Get These Memories and Heat Wave.

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MARIE-CLAIRE GIRAUD

Marie-Claire Giraudis a soprano, jazz singer, musical theater singer, songwriter, composer, playwright, and actor. Born on the island of Dominica and raised in The Bronx. Marie-Claire started her operatic training in Rome, Italy. The pandemic afforded Marie-Claire the luxury of time to reflect, and she overcame obstacles that were blocking her creative path.

With her creativity freed, Marie-Claire wrote her first musical, discovered her true voice of soprano. With the musical finished Marie-Claire has many more projects in the works, screenplays, novels, EP’s, musicals and more.

Program: The Great American Songbook At The Movies

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The Jazz Voyager

I love hanging out on the West Coast in San Francisco, California. Having flown in last week to listen to jazz, this Jazz Voyager stayed and revisited some favorite haunts and discovered some spots that weren’t there decades ago.

So happily I will be in the audience of an old haunt, the Black Cat Supper Club. It’s a swanky two level jazz lounge and cocktail bar that offers live music along with a variety of small plates.

This week they are presenting Nicholas Payton & New World Order. I don’t know what music he will be bringing but as a long time fan I am looking forward to hearing whatever it is.

As a leading voice in jazz, the 2x Grammy winning and 5x Grammy nominee, the multi-instrumentalist, vocalist, composer, producer, arranger, essayist and social activist, he defies musical and artistic categories.

Black Cat is located at 400 Eddy Street 94109. Get more info by visiting the Jazz Calendar at https://notoriousjazz.com/event/nicholas-payton-new-world-order.

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ROY HARGROVE BIG BAND: HAPPY BIRTHDAY ROY!

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