It was fitting (in more ways than one) that vocalist Veronica Swift came on stage wearing what looked like an outfit for a trapeze artist for her 90 minute concert at Pepperdine’s Smothers Theatre. The attire fitted her attitude towards her musical growth, as the young lady who grew up singing bebop for most of her career has started walking a tightrope of styles and genres. Joined on stage by Shane Gaalaas/dr, Adam Klipple/key, Maximillian Gerl/b and Gary Joseph Potter/g, Swift walked across the high wire without a net, balancing a mix of her (literally) inbred jazz tradition, but melding standards with creative sonic combinations like musical chemicals in test tubes and Erwin Meyer flasks, taking the audience on a journey of experiments leading to uncharted waters.
As she noted to the crowd between songs, her eponymous latest album is a “transgenre” of sorts, displaying her desire to display various colors of her artistic prism, both in song selection, composing and arranging. She’s sure got the chops and range for it, as she was able to energetically combine hard swinging bop and opera on pieces like the hard swinging “I Am What I Am” while turning Judy Garland’s “Born In A Trunk” into an R&B foot stomper”. A take of “I’m Always Chasing Rainbows” combined Chopin and Pagliacci, whereas the acid rock “White Rabbit” was painted as a haunting and dramatic bolero. She turned the modal jazz tune “Footprints” into a soulful and funky stew, and made Marvin Gaye’s “Ain’t That Peculiar” feel like something Queen would have included at A Night At The Opera.
Her own material also revealed a desire to search for new lands, as “Livin’ In A Coma” mixed Billy Joel Street Smarts with Freddie Mercury theatrics and “In Moonlight” initially glowed like a candle as Swift opened with Beethoven and concluded with Screaming Jay Hawkins. The band itself proved to be as flexible as the Cirque du Soleil, as Klipple was adept at everything from bop to Bach, Klipple swung and hit like a member of the Famous Flames and Gerl took his strings from Herb Ellis to Brian May.
Swift kept stirring the pot with a passionate delivery a la Janis Joplin, searing out a Hendrix-hard rocking read of Duke Ellington’s “Do Nothin’ Till You Hear From Me” before showing her vulnerable side on “Sing” and keeping the Mercury rising on a celebrative “Keep Yourself Alive”.
At this stage in her career, Swift is taking the road less travelled of looking for a new sound and style that can reflect her allegiances to not only jazz, but theatric rock like Queen and emotion akin to Verdi. She hasn’t found the Promised Land yet, but her show on Tuesday night definitely made her fans want to follow her journey, and make it over to the other side of the wire.
Upcoming shows at Pepperdine include saje 10/22, Sheena Easton 10/26, The Righteous Brothers 01/18, John Tesh 02/03 and Leo Kottke 02/03