Veronica Swift’s Easy Jazz

At 19, jazz vocalist Veronica O’Brien (stage name Veronica Swift) is already a seasoned pro, with two albums as a leader (and a number of others as an accompanist) under her belt, in addition to several festival appearances and headlining performances at major clubs around the country.

Veronica was selected through a nationwide audition in the summer of 2011 as the first singer to be part of the Telluride Jazz All-Star Band for a performance at the legendary Colorado music festival, and is also one of 45 singers recently selected to participate in the Virginia Governors School for the Performing Arts.

Her unique vocal style has been described as “mature and laid back” and “an easy, swinging jazz style that recalls Peggy Lee.” Veronica is as capable with fast swing as she is with slow ballads and is renowned for having tackled some of the most complicated music in the jazz vocal repertory, including Annie Ross’s “Twisted,” Jon Hendricks’ “Four,” and other numbers made famous by Lambert, Hendricks, and Ross.

Veronica has headlined at Dizzy’s Club Coca-Cola, Jazz at Lincoln Center in New York City, Blues Alley in Washington, D.C., and with her parents at the Jazz Standard in NYC, as well as numerous festivals and clubs around the country. In the spring of 2011, she was the featured singer at the premier of trumpeter John D’Earth’s “Ephemera” symphony at the Paramount Theater in Charlottesville, VA and performed with the 2012 Grammy Jazz Choir.

Veronica is the recipient of a full scholarship from the University of Miami’s Frost School of Music, where she studies Jazz and Studio Voice. She also recieved the LeRoi Moore Scholorship from Albemarle H.S. (Moore was a member of the Dave Matthews Band before his untimely death and attended AHS). She also spends the majority of her time working on her electronic music and production outside of her school studies.

This article previously appeared in www.thebeachsideresident.com