Veronica Swift and James Tormé Sing Mel and Ella!

Posted on December 29, 2019 by Alix Cohen in Playing Around

Highly lauded jazz vocalist Veronica Swift grew up on tour with her parents, renowned jazz pianist Hod O’Brien and jazz singer/educator/author Stephanie Nakasian. James Tormé is the son of three-time Grammy Award Winning legend Mel Tormé. Except for the genre in which both perform and facility with scat, pedigree might be the only thing they have in common.

Swift’s wordless “Flying Home” is burnished scat. The performer bounces, leans in, swings her head, pumps a leg. She submits to music palpably passing through her. What begins a skilled slalom turns to powdery airbrush. Accompanied by stroked piano, circling brushes, dusky bass, “Embraceable You” is believable. Feeling echoes.

“My Romance” emerges a resonant scat conversation with bass. (Alas, Darryl Johns won’t look at her.) Swift wistfully shapes the song using microphone wire looped through her fingers. The velveteen voice has knap. “Sleigh Ride” is true to its intention. Drums conjure. Except for some too-fast arrangements (“The Lady is A Tramp”) that diminish lyrics, the artist is graceful, classy and joyfully present. She scats like the devil.

Tormé, on the other hand, hasn’t half his father’s pipes, phrasing, focus, or style. (Were he not so perpetually referencing Mel Tormé, I wouldn’t compare.) Mugging through selections like a 50s lounge act, the singer even makes tonight’s partner wince. He comes in late, forgets lyrics, talks a blue streak (though origin of The Christmas Song, which is nicely understated, is amusing), seems unsteady on his feet, and generally corns up the show.

Back end vibrato and parenthetic scat is appealing, but phrases dwindle as if breath gives out. “Moanin” seems out of step with the rest of the presentation. Duets serve better than solos.

How these two ended up on the stage together is anybody’s guess.

Veronica Swift and James Tormé Sing Mel and Ella! (Mel Tormé and Ells Fitzgerald)
MD/Piano Alan Farnham
Bass-Darryl Johns; Drums-Steve Johns
Birdland Jazz Theater  
315 West 44th Street
December 27, 2019
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About Alix Cohen (1976 Articles)
Alix Cohen is the recipient of ten New York Press Club Awards for work published on this venue. Her writing history began with poetry, segued into lyrics and took a commercial detour while holding executive positions in product development, merchandising, and design. A cultural sponge, she now turns her diverse personal and professional background to authoring pieces about culture/the arts with particular interest in artists/performers and entrepreneurs. Theater, music, art/design are lifelong areas of study and passion. She is a voting member of Drama Desk and Drama League. Alix’s professional experience in women’s fashion fuels writing in that area. Besides Woman Around Town, the journalist writes for Cabaret Scenes, Broadway World, TheaterLife, and Theater Pizzazz. Additional pieces have been published by The New York Post, The National Observer’s Playground Magazine, Pasadena Magazine, Times Square Chronicles, and ifashionnetwork. She lives in Manhattan. Of course.

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