The jazz world loves presenting awards. Vocal Jazz on Saturday 8 May 18;00 CET presents some of the recent winners.
The American Veronica Swift started at a very early age. She is the daughter of jazz pianist Hod O’Brien and singer Stephanie Nakasian and was only nine (9!) when she released her debut album Veronicas House of Jazz in 2004. It’s Great to Be Alive followed 3 years later. She is now 26 years old and in the programme you can listen to some songs from her most recent album This Bitter Earth. She is clearly not restricted in her style of singing. The title song is slow and melancholic whereas You’re the Dangerous Type is happy, swinging and boppy. In 2019 the Jazz Times Readers Poll awarded her “Best New Artist and Best Vocal Release” (for her album Confesssions).
When it comes to awards, the Belgian vocalist and composer David Linx has enough to paper the walls. These range from “Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres”, via “Prix de l’Adami” to “Chevalier de l’Ordre de la Couronne” and include everything in between. He is already 56 after all. You can listen to 3 tracks from his recent album Skin in the Game.
In 2015, the prestigious “Thelonious Monk Institute International Jazz Competition” was won by the vocalist Jazzmeia Horn. This was just one of her many prizes and awards. Her album Love & Liberation was released in 2019.
This dry list of awards has no doubt made you curious about the music that has won them. Tune In!
Click here for the playlist.
Vocal Jazz is a programme by Ineke Heijliger
