Veronica Swift was inspired by another jazz musician from Virginia – Ella Fitzgerald, but she also loves David Bowie and Bach. Her trans-genre talents will be on display June 6th as the headliner for the city’s first jazz festival.
“She is just off the charts with popularity right now with her jazz band and her kind of a punk rock band called Dame," says Gary Funston, president of the Charlotteville Jazz Society. It will host dozens of musicians – some from New York and L.A. but others – like John D’Earth, Robert Jospe, Royce Campbell and Charles Owens who hail from here.
“With the streaming of music, they can get their music out most anywhere,” Funston explains.
Which led him and Campbell to think big.
“This festival was partly inspired by the Lake Anna Jazz Festival that has been going on for a few years now, and they’re doing an amazing job. They’ve got two stages out in the middle of nowhere at a crossroads. After the last one we both said, ‘Why can’t we do this in Charlottesville?’” he recalls.
Veronica Swift – the daughter of two jazz musicians from Virginia – will perform at the Paramount after shows in Italy and Spain – then head off to Japan, Turkey and France where she was actually knighted for her talents.
To view the festival schedule, go to cvillejazz.org
