Adam Prudhomme
Editor
Jazz vocalist Angela Verbrugge will be back in her old stomping grounds on Feb. 19, performing a 4:30 p.m. show at Kingston’s Club at RCHA.
Formerly of the Amherstview/Odessa area, she may be better known in these parts from when she had the maiden name of Clancy. With a chance to visit her hometown, she has this Family Day stop on the tour circled as one of her most anticipated shows. She’ll be accompanied by New York City pianist Ray Gallon and her set will cover some of Tony Bennett’s classics, with a few of her own originals mixed in. Fittingly, the show is titled Tribute to Tony Bennett: Angela Verbrugge Duo.
“This is a show that I’ve had a chance to perform in Victoria, Vancouver, Calgary and it’s fun to bring my favourite Tony Bennett arrangements,” Verbrugge told the Beaver of her upcoming show, chatting via phone from B.C. where she currently resides. “(Bennett) used to call it America’s classical music. These songs that have an enduring quality, whether they were written in the ‘40s, they still have so much life to them today.”
She puts her own twist on some of the classics, paying tribute while also adding a bit of a different sound.
With several friends and family still in the Amherstview area, Verbrugge still tries to get back to perform in the area on a regular basis. This is also the region where she discovered her love of jazz, crediting her Ernestown Secondary School teacher Glenn Sorenson and choir teacher Ian Juby for helping to foster that passion.
“They introduced me to a lot of different kinds of music through the band program and the choir program at Ernestown,” she recalled. “Also I did some acting and was in some of the productions in Kingston.”
In 2019 she released her debut album, The Night We Couldn’t Say Good Night, which was selected as the JazzTimes’ Readers’ Poll for Best Female Vocalist. That helped kick off a busy tour schedule which has included stops in Japan, Turkey, Germany, England, Luxembourg and across Canada. Her songs have also been played across the airwaves on CBC Radio. Her rural upbringing shines through in some of her work including the song Cob of Corn, which involves two people falling in love while enjoying some sweet corn next to a field. Verbrugge says she did her best to include every corn pun into the lyrics as she possibly could.
‘Taking inspiration from vintage musicals, the swing era, blues, and bebop, the Victoria-based vocalist pens original lyrics and compositions in the style of classic standards,’ reads an excerpt from her website’s bio. ‘Her arrangements of popular and lesser-known jazz standards are in-demand with listeners around the world.’
In 2022 she followed up her debut album with Love for Connoisseurs and this coming spring will release her third album through the Seattle-based Origin Records.
Tickets for her Feb. 19 show in Kingston are $20 and are available at https://www.ygkevents.com/events/tribute-to-tony-bennett-at-the-rcha-club/ The Club at RCHA is located at 193 Ontario St. in downtown Kingston.
For more on the artist, visit https://angelaverbrugge.com/.