Album Review: Love for Connoisseurs from Angela Verbrugge

Album:  Love for Connoisseurs
Artist:  Angela Verbrugge
Label:  Gut String Records
Websites:  www.angelasjazz.com
www.facebook.com/AngelasJazz

Fun and flirty, native Canadian vocalist Angela Verbrugge has a flare for making the listening experience delightful.  Her sophomore release Love for Connoisseurs is a compilation of three original works penned by Verbrugge alongside nine jazz-inspired songbook standards with lyrics written by Verbrugge.  She demonstrates a showtunes-tinted perkiness reflective of The Manhattan Transfer's crooner Cheryl Bentyne, complimented by a magnetic voicing liken to Fleur Seule's vocalist Allyson Briggs.  Supported by pianist Miles Black, bassist Jodi Proznick, drummer Joel Fountain, and saxophonist Dave Say, Verbrugge offers audiences an escape into a world laden with merriment and solace.

Opening the recording with a smooth cabaret stylizing reminiscent of Sarah Vaughan, the  title track is driven by a slow simmer in the rhythmic pattern as Verbrugge's vocals lure the listener into a peaceful state of mind.  Poised and statuesque, her vocals travel with a light spring in her delivery, accentuated by the buoyant toots of Dave Say's tenor sax and the glimmering streaks of Miles Black's keys.  

The fun and flirty magnetism of "Enough's Enough" has a 1930's verve emblematic of musicals made popular by the Ziegfeld Follies.  The lyrics express the frustration of being a homemaker as Verbrugge details, "If you think you want romance / it's time to cook and clean / and anyway enough's enough / pick up your stuff / enough's enough / it's much too much / enough's enough."  The bowing bass notes put flight in the track, offering domestic goddesses an escape from the mundane tasks of house work.

"Cold and Hot Blues" is a smoking, cool jazz blues ditty with Verbrugge's vocals displaying a nuanced versing and scatting liken to vintage Anita O'Day.  Keeping the recording on an upswing, "Corn On The Cob" is anchored by a catchy rhythmic groove and sleek jiggly movements in the keys as her vocals amble along with a. "Surrey with a Fringe on Top" traipsing.  

The torchlight ambience of "Jive Turkey" is supplemented by a bossa nova vibe in the melodic trimmings, and the tangoesque stride in the keys and rhythm section of "Not Here, Not Now" adds a Latin accent to the recording.  The waltzing rhythm of "Quarantine" is peppered by sashaying keys and smooth saxophone toots that move in and out of the melody in soft wisps.

Primarily influenced by the swing era, vintage musicals, and bebop, Angela Verbrugge was one of the youngest graduates from Toronto’s George Brown School of Performing Arts after spending her youth in Ontario.  After having three children (now 14, 15 and 17) and encountering three brushes with death (drowning, car accident and cancer), she followed her passion to jazz by curating her own musical education through mentorship from band-mates, jam sessions, and over the years with leading musicians on the Vancouver scene. She presently resides in Victoria on Vancouver Island and is looking forward to touring in 2022 to support  Love for Connoisseurs, the follow up to her 2019 debut release The Night We Couldn't Say Goodnight.

Musicians:
Angela Verbrugge - vocals
Miles Black - piano
Jodi Proznick - bass
Joel Fountain - drums
Dave Say - tenor and soprano saxophones