Verena McBee, U-PHORIA Review
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Born and raised in Northern Germany Verena McBee has been always connected to the arts. She began piano lessons at the age of seven and took lessons for over ten years in her hometown at the Conservatory of Osnabrueck, the addition of flute at age fourteen taking her into the real of multi-instrumentalist. In 1993 she studied classical music and the German language and literature at the University Osnabrueck, graduating in 1997. In the years of 2000-2006 Verena appeared as actress and vocalist under her maiden name Verena Gemsa in Hamburg, Munich, Vienna, Cologne, Brussels, Prisdina and NYC. In 2004 she met her now husband Cecil McBee and moved to NYC in 2007. Inspired by the music of Sarah Vaughan Verena started studying Jazz Vocals with several different instructors, among them Brianna Thomas and Roberta Gambarini. Her debut album Can’t Help It was released in January of 2013. U-PHORIA her 2nd album features all compositions by her husband jazz bassist Cecil McBee with all original lyrics by Verena.
Positives:
McBee’s agile ability to navigate her husband’s creatively and harmonically complex tunes, is a testament to the hard work she has put behind her craft.
Bottom Line:
U-PHORIA is an avant-garde exploration of complex harmony and melodies filled with tension of exploration of notes. McBee’s band expanded to a Sextet with this production and features Gabriel Dowdy-Terracciano on Violin, Christian Contreras on Soprano and Tenor Saxophone, Billy Test on Piano, Zwelkahe-Duma F. Bell LePere on Bass and Jon DiFiore on Drums. Together they set out on an explorative reding of husband McBees’s complex writing skills. Angular and muscular this is not a vocalist singing standards album, this is a lyricist deeply committed to the lyrics and melodies she is singing joined by an equally committed ensemble. Together they bring to light the McBee songbook with a sense of euphoria. That's the short of it!