Angela Verbrugge gives other singers a run for their money with her witty lyrics on her originals. She is fun and quirky, hip and a hoot, wispy and romantic.”

— George Harris, JazzWeekly

Love for Connoisseurs - Released March 25, 2022

Something entirely different for vocal jazz fans

All twelve songs on Love for Connoissuers feature Canadian Angela Verbrugge's original lyrics to either new or existing jazz compositions by modern-day composers. Her vision for this project was to create new vocal jazz repertoire by collaborating with composers that write innovative, yet catchy, melodies in the style of the classic jazz standards. Angela listened to thousands of hours of music in jazz clubs and online in order to find and select these songs that would be a fit for both her storytelling style as a lyricist and vocalist. She composed three of her own tunes, as well. One song is a French language adaptation of the title track from her first record. The six composers she teamed up with are some of the best bebop-oriented jazz musicians on the scene today: New Yorkers Ken Fowser, Nick Hempton, Ray Gallon, and Neal Miner, and Vancouverites Miles Black and Saul Berson. Angela's dream is that these songs could become enduring and modern additions to jazz standards' songbooks, and that other vocalists and instrumentalists will want to perform these tunes. She hopes to hear from listeners that the music and stories on Love for Connoisseurs resonates with them.

Reviews from JazzWise, JazzTimes, JazzWeekly, JazzLives, Syncopated Times, JazzWax, Take Effect, Midwest Record, and more

JAZZWAX (Marc Myers) - ANGELA VERBRUGGE/Love for Connoisseurs (Gut String):  Canadian singer Angela Verbrugge recently released her second studio album, Love for Connoisseurs (Gut String). Her new album is so beautiful and original. All 12 songs feature her lyrics to new or existing jazz compositions by modern-day composers. Her vision is to create a new vocal jazz repertoire by collaborating with composers who write innovative, catchy melodies in the style of the classic jazz standards. What a refreshing idea. While Ella, Frank, Bing, Peggy and other legacy artists from the 1940s and '50s remain vital, why should singers keep recording the same old songs when they can create their own. I've been begging singers to kick the dusty songbook habit for years in JazzWax posts. Now it's happening, especially in Canada, as Angela relates in our conversation. Now she hopes others will do the same by trying to create additional "pages" to the songbook and that the new songs will become enduring and that other vocalists and instrumentalists will perform and record them. I'm for that! Read the whole interview on JAZZWAX

MIDWEST RECORD - ANGELA VERBRUGGE/Love for Connoisseurs (Gut String): "If this is what the new generation of jazz diva has to offer, count me in. An all original set from a classic thrush that is sincere and doesn't rely on iconography as a gimmick. Her whole presentation is a show stopper and you should be prepared accordingly. Playing like a dream come true, this lass with class is just going to bowl you over. Hot stuff throughout." Chris Spector, Midwest Record

JAZZ LIVES - ANGELA VERBRUGGE/Love for Connoisseurs (Gut String): “Good” is no longer a strong word in the vocabulary of praise. But Angela has good humor, good sense, and good taste, a rare combination. Although she has a deep romantic streak, she is also a hilariously pungent comedian / social critic / swing psychologist. Angela has a remarkably winning voice. She can be wry; she can be somber, but her natural mode is a quirky upbeat lyrical one, a bird perching on one branch before trying another out. She’s not a diva with a four-octave range, but her voice is refreshingly human: she has something to tell us in each phrase and in her clear diction (even at rapid tempos) the message comes through. <This record is> a genuine expression of a likeable swinging inventive personality. LOVE FOR CONNOISSEURS is head and shoulders above the usual flood of CDs." - Michael Steinman Read the rest on Jazz Lives

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