Int’l Vocal Jazz Duo To Entertain at Centretown Cocktail Hotspot

Described as “both hip and a hoot” by JazzWeekly, Canadian vocalist, songwriter and lyricist Angela Verbrugge is returning to Ottawa's Night Oat Gladstone location Tuesday January 13th, 2025 from 7pm to 9pm to sing her original Canadian lyrics in their jazz series. Her June concert there sold out - reserve your spot early! Originally from Kingston, she studied theatre in Toronto before going on to a world-touring jazz singing career now based out of Vancouver Island. Angela was nominated for Jazz Artist of the Year at the most recent Western Canadian Music Awards. She’ll be just back from tours in Italy, Taiwan and Hong Kong and will be singing her witty, swinging songs from her new album with stellar NYC pianist Ray Gallon, In the Wonder of the Night. We are so fortunate Mr Gallon is coming to Ottawa himself to play the album launch!

Night Oat Gladstone (aka Montgomery Scotch Lounge) has street parking outside. The friendly bartender will welcome you with a delicious cocktail, wine/beer, teas, homemade snacks and desserts. Time for an overdue date night with friends or your special someone!

Vancouver Island vocalist Angela Verbrugge was nominated for Jazz Artist of the Year at the 2024 Western Canadian Music Awards. In 2025, All About Jazz announced that Verbrugge had topped their Reader Poll for Favourite Living Jazz Vocalist and in 2020 Angela won the JazzTimes’ Readers’ Poll for best female vocalist. She "possesses a winsome, brightly-burnished, pliable voice, ample emotional intelligence, and conspicuously good taste,” and according to JazzTimes, and “for Verbrugge, now is the time.” Angela’s three albums featured standout arrangements of standards and original songs in the style of the Great American Songbook. The projects received praise in All About Jazz, JazzTimes, Jazzwise, Couleurs France, Syncopated Times, Jersey Jazz, LA Jazz Scene and publications around the world leading to tours to Japan, Taiwan, Türkiye, the UK, Germany, France, Luxembourg and eight provinces, all since 2021. Her music has charted on JazzWeek, been featured by CBC and NPR, and she held the number one spot on the Earshot Jazz charts for multiple weeks. Angela’s tracks have been streamed 850,000 times across streaming platforms since her debut in 2019.

"No maybes; for Verbrugge, now is definitely the time,"

– JazzTimes Magazine (print edition), Andrew Gilbert

“Listen and be delighted. Her art is her own, and she offers rare pleasures.”

— Michael Steinman, JazzLives

“As a lyricist Miss Verbrugge seems to have “learned” from the best: one senses the wit of Dave Frishberg, the glorious storytelling of Dorothy Fields and Johnny Mercer, and – all of that and a tinge of pathos that was the hallmark of songs by Cole Porter. However, make no mistake, these lyrics are singularly Miss Verbrugge’s.”

— That Canadian Magazine, Raul da Gama

With Grammy-nominated NYC pianist Ray Gallon

RAY GALLON

To listen to pianist Ray Gallon is to take a journey through the great lineage of jazz piano from its inception all the way up to the cutting-edge present. His playing is imbued with the vocabulary, sensibilities and soul of the very architects of the jazz artform. Born, raised and living his whole life in Manhattan, NYC pianist Ray Gallon has been a mainstay on the jazz scene for over thirty-five years. Rooted in bebop and blues, his expressive, swingin’ playing melds old and new into a fresh, original style. As a young player, Ray was taken under the wing of piano giants John Lewis, Hank Jones, and ‪Jaki Byard. He has performed at major jazz festivals and venues around the world with such luminaries as Ron Carter, ‪Lionel Hampton, ‪Art Farmer, ‪Benny Golson, George Adams, ‪Les Paul, and ‪Wycliffe Gordon. Ray has appeared at the White House and the Kennedy Center, sharing the stage with jazz legends including ‪Dizzy Gillespie, ‪Milt Jackson, Sweets Edison, and Joe Williams. An in-demand accompanist, he has worked with many vocal greats, including Jon Hendricks, ‪Sheila Jordan, ‪Dakota Staton, ‪Gloria Lynne, ‪Jane Monheit and ‪Chaka Khan. Ray's latest album, Grand Company, is a trio recording with the illustrious rhythm section of Maestro Ron Carter and Lewis Nash. His previous trio album, Make Your Move, features the stellar rhythm section of David Wong and Kenny Washington. Both albums include a mix of Ray’s inventive compositions along with arrangements of some classic standards. His originals have also been recorded by acclaimed artists including T.S. Monk, George Adams, and Angela Verbrugge. Ray is a full-time faculty member of the jazz program at The City College of NY in Harlem and the Vermont Jazz Center’s summer workshops and has taught at Juilliard and The New School.

"He expresses his ideas with original sentences, free from unnecessary embellishments, and with smooth fluency.”

– Dark Blue Notes

"Pianist Ray Gallon may be one of New York City’s best kept secrets. A veteran sideman with a career spanning over four decades, Gallon was mentored by greats including John Lewis, and Jaki Byard."

– The New York Jazz Record

“This is my favorite kind of trio playing - the inimitable and distinctive personal and collective sound… has transparency and clarity, where every note and gesture mean something. Ray Gallon’s music is informed, passionate, and personal. He possesses a unique rhythmic imagination and a wrought iron vocabulary. His album <Grand Company> is a milestone.”

– Bill Charlap, pianist

* Accompanied minors are welcome.

Angela Verbrugge - vocals

Ray Gallon - piano

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