Gretchen Parlato
Encyclopedia
Gretchen Parlato is an American jazz singer
Vocal jazz
Jazz singing can be defined by the instrumental approach to the voice, where the singer can match the instruments in their stylistic approach to the lyrics, improvised or otherwise, or through scat singing; that is, the use of nonsensical meaningless non-morphemic syllables to imitate the sound of...

. She has performed and recorded with musicians such as Lionel Loueke
Lionel Loueke
Lionel Loueke is a guitarist born in the west African country of Benin. He moved to Ivory Coast in 1990 to study at the National Institute of Art. He attended the American School of Modern Music in Paris, France from 1994-1998...

, Wayne Shorter
Wayne Shorter
Wayne Shorter is an American jazz saxophonist and composer.He is generally acknowledged to be jazz's greatest living composer, and many of his compositions have become standards...

 and Kenny Barron
Kenny Barron
Kenny Barron , is an American jazz pianist. He is the younger brother of tenor saxophonist Bill Barron, and known for his lyrical, adaptive style.-Biography:...

.

Parlato's 2009 sophomore release, In a Dream
In a Dream
"In a Dream" is a song written and produced by Randy Taylor-Weber of Galaxy Freestyle Records. The song was first created in San Leandro, CA in 1989 in an upstairs studio with a three girl group by the name of First Kiss. It was a house recording made just for the pure enjoyment of entertainment...

 was positively reviewed by NPR
NPR
NPR, formerly National Public Radio, is a privately and publicly funded non-profit membership media organization that serves as a national syndicator to a network of 900 public radio stations in the United States. NPR was created in 1970, following congressional passage of the Public Broadcasting...

, Jazz Times, the Village Voice, and the Boston Globe. Billboard magazine hailed it as "the most alluring jazz vocal album of 2009".

Early years

Parlato was born in 1976 in Los Angeles, California, the daughter of Dave Parlato, bass player for Frank Zappa
Frank Zappa
Frank Vincent Zappa was an American composer, singer-songwriter, electric guitarist, record producer and film director. In a career spanning more than 30 years, Zappa wrote rock, jazz, orchestral and musique concrète works. He also directed feature-length films and music videos, and designed...

 on many albums including Zoot Allures
Zoot Allures
Zoot Allures is a 1976 rock album by Frank Zappa. This was Zappa's only release on the Warner Bros. Records label. Due to a lawsuit with his former manager Herb Cohen Frank Zappa's recording contract was temporarily re-assigned from DiscReet Records to Warner Bros.The title is a pun on the French...

, also working with Al Jarreau
Al Jarreau
Alwin "Al" Lopez Jarreau is a seven-time Grammy Award winning jazz singer.- Background :Jarreau was born in Milwaukee, the fifth of six children. His web site refers to Reservoir, Inc., the name of the street where he lived. His father was a Seventh-Day Adventist Church minister and singer, and...

, Don Preston
Don Preston
Donald Ward Preston also known as Dom DeWilde or Biff Debrie born September 21, 1932 in Flint, Michigan. Preston is an American jazz and rock and roll musician.-Biography:Preston was born into a family of musicians and began studying music at an early age...

, Barbra Streisand
Barbra Streisand
Barbra Joan Streisand is an American singer, actress, film producer and director. She has won two Academy Awards, eight Grammy Awards, four Emmy Awards, a Special Tony Award, an American Film Institute award, a Peabody Award, and is one of the few entertainers who have won an Oscar, Emmy, Grammy,...

, Henry Mancini
Henry Mancini
Henry Mancini was an American composer, conductor and arranger, best remembered for his film and television scores. He won a record number of Grammy Awards , plus a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award posthumously in 1995...

, Paul Horn (musician), Gabor Szabo
Gábor Szabó
Gábor Szabó was a Hungarian jazz guitarist, famous for mixing jazz, pop-rock and his native Hungarian music.-Biography:...

, Buddy Rich
Buddy Rich
Bernard "Buddy" Rich was an American jazz drummer and bandleader. Rich was billed as "the world's greatest drummer" and was known for his virtuosic technique, power, groove, and speed.-Early life:...

, Don Ellis
Don Ellis
Don Ellis was an American jazz trumpeter, drummer, composer and bandleader. He is best known for his extensive musical experimentation, particularly in the area of unusual time signatures...

 and recording for TV/film. Her grandfather was Charlie Parlato, trumpet player in Kay Kyser
Kay Kyser
James Kern Kyser was a popular bandleader and radio personality of the 1930s and 1940s.-Early years:He was born in Rocky Mount, North Carolina, the son of pharmacists Paul Bynum Kyser and Emily Royster Kyser. Editor Vermont C. Royster was his cousin...

 Big Band, and singer and trumpet player for Tennessee Ernie Ford
Tennessee Ernie Ford
Ernest Jennings Ford , better known as Tennessee Ernie Ford, was an American recording artist and television host who enjoyed success in the country and Western, pop, and gospel musical genres...

 and Lawrence Welk
Lawrence Welk
Lawrence Welk was an American musician, accordionist, bandleader, and television impresario, who hosted The Lawrence Welk Show from 1955 to 1982...

. Growing up in the 1980s, Parlato says she was a Valley girl
Valley girl
Valley Girl is a stereotype leveled at a socio-economic and ethnic class of American women who can be described as colloquial English-speaking and materialistic...

. Parlato attended Los Angeles County High School for the Arts
Los Angeles County High School for the Arts
Los Angeles County High School for the Arts is a Visual and Performing Arts high school located on the campus of California State University, Los Angeles in Los Angeles, California, United States. Founded in 1984, the public, tuition-free school offers both college preparatory courses and...

, then earned a bachelor's degree in ethnomusicology at University of California, Los Angeles
University of California, Los Angeles
The University of California, Los Angeles is a public research university located in the Westwood neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, USA. It was founded in 1919 as the "Southern Branch" of the University of California and is the second oldest of the ten campuses...

.

In 2001 she was accepted into the Thelonious Monk
Thelonious Monk
Thelonious Sphere Monk was an American jazz pianist and composer considered "one of the giants of American music". Monk had a unique improvisational style and made numerous contributions to the standard jazz repertoire, including "Epistrophy", "'Round Midnight", "Blue Monk", "Straight, No Chaser"...

 Institute of Jazz Performance by a panel of judges including Herbie Hancock
Herbie Hancock
Herbert Jeffrey "Herbie" Hancock is an American pianist, bandleader and composer. As part of Miles Davis's "second great quintet," Hancock helped to redefine the role of a jazz rhythm section and was one of the primary architects of the "post-bop" sound...

, Terence Blanchard
Terence Blanchard
Terence Oliver Blanchard is an American jazz trumpeter, bandleader, composer, arranger, and film score composer. Since he emerged on the scene in 1980 with the Lionel Hampton Orchestra and then shortly thereafter with Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers, Blanchard has been a leading artist in jazz...

 and Wayne Shorter
Wayne Shorter
Wayne Shorter is an American jazz saxophonist and composer.He is generally acknowledged to be jazz's greatest living composer, and many of his compositions have become standards...

. Parlato was the first vocalist ever admitted into the program.

Move to New York City

In 2003, Parlato moved to New York City. A year later, she won the first place in the Thelonious Monk International Jazz Vocals Competition at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. Judges included Quincy Jones
Quincy Jones
Quincy Delightt Jones, Jr. is an American record producer and musician. A conductor, musical arranger, film composer, television producer, and trumpeter. His career spans five decades in the entertainment industry and a record 79 Grammy Award nominations, 27 Grammys, including a Grammy Legend...

, Flora Purim
Flora Purim
Flora Purim is a Brazilian jazz singer known primarily for her work in the jazz fusion style. She became prominent for her part in Chick Corea's landmark album Return to Forever...

, Jimmy Scott
Jimmy Scott
Jimmy Scott , aka "Little" Jimmy Scott, is an American jazz vocalist famous for his unusually high contralto voice which is due to Kallmann's syndrome, a very rare genetic condition. The condition stunted his growth at four feet eleven inches until, at age 37, he grew another 8 inches to the...

, Al Jarreau
Al Jarreau
Alwin "Al" Lopez Jarreau is a seven-time Grammy Award winning jazz singer.- Background :Jarreau was born in Milwaukee, the fifth of six children. His web site refers to Reservoir, Inc., the name of the street where he lived. His father was a Seventh-Day Adventist Church minister and singer, and...

, Dee Dee Bridgewater
Dee Dee Bridgewater
Dee Dee Bridgewater is an American Jazz singer. She is a three-time Grammy Award winning singer-songwriter, as well as a Tony Award - winning stage actress and host of National Public Radio's syndicated radio show JazzSet with Dee Dee Bridgewater...

 and Kurt Elling
Kurt Elling
Kurt Elling is an American jazz vocalist, composer, lyricist and vocalese performer. Born in Chicago, Illinois, and raised in Rockford, Elling first became interested in music through his father, who was Kapellmeister at a Lutheran church...

. In 2005 she released her self-titled first album, Gretchen Parlato. It was named No. 5 Best Progressive Jazz CDs of 2005 by Jazz Nation and got 5 stars in Down Beat
Down Beat
Down Beat is an American magazine devoted to "jazz, blues and beyond" to indicate its expansion beyond the jazz realm which it covered exclusively in previous years. The publication was established in 1934 in Chicago, Illinois...

's Blindfold Test by Richard Bona
Richard Bona
Richard Bona is a jazz bassist and musician. His real African name, as he said live in Montreal in a show with Bobby McFerrin, is Bona Pinder Yayumayalolo...

 in July 2007.In August 2007 she was named No. 3 Rising Star Female Vocalist in DownBeat
Downbeat
Downbeat, down beat or Down Beat may refer to:*Downbeat, the first beat of a measure in music. This terms originated from orchestral conducting, where the lowest point on the baton signals the first downbeat in a given measure...

's 55th Annual Critics Poll. In September 2007 she performed with jazz legend Wayne Shorter
Wayne Shorter
Wayne Shorter is an American jazz saxophonist and composer.He is generally acknowledged to be jazz's greatest living composer, and many of his compositions have become standards...

 at La Villette Jazz Festival in Paris. In June 2008, a live recording of Gretchen performing in New York was aired by Japanese NHK network television.

Relationship with ObliqSound

In July 2008 Parlato signed a recording contract with independent record label ObliqSound
ObliqSound
ObliqSound is an independent record label based in New York City, Paris and Hamburg.It provides a home for artists around the globe interested in creating music that crosses the boundaries of traditional music labeling. Dedicated to both an instrumental and vocal series, ObliqSound endeavors to...

. In Spring 2009 Gretchen was featured in The Documentary Channel's 4-part series "Icons Among Us: Jazz in the Present Tense". In August 2009 she released her second CD, In a Dream, on the ObliqSound
ObliqSound
ObliqSound is an independent record label based in New York City, Paris and Hamburg.It provides a home for artists around the globe interested in creating music that crosses the boundaries of traditional music labeling. Dedicated to both an instrumental and vocal series, ObliqSound endeavors to...

 record label, with Lionel Loueke
Lionel Loueke
Lionel Loueke is a guitarist born in the west African country of Benin. He moved to Ivory Coast in 1990 to study at the National Institute of Art. He attended the American School of Modern Music in Paris, France from 1994-1998...

 on guitar and vocals, Aaron Parks
Aaron Parks
Aaron Parks is a jazz pianist.-Personal:Aaron entered the University of Washington at the age of 14 through the Transition School and Early Entrance Program as a double major in computer science and music...

 on piano and Fender Rhodes, Derrick Hodge
Derrick Hodge
Derrick Hodge is an American bassist, composer, and music producer. He is also the founder of Son of Knowledge Music and Son of Knowledge Entertainment.- Biography :...

 on acoustic and electric bass and Kendrick Scott
Kendrick Scott
Kendrick Scott is an American jazz drummer, bandleader and composer. Scott is the founder of the World Culture Music Record Company.-Biography:Kendrick A.D. Scott was born and raised in Houston, Texas...

 on drums. The album was produced by Michele Locatelli. It was named No. 1 Best Vocal Jazz Album of 2009 by the Village Voice Critics Poll and was listed in the Top 10 Albums of 2009 in JazzTimes, Boston Globe, Washington City Paper, Hot House and NPR.


In Spring 2010 she was nominated for Female Singer of the Year by the Jazz Journalists Association
Jazz Journalists Association
The Jazz Journalists Association is an international organization of all types of media professionals who document, promulgate, or appreciate jazz. As of 2011, it has approximately 500 members, primarily in North America but also on other continents...

. In June/July, Parlato performed at Stockholm and Healdsburg Jazz Festivals, and sold out jazz festival performances in NYC, Montreal, Paris, North Sea, Copenhagen, Stuttgart and Molde, Norway, with Taylor Eigsti
Taylor Eigsti
Taylor Eigsti is an American jazz pianist and composer.A former child prodigy, Eigsti started studying piano at age four. He recorded his first album at age 14...

, Alan Hampton and Mark Guiliana
Mark Guiliana
Mark Guiliana is a drummer from America, composer, and leader of the band Beat Music. He is known for his playing with Avishai Cohen's Trio and Quartet, Meshell Ndegeocello, Dhafer Youssef, Gretchen Parlato, Tigran Hamasyan, Matisyahu, and his old band Heernt...

. In August, she was voted No. 2 Rising Star Vocalist in Downbeat
Downbeat
Downbeat, down beat or Down Beat may refer to:*Downbeat, the first beat of a measure in music. This terms originated from orchestral conducting, where the lowest point on the baton signals the first downbeat in a given measure...

's Annual Critics Poll.

In 2011 she released her 2nd album for Obliqsound
ObliqSound
ObliqSound is an independent record label based in New York City, Paris and Hamburg.It provides a home for artists around the globe interested in creating music that crosses the boundaries of traditional music labeling. Dedicated to both an instrumental and vocal series, ObliqSound endeavors to...

, "The Lost and Found" with Taylor Eigsti
Taylor Eigsti
Taylor Eigsti is an American jazz pianist and composer.A former child prodigy, Eigsti started studying piano at age four. He recorded his first album at age 14...

, Derrick Hodge
Derrick Hodge
Derrick Hodge is an American bassist, composer, and music producer. He is also the founder of Son of Knowledge Music and Son of Knowledge Entertainment.- Biography :...

, Kendrick Scott
Kendrick Scott
Kendrick Scott is an American jazz drummer, bandleader and composer. Scott is the founder of the World Culture Music Record Company.-Biography:Kendrick A.D. Scott was born and raised in Houston, Texas...

, Dayna Stephens, Alan Hampton, with associate producer, Robert Glasper
Robert Glasper
Robert Glasper in Houston, Texas is an American jazz pianist and record producer.-Career:Glasper’s earliest musical influence was his mother, Kim Yvette Glasper, who sang jazz and blues professionally. She would bring him with her to club dates rather than leave her son with babysitters...

. On this album, she wrote lyrics to Eigsti's "Without a Sound;" Ambrose Akinmusire's (trumpet) "Henya," and Stephens' "Lost and Found. She also sings a duet on the track "Still", with Hampton. "Alan created such a meditative and deceptively simple groove I wanted to write lyrics that were like a mantra. Something that in its repetition becomes extremely powerful. What better theme than love?".

Parlato also composed many songs on the album such as "Winter Wind," "How We Love," "Better Than", and "Circling". "Circling" was a major piece on the record because "'Circling' plays with the idea of cycles in our lives. The ones we have no control over like birth and death as opposed to the cycles we do control, behavior patterns that we get ourselves into." In addition to her compositions, she reinvented popular R&B songs by Mary J. Blige
Mary J. Blige
Mary Jane Blige is an American singer-songwriter, record producer and occasional actress. She is a recipient of nine Grammy Awards and four American Music Awards, and has recorded eight multi-platinum albums. She is the only artist with Grammy Award wins in Pop, Rap, Gospel, and R&B. Blige has...

, Lauryn Hill
Lauryn Hill
Lauryn Noelle Hill is an American singer-songwriter, record producer, and actress.Early in her career, she established her reputation as a member of the Fugees. In 1998, she launched her solo career with the release of the commercially successful and critically acclaimed album, The Miseducation of...

, and Simply Red
Simply Red
Simply Red were a British soul band that sold more than 50 million albums over a 25-year career. Their style drew influences from blue-eyed soul, new romantic, rock, reggae and jazz...

. The album "The Lost and Found" shows that Parlato possesses the ability to alter and compose songs into something meaningful and interesting. In August 2011 she was named No. 1 Rising Star Female Vocalist in DownBeat
Downbeat
Downbeat, down beat or Down Beat may refer to:*Downbeat, the first beat of a measure in music. This terms originated from orchestral conducting, where the lowest point on the baton signals the first downbeat in a given measure...

's Annual Critics Poll.

Other work

Parlato has been a guest vocalist on over 50 recordings and projects, including two Esperanza Spalding
Esperanza Spalding
Esperanza Spalding is an American multi-instrumentalist best known as a jazz bassist and singer, who draws upon many genres in her own compositions...

's albums Chamber Music Society and Esperanza, Kenny Barron
Kenny Barron
Kenny Barron , is an American jazz pianist. He is the younger brother of tenor saxophonist Bill Barron, and known for his lyrical, adaptive style.-Biography:...

's album The Traveler, Lionel Loueke
Lionel Loueke
Lionel Loueke is a guitarist born in the west African country of Benin. He moved to Ivory Coast in 1990 to study at the National Institute of Art. He attended the American School of Modern Music in Paris, France from 1994-1998...

's album Virgin Forest and Terence Blanchard
Terence Blanchard
Terence Oliver Blanchard is an American jazz trumpeter, bandleader, composer, arranger, and film score composer. Since he emerged on the scene in 1980 with the Lionel Hampton Orchestra and then shortly thereafter with Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers, Blanchard has been a leading artist in jazz...

's album Flow
Flow (Terence Blanchard album)
Flow is a 2005 jazz album by Grammy winning trumpeter Terence Blanchard, released through Blue Note, and was nominated for a Grammy Award "Best Jazz Instrumental Album" in 2005.-Background:...

, singing lyrics as well as more instrumental-sounding wordless vocals.

Discography

Gretchen Parlato, The Lost and Found, Obliqsound Records, 2011

Gretchen Parlato, In a Dream, Obliqsound Records, 2009

Gretchen Parlato, Gretchen Parlato, 2005

- as featured vocalist -

Terri Lyn Carrington, The Mosaic Project, Concord Records, 2011

Becca Stevens Band, Weightless, Sunnyside, 2011

David Binney, Graylen Epicenter, Mythology, 2011

Jesse Fischer & Soul Cycle, Homebrew, Soul Cycle Music, 2011

Exegesis – The Harmony of the Anomaly, 2011

DJ Center — Everything In Time Remixed, Push the Fader, 2011

Esperanza Spalding, Chamber Music Society, Heads Up/Concord Music Group, 2010

Jovino Santos Neto, Veja O Som (See The Sound), Adventure Music, 2010

DJ Center, Everything in Time, Push the Fader, 2010

Generosity, The Generosity Project, 2010

Mari Yamashita, Sunflower, 2010

Guilherme Vergueiro, Intemporal / Timeless, 2009

The Brother Thelonious Quintet, Brother Thelonious, 2009

New West Guitar, Sleeping Lady, 2009

Justin Vasquez, Triptych, 2009

Gretchen Parlato, Suresh Singaratnam & Jamie Reynolds, That is You, 2009

Kenny Barron, The Traveler, Emarcy Records, 2008

Esperanza Spalding, Esperanza, Heads Up/Concord Music Group, 2008

Francisco Pais, School of Enlightenment, 2008

Massimo Biolcati, Persona, Obiqsound Records, 2008

Nick Vayenas, Synesthesia, World Culture Music, 2008

Hironobu Saito, The Rain, Fresh Sound Records, 2008

Ideé Ensemble, Idee Records/Rip Curl Recordings, 2008

Kidzapalooza Vol 1 – The EP, Kidzapalooza Records, 2008

Sean Jones, Kaleidoscope, Mack Avenue, 2007

Lionel Loueke, Virgin Forest, Obliqsound Records, 2007

Morrie Louden, Timepiece, 2007

Gregoire Maret, Scenarios, Obliqsound Records, 2007

Mari Yamashita, Erato, Erato Music, 2007

Oddlogik, Modern Authenticity, Dtuck's Music, 2007

Marko Djordjevic, SVETI – Where I Come From, 2007

Crystal Top Presents, Crystal Top Music, 2007

Kendrick Scott Oracle, The Source, World Culture Music, 2006

Walter Smith III, Casually Introducing Walter Smith III, Fresh Sound Records 2006

Francis Jacob, Side-by-Side, 2006

Patrick Cornelius, Lucid Dream, 2006

Greg Lamy Quartet, What Are You Afraid Of?, 2006

Self-Scientific, Tears-2 Step, Angeles Records, 2006

Hironobu Saito, The Sea, Fresh Sound Records, 2006

Ballads 2006: Tomorrow's Jazz Classics, Nagel-Heyer, 2006

DJ Nerstylist – Forward Listing, FMG Vinyl, 2006

CD Baby: Top Sellers of 2005 Compilation, 2006

Terence Blanchard, Flow, Blue Note, 2005 *** Grammy Nominee

Self-Scientific, Change, Angeles Records, 2005

More or Less Jazz Volume 2, Wave Music, 2005

Daisuke Abe, On My Way Back Home, Nagel Heyer Records, 2005

Janek Gwizdala, Mystery To Me, 2004

Seeing Other People Original Soundtrack, 2004

A World of Happiness, Walt Disney Records, 2004

The Sugarplastic, Resin, Escape Artist Recordings, 2000

Guilherme Vergueiro, Amazon Moon, The Music of Mike Stoller, Windham Hill, 1998

Guilherme Vergueiro, Encontro – Rio Bahia, Del Sol Records, 1997

The Sugarplastic, Bang, The Earth Is Round, Geffen Records, 1996

The Unquenchable Flame, A Musical Drama, Gina & Russell Garcia, 1996

Moog, Lifelonglife Records, 1994

External links

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