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Gretchen Parlato

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Gretchen Parlato
Background information
Born1976[1]
OriginLos Angeles, California[1]
GenresJazz, pop, Brazilian
Occupation(s)Musician, songwriter
InstrumentVoice
Websitehttp://www.gretchenparlato.com/

Gretchen Parlato is an American jazz singer. She has performed and recorded with musicians such as Lionel Loueke, Wayne Shorter and Kenny Barron.

Parlato's 2009 sophomore release, In a Dream was positively reviewed by NPR, Jazz Times, the Village Voice, and the Boston Globe. Billboard magazine hailed it as "the most alluring jazz vocal album of 2009".[2]

Early years

Parlato was born in 1976 in Los Angeles, California, the daughter of Dave Parlato,[1] bass player for Frank Zappa on many albums including Zoot Allures, also working with Al Jarreau, Don Preston, Barbra Streisand, Henry Mancini, Paul Horn (musician), Gabor Szabo, Buddy Rich, Don Ellis and recording for TV/film.[3][4] Her grandfather was Charlie Parlato, trumpet player in Kay Kyser Big Band, and singer and trumpet player for Tennessee Ernie Ford and Lawrence Welk.[5] Growing up in the 1980s, Parlato says she was a Valley girl.[1] Parlato attended Los Angeles County High School for the Arts, then earned a bachelor's degree in ethnomusicology at University of California, Los Angeles.[1]

In 2001 she was accepted into the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz Performance by a panel of judges including Herbie Hancock, Terence Blanchard and Wayne Shorter. 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, Flora Purim, Jimmy Scott, Al Jarreau, Dee Dee Bridgewater and Kurt Elling. 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's Blindfold Test by Richard Bona in July 2007.In August 2007 she was named No. 3 Rising Star Female Vocalist in DownBeat's 55th Annual Critics Poll. In September 2007 she performed with jazz legend Wayne Shorter 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. 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 record label, with Lionel Loueke on guitar and vocals, Aaron Parks on piano and Fender Rhodes, Derrick Hodge on acoustic and electric bass and Kendrick Scott 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.

At the Healdsburg Jazz Festival in 2010, Parlato fronted a quartet with Taylor Eigsti on piano, Alan Hampton on bass and Kendrick Scott on drums.

In Spring 2010 she was nominated for Female Singer of the Year by the Jazz Journalists Association. 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, Alan Hampton and Mark Guiliana. In August, she was voted No. 2 Rising Star Vocalist in Downbeat's Annual Critics Poll.

In 2011 she released her 2nd album for Obliqsound, "The Lost and Found" with Taylor Eigsti, Derrick Hodge, Kendrick Scott, Dayna Stephens, Alan Hampton, with associate producer, Robert Glasper. 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, Lauryn Hill, and Simply Red. The album "The Lost and Found" shows that Parlato possesses the ability to alter and compose songs into something meaningful and interesting.

"The Lost and Found" placed in the top 10 in over thirty radio station, publication and internet polls in several countries.
Some of the most notable 2011 awards:
Featured on Terri Lyne Carrington's Grammy Award winning "The Mosaic Project" ASCAP Eunice and Hal David Award of Merit for Songwriting
No. 1 Rising Star Female Vocalist - DownBeat's Annual Critics Poll
No. 1 Female Vocalist of 2011 - JazzTimes Expanded Critics Poll
No. 1 Vocal Album - 2011 Jazz Critics Poll
No. 1 Vocal Jazz Album of the Year - iTunes
No. 1 Best Album of the Year - JazzFM.com
No. 2 Best Jazz of 2011 - NPR
No. 2 Best Jazz Album of 2011 - Amazon
No. 3 Top Female Vocalist - Downbeat's Annual Readers Poll

Other work

Parlato has been a guest vocalist on over 60 recordings and projects, including three Esperanza Spalding's albums 'Radio Music Society', 'Chamber Music Society and Esperanza, Kenny Barron's album The Traveler, Lionel Loueke's album Virgin Forest and Terence Blanchard's album Flow, singing lyrics as well as more instrumental-sounding wordless vocals.

Discography

- as leader -
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 -
Esperanza Spalding, Radio Music Society, Heads Up/Concord Music Group, 2012
Becca Stevens, My Life Is Bold, 2012
Introducing Joe Sanders, Joe Sanders Quartet, Criss Cross, 2012
Becca Stevens, Walking in the Air, Sunnyside, 2011
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

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Cunniffe, Thomas. "Gretchen Parlato: Finding The Essence". Jazz History Online. Retrieved August 17, 2011.
  2. ^ Ouellette, Dan (August 25, 2009). "Review: Gretchen Parlato, In a Dream". Billboard. Retrieved August 17, 2011. With her second release, In a Dream, Parlato's time has arrived. So far, the set is the most alluring jazz vocal album of 2009.
  3. ^ dave parlato. United-mutations.com (March 19, 1970). Retrieved on August 31, 2011.
  4. ^ SFYSA | Staff. Sfys.org (September 1, 2010). Retrieved on August 31, 2011.
  5. ^ MUSICAL FAMILY BIOS 5. Welkmusicalfamily.com. Retrieved on August 31, 2011.

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