Gretchen Parlato

Gretchen Parlato (born 1976) is an American jazz singer. She has performed and recorded with musicians such as Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock, Kenny Barron, Esperanza Spalding, Terence Blanchard, Marcus Miller and Lionel Loueke.

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".

Her 2011 release The Lost and Found received over 30 national and international awards including iTunes Vocal Jazz Album of the Year and Jazz Critics Poll No. 1 Vocal Album of 2011.

Early years
Parlato was born in 1976 in Los Angeles, California, the daughter of Dave Parlato, 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. Her grandfather was Charlie Parlato, trumpet player in Kay Kyser Big Band, and singer and trumpet player for Tennessee Ernie Ford and Lawrence Welk. Growing up in the 1980s, Parlato says she was a Valley girl. Parlato attended Los Angeles County High School for the Arts, then earned a bachelor's degree in Ethnomusicology/Jazz Studies at University of California, Los Angeles.

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. by a panel of judges: Quincy Jones, Flora Purim, Al Jarreau, Kurt Elling, Dee Dee Bridgewater and Jimmy Scott. 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 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. 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 Down Beat'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 30 polls in the US and Europe. Some of the most notable 2011 awards: ASCAP 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 - Down Beat's Annual Readers Poll Featured vocalist on Terri Lyne Carrington's Grammy Award winning album, The Mosaic Project

2012 Awards: No. 1 Best Female Vocalist Award - Jazz Journalists Association No. 2 Best Female Vocalist - DownBeat's Annual Critics Poll

Other work
Parlato has been a guest vocalist on over 70 recordings, including three Esperanza Spalding albums Radio Music Society, Chamber Music Society and Esperanza, Kenny Barron's The Traveler, Marcus Miller's Renaissance, Lionel Loueke's albums Heritage and Virgin Forest, Terence Blanchard's Flow, and Terri Lynne Carrington's The Mosaic Project (Grammy Award for Best Jazz Vocal Album), singing lyrics as well as 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 - Dayna Stephens, That Nepenthetic Place, Sunnyside Records, 2013 Gerald Clayton, Life Forum, Concord Records, 2013 Nilson Matta, Black Orpheus, Motema Music, 2013 John Daversa, Artful Joy, BFM Jazz, 2012 Lauren Desberg, Sideways, 2012 - produced by Gretchen Parlato Home - The Gift of Music - Japan Earthquake Relief, Sunnyside, 2012 Lionel Loueke, Heritage, Blue Note, 2012 Marcus Miller, Renaissance, Victor Japan, 2012 Mark Guiliana, Beat Music, 2012 A Year With BFM Jazz, BFM Jazz, 2012 Esperanza Spalding, Radio Music Society, Heads Up/Concord Music Group, 2012 Vocal Jazz Ballads 2012, Nagel Heyer Records, 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 Impromptu Sessions, Danceaholic Entertainment Group, 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