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Jazz Comet meets
high expectations
Concert with the young shooting star of jazz heaven
Gretchen Parlato will be remembered.
by Birger Thøgersen, Politiken.dk
Foto: Jonas Pryner Andersen
"a superstar in infancy, standing on stage... the evening will be remembered as one you want to talk about in the future and say: I was there."
» full Copenhagen Jazz Festival review in Danish @ Politiken.dk
Newport Jazz Festival: A study in contrasts
by Steve Greenlee, Boston Globe, August 8, 2010
"Gretchen Parlato gives goosebumps... her gorgeous voice behaved more like an instrument – a soprano sax here, a cello there – than something belonging to a singer. The evidence is piling up that young Ms. Parlato is the most original jazz singer in a generation. » read article
Sunday At Newport Jazz 2010
by Patrick Jarenwattananon and Alex W. Rodriguez
NPR Jazz- A Blog Supreme, Aug 9, 2010
"she really put on a show for the Quad Stage crowd in the afternoon. Her music is just so well-constructed, relaxed and musical — a perfect fit... she took advantage of the opportunity to connect with her audience." » read article
Gretchen Parlato in Concert - Newport Jazz:
NPR - WGBH, August 7, 2010
"...hip young New York musicians are happy to play with Parlato —
she's as much a musician as they are." » hear performance
Newport Jazz Festival
Timothy J. O'Keefe, All About Jazz, August 18, 2010
"The first notes that rang out on Alan Hampton's bass, "Within Me," captivated an audience that spread well beyond the tent's seating capacity. Driven by Kendrick Scott's shuffling drum work, and accompanied by Gerald Clayton's emotional piano playing, Parlato's voice sliced through the air—a combination of vocal storytelling and melodic phrasings." » read article
CareFusion Newport Jazz Festival
A golden weekend for weather – and jazz in every form
Ken Franckling, JazzTimes, Aug 9, 2010
"Gretchen Parlato’s whispery vocals felt like a mint julep inside the Quad Stage tent as the sun beat down on the open main stage crowd." » read article
San Jose Jazz Festival features music for the multitudes
By Richard Scheinin, San Jose Mercury News, 8/14/2010
"the young singer Gretchen Parlato was floating her music: weightless, iridescent, kind of perfect... her album "In a Dream" -- the title sums up her sensibility..."» more
Our Picks for the Festival:
Gretchen Parlato —
"In a Dream" (Obliqsound) received rapturous reviews, and the title aptly captures her music's sustained mood of ethereal introspection. Possessing an enticingly crystalline voice and a ravishing concept deeply informed by samba ballads and bossa nova, Parlato is among the very best of a rising generation of jazz singers, an artist who has taken her own sweet time forging a highly personal sound unlike any of her peers. » more
A thunderous standing ovation @ North Sea
Dirk Vandenberghe, NRC Handlesblad, NL, July 12, 2010
Barefoot, she appeared on stage, because her luggage was lost somewhere. And that was not all, because her shakers were also somewhere in one of those suitcases. But Gretchen Parlato made a virtue of necessity, and from two empty bottles of mineral water, some brown rice and beans, crafted two new shakers. She used them on occasions like "On the Other Side" in a beautiful but far too short set in the Missouri bursting-at-the-seams tent. It was the debut at North Sea Jazz for the winner of the Thelonious Monk Award for vocal jazz, and our 'educated guess' of the day: that she will be back in a bigger room next time.
Gretchen Parlato is 'the new Star in the Sky'
of female vocal jazz.
Stuttgart Jazz Open, DE, July 16, 2010
"Excellent!" Exulted the JAZZ PODIUM, and the magazine "Jazz Thing" was deeply impressed: "Few can make the trickiest passages sound so playful. She balances brilliantly between discipline and improvisation, between accuracy and unpredictability, has a splendid set timing, rides masterly on every Groove, and with sensational rhythmic instinct in almost every song."
The relevant radio stations were immediately impressed, "Herbie Hancock attests that Gretchen Parlato shows a 'deep, almost magical connection to the music' - and also her new album 'In a Dream' by Parlato's ability to make music not only seem simple, but rather to rise in its totality. "The American turns from steady to playful, smoky lascivious to easy and carefree, from discreet to incredibly present. No sweet, over audible background jazz: Gretchen Parlato touches one deeply and that's what makes her and her new album so extraordinary." said GermanRadio Kulture. The Jazz Radio Berlin said enthusiastically: "The first truly original and extremely varied vocal jazz CD for many years. A true asset to our program."
Germany and the Berlin Radio is sure: "Gretchen Parlato is 'the next big thing' in female vocal jazz." » deutsch
Jazz as elixir of life on final day at North Sea
Gretchen Parlato - Phrasing
Mischa Andriessen, JazzEnzo, NL
15 jul, 2010
In the Missouri, we joined the quartet of singer Gretchen Parlato. Many jazz fans pass judgment in advance regarding female jazz singers, but Parlato dispels that bias. The singer has already caused much jubilation and it is understandable. She has a unique phrasing that introduces a very subtle rhythm into the music. As a result, a song like Steve Wonders' "I Can't Help It" immediately sounds very fresh. Good band also - to the point and with excellent dynamics, and quite good in maintaining the balance between leading and accompanying. The singer herself appeared rather bewildered by the applause of the audience asking for an encore and the idea that her hero, Stevie Wonder on the same night would play the same festival. "I hope they let me in," she said. That was no false modesty of a diva.» het nederlands
A year from now we will all parlez parlato
by Johnny Niemann, The Copenhagen Post, DK
08 July, 2010
"Heralded by critics and great musicians alike...
an artist poised to make a major breakthrough."
Kenneth Hansen, musical director for the Copenhagen Jazz Festival, mentioned Parlato as one of the two concerts that he was most looking forward to... The effect of Parlato’s music is fresh and stimulating: not just another singer settling into the standards, saucing them up a bit, and reaping a tepid yet profitable career. Instead she challenges a music form that contains more possibilities than restraints..."
GP nominated for Female Singer of the Year
by the Jazz Journalists Association!
Howard Mandel, president of the JJA: "The finalists for 2010 Jazz Awards reflect the depth of talent and breadth of styles that jazz encompasses today. Highly creative octogenarians... are celebrated alongside new-generation musicians..."
» more info & full list @JazzTimes
Recommended Listening with Damian Erskine:
Gretchen Parlato - In a Dream
Bass Musician Magazine
May/June 2010
"It’s going to be hard to express to you just how blown away by this album I am. Gretchen displays amazing and equal amounts of grace, phrasing, time feel, control and diction when she sings but, beyond that.. we finally have a jazz vocalist who gives us current and hip music to groove to..."
» more
The Clubs Next Door
By George Wein, JazzTimes
04/05/10
"a slim, quite beautiful young lady...It wasn’t long before her performance captured the audience. I was sitting with Tim Jackson, producer of the Monterey Jazz Festival. Both Tim and I liked Gretchen Parlato. (I think he has asked her to appear in Monterey this year.) I asked Gretchen to perform in June on the CareFusion Jazz Festival in New York at Symphony Space."» more
#1: Best Vocal Jazz Album of the Year!
2009 Voice Jazz Critics' Poll
The Village Voice, NY
December 29, 2009
#4: The Top 10 Jazz Albums of 2009
Michael J. West, Washington City Paper
Dec. 24, 2009
In a Dream: "a breakthrough project by a gifted, young singer..."
"with
emotional depth, subtlety, and the kind of precise technical craft where even the breathing sounds matter.” » read article
#6: Steve Greenlee's top jazz albums for 2009
Globe critics name their top 10 list
Steve Greenlee, The Boston Globe
December 20, 2009
Gretchen Parlato - In a Dream: "Whispering and breathing where other singers belt... Parlato nearly creates her own subgenre of jazz vocals." » read article
#8: Critics Picks: Top 50 New Albums
JazzTimes, Jan/Feb 2010
» read article
#9: NPR's Best Music of 2009
The Year of Living Improvisationally
by Josh Jackson
"Intimacy and shared sense of purpose yields stellar results on In a Dream, especially the duets with guitarist Lionel Loueke. Parlato has a commanding vocal control and rhythmic dexterity that's dynamic, even when she's breathy and gossamer." » NPR.org
#10: NPR's Best Music of 2009:
The Year In Jazz, From WDUQ
by Shaunna Morrison Machosky
"We can look forward to a bright future for this up-and-coming singer. It's refreshing to hear a contemporary voice that doesn't just take on the same old standards." » NPR.org
In a Dream #4 - Top 10 Killer Covers
Jazz Times, December 2009
» see top 10
Gretchen Parlato - In a Dream
Billboard Magazine
by Dan Ouellette
Aug 22, 2009
"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.
With an impressive band that includes longtime cohort Lionel Loueke on guitar and wordless vocal, Parlato sings with quiet, relentless and oftentimes unpredictable rhythmic grace. She's playfully rapturous on Stevie Wonder's "I Can't Help It," a samba-esque duet with Loueke; joyfully spirited during an a cappella take on the Brazilian tune "Doralice"; and dreamily sensuous whispering over a clipping drum beat on "Within Me."
» Billboard pdf
Gretchen Parlato - In A Dream
By Don Heckman, IROM
August 26, 2009
Grammy nominations
for Best Jazz Vocal Album..."
"There’s an enigmatic quality to Gretchen Parlato’s singing, a mysterious brew of sound and breath, of simmering inner rhythms and phrasing that curls seductively around the words. The first track, Stevie Wonder’s “I Can’t Help It,” immediately announces that the album is going be an extraordinary musical experience.
Parlato has been blessed with extraordinary talents — an unerring sense of pitch, utterly relaxed rhythmic clarity, an open ear for harmony. Other singers have similar abilities. But what makes Parlato so unique is the imaginative way in which she uses those skills to rove deeply within the instrumental sounds, while still retaining her presence as the vocal center of the music."
Gretchen Parlato
In a Dream (Obliqsound)
Jazz Times
November 2009
She has a degree in ethnomusicology from UCLA, was the first vocalist allowed entrée into the esteemed Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz, won the Monk Competition in 2004 and has studied privately with Tierney Sutton. In other words, transplanted Californian Gretchen Parlato (now based in New York) is well prepared to take the jazz world by storm. But rather than do so with thunder and lightning, she has opted for whispered mistiness.
Her voice is a rare instrument, endowed with a seductively warm, ethereal quality yet sturdy as sequoia. Her jazz instincts are keenly intuitive, her phrasing (for which she credits Sutton) immaculate. Following in the delicate footsteps of her 2005 eponymous debut, Parlato's In a Dream seems wholly crafted of sweet reveries. She has found an ideal mate for this spirited journey in guitarist and supporting vocalist Lionel Loueke, who considers Parlato his musical "twin sister." Whether meandering through a gauzy reading of Stevie Wonder's "I Can't Help It," savoring the sweet shimmer of Dorival Caymmi's "Doralice," reshaping the smooth R&B funk of SWV's chart-topping "Weak" into four minutes of melting submission, or painting vibrant tone poems atop Wayne Shorter's "E.S.P.," Parlato remains utterly, unfailingly mesmerizing.
Gretchen Parlato
JAZZ: In A Dream (Obliq Sound) ****
Jack Massarik, Evening Standard, UK
November 2009
This snub-nosed New York singer is the surprise hit of the London Jazz Festival, which runs until Sunday. Breathy, gently swinging and coolly feminine, Gretchen Parlato is on a winner with this delightful debut album of underused jazz standards and artful originals, some with her own lyrics. Working with cutting-edge songwriters (Robert Glasper, Alan Hampton, Antonio Almeida) and top musicians (pianist Aaron Parks, guitarist Lionel Loueke, bassist Derrick Hodge, drummer Kendrick Scott) obviously doesn't hurt but it's Gretchen's charm and playful savvy that makes this project fly.
Gretchen Parlato
TimeOut New York, Steve Smith
Nov1, 2009
Jazz has always had its share of early bloomers, but Gretchen Parlato shows up everyone on her new disc, In a Dream, which includes playful, rhythmically confident snippets of the singer recorded at the precocious age of two. You may not sense a jazz-diva-in-the-making in those faded tracks, but they might just explain why Parlato, winner of the prestigious Thelonious Monk International Jazz Vocals Competition in 2004, sounds like such a seasoned professional at just-past 30.
From early on, Parlato held her own alongside masters like Wayne Shorter and Herbie Hancock; In a Dream, her second album and first for the ObliqSound label, proves that she’s also a superb bandleader, more intent on mixing it up with her collaborators than simply soaring over them. Parlato’s airy sound and flexible timing serve her well throughout this instantly engaging collection of offbeat standards and seductive originals; her rhythmic forays with Beninese singer-guitarist Lionel Loueke are an ear-tickling delight.
Jazz singer Parlato mesmerizes with dream-like voice
By Steve Greenlee, Boston Globe
October 16, 2009
Her show Thursday night at the Regattabar was utterly captivating... stunning from the outset. Wearing a tight black dress, hoop earrings, and a new wave hairdo, Parlato gently clapped her hands while uttering quiet noises, her lips slightly pursed. The band joined in, and gradually the sounds gathered and transformed themselves into an airy, vaguely Brazilian rendition of Herbie Hancock's "Butterfly." As she sang, she retreated into the lyrics, singing from the back of her throat, sucking in the words rather than spilling them forth. She sounded more horn than human.
Here's how spellbinding her set was: When she finished a heartbreakingly gorgeous reworking of Monk's "Ugly Beauty" (with lyrics), the crowd sat in transfixed silence for a good eight or nine seconds before applauding. For a singer, there is no higher praise."
This Jazzwoman speaks softly,
but she carries a big repertoire
By Siddhartha Mitter, Boston Globe
October 11, 2009
in song is not, in fact, a big voice at all."
"It’s the voice of Gretchen Parlato, who has taken an antiheroine’s route to prominence as a jazz singer, breaking with the conventional character traits. Rather than belt or blare, Parlato’s sound is light and contained, nearly conversational. In lieu of frills and pyrotechnics, she uses nuance and a great harmonic subtlety.."
Breath Analyzer:
Gretchen's Parlato's In a Dream
By Michael J. West, Washington City Paper
September 9, 2009
"her near-whispers—a sort of seduction through vulnerability—but a more careful listen reveals her extraordinary confidence — audible gasps are devices for suspense and rhythm... reveal Parlato’s mastery of rhythm — emotional depth, subtlety, and the kind of precise technical craft where even the breathing sounds matter.
Loueke’s powerful chemistry with Parlato may indeed be the jazz world’s newest great partnership in the Billie Holiday–Lester Young tradition."
Gretchen Parlato — In A Dream
4 STARS
By Peter Quinn, Jazzwise, UK
October 2009
Gretchen Parlato — In A Dream
Unveils a singer with her own sound, something
that often takes many years to achieve.
By Kevin Le Gendre, for BBC & Echoes Magazine, UK
24 Sep 2009
A BLOG SUPREME / NPR JAZZ
Jazz Now: Patrick Jarenwattananon, Editor
5 Top CD Picks
by Patrick Jarenwattananon
September 15, 2009
she knows how to sculpt an arrangement.
For us jazz insider types, it's looking like her time has finally come; the jazz neophyte may wonder why it hasn't arrived earlier."
Gretchen Parlato whispers to you "In A Dream"
by Ralph A. Miriello
Oct 27, 2009
Who ever said jazz had to be drab?
Fifteen fashion-forward jazz musicians who rock the stage in decidedly 21st-century mode.
"This pint-sized breakout jazz singer of the year shows that you can grace a nightclub stage without getting all stodgy ballroom gown with it."
» the root
Gretchen Parlato: In a Dream — 4 STARS
Can jazz be saved? Gretchen Parlato, bringing
in other influences, must be a bright young hope
for the greying genre
by John Bungey, The Times, London
September 4, 2009
The Best New Music of the Month
Gretchen Parlato: In a Dream
by Ted Gioia, Jazz.com
Aug 31, 2009
"The Gretchen Parlato CD is creating quite a buzz, and deservedly so. This is one of my favorite jazz vocal albums of the year."
CD REVIEW: "In a Dream"
By Michael G. Nastos, All Music Guide
Aug 17, 2009
"Her singing is pure sterling silver... Gretchen Parlato is going to be a major player on the contemporary vocal music scene, jazz or not."
Gretchen Parlato, In a Dream
- 4 STARS
In Tune, The Daily News
Aug 27, 2009
"...a perfect showcase for Parlato, from the Latin-tinged take on Stevie Wonder's "I Can't Help It" to the remarkable vocal rendering of Herbie Hancock's "Butterfly" to the Brazilian gem "Doralice," plus pitch-perfect renditions of Wayne Shorter's "ESP" and Duke Ellington's "Azure."
MUSIC REVIEW:
Gretchen Parlato, In a Dream
Blogcritics/Music
Sep 3, 2009
"So deserving of all of such awards as the prestigious 2004 Thelonious Monk International Jazz Vocals Competition, Gretchen has the uncanny ability to move and mold the mood and emotion of any song and remake it into a stunning part of her growing catalogue …The entire program is a compilation of soothing renditions and songs that are a mental massage for a time wrought with stress."
Gretchen Parlato, In a Dream
(2009, ObliqSound)
by Andrea Canter, jazzpolice.com
Sep 1, 2009
"a special outing. Parlato uses her voice with both great restraint and relaxed spontaneity, creating an ambient, sometimes whispering quality as if gently telling a bedtime story that nevertheless is filled with animation and sound effects."
Gretchen Parlato: Butterfly
by Ted Gioia, Jazz.com
Aug 25, 2009
"This track, and the entire recording, are built on what
the music industry always promises but rarely delivers:
a singer with a breathtakingly fresh approach and a daring personal style
that stands out from the crowd. Simply stunning.
This is one of the most under-produced, intimate jazz vocal recordings you will ever hear. Parlato blossoms in the quiescence, delivering a pristine performance that refuses to follow the predictable path at any point. Her intonation is flawless, as it needs to be in this setting, where there is no place for a singer to hide."
NPR SONG OF THE DAY
Gretchen Parlato: Jazz From Soul
By John Murph
npr.org
July 20, 2009
"glowing makeover of SWV's 1992 hit Weak... Parlato's feather-light voice aptly captures the essence of the song's themes of romantic anxiety and anticipation, yet she also conveys a level of maturity in her sensual but no-frills delivery."
Handling Sneaky Rhythms
as Singer or Bandleader
Music Review | Gretchen Parlato
By BEN RATLIFF, New York Times
June 7, 2009
"always some warm egolessness in her performances... airy tone, accurate pitch, impassioned and subtle projection, her singing sailed over [the band], an example of benign control. ...music fairly intense in its complicated rhythm.
...naturally restrained and controlled, more Ella Fitzgerald than Sarah Vaughan but more Rosa Passos than either."
