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interviews —
One Track Mind: Interview with Gretchen Parlato
Kristi Lomax, KPFK
April 10, 2010
Gretchen Parlato’s second album, “In A Dream”, made plenty of jazz critics Top 10 lists in 2009. But it’s her take on 90s Hip Hop/R&B classics that have the underground buzzing.
On her latest album “In A Dream”, jazz singer, Gretchen Parlato reinterprets songs from Duke Ellington to SWV. She discusses the process of making a classic song your own, advice from Wayne Shorter, and studying at the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz.
» hear it @ kpfk.org
Nu-Soul Radio Episode 5: Gretchen Parlato
by Morgan Rhodes, May 4, 2010
"Someone once said, "Jazz is alot like life. It's better if you
improvise." Life must be beautiful for Gretchen Parlato. Her cover
of SWV's classic "Weak" from her debut project "In a Dream" on Obliq
Sounds, is a sexy ethereal must -have. The album, a potpourri of
African and Brazilian rhythms, classics, standards and covers,
including Michael Jackson's "I Can't Help It" was released last year
and has been all the rage ever since.
She sat down with Nu-Soul radio host Morgan Rhodes to discuss the
interpretation, evolution and future of jazz."
Gretchen Parlato: In a Dream
HEED MAGAZINE Diversity Issue
Story by
Billy Wilkins
Photography by
Qaasim Barefield
March 2010
Jazz doesn’t die, it multiplies; changes form, modulates and manifests itself in the shape and image of a new generation. Jazz speaks many languages, from the sexy pickup line of a Miles Davis solo, to the instrumental argument of a Roy Hargrove solo.
Then, the world happens upon a jazz artist speaking in a new language, with an intelligent touch. We overlook the simple words. We ignore the quiet sounds; we tie five knots on one tennis shoe. We look for over the top, when most of what we need to hear in contemporary jazz, could be easy and natural. » more @ heedmag.com
Gretchen Parlato -
a Musician's Singer
for a New Generation
JazzTimes
by Shaun Brady
December 2009
"This next song was written by Herbie Hancock," announced Gretchen Parlato in October, from the stage at Chris' Jazz Cafe in Philadelphia. Then, with a sly glance back at drummer Justin Brown, she added, "It's called 'Rockit.'" Just a joke, at least for now. But it's a testament to Parlato's wide-ranging imagination that, in the instant between her announcement and the ensuing gale of laughter, it seemed entirely plausible...
» read article
Jazz journey— Gretchen Parlato dives into the music
By John Goodman, Canada.com
September 25, 2009
Despite having a father who played with Frank Zappa and a grandfather who worked with the Beatles, Gretchen Parlato grew up in Los Angeles thinking that she was leading a pretty normal childhood.
Parlato takes chances
By Roger Levesque, Edmonton Journal
September 25, 2009
If her family background is any gauge, singer Gretchen Parlato's fate was sealed early on, and the fact that she's winning praise from the likes of Herbie Hancock is only part of destiny unfolding as it should.
Jazz singer Gretchen Parlato:
Her music is pacific, like the ocean
Gretchen Parlato, among the very best of a rising generation of jazz singers, appears at Seattle's Triple Door Sept. 23.
By Andrew Gilbert
Special to The Seattle Times
September 18, 2009
The title of Gretchen Parlato's new album "In a Dream" (Obliqsound) aptly captures the sustained mood of ethereal introspection that she evokes from the first track to the last.
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 that of any of her peers.
"For me, the best way to be as an artist is to be completely yourself, letting that vulnerability come through," said Parlato.
NPR FAVORITE SESSIONS
—
Gretchen Parlato: Living 'In A Dream'
Spotlight: Gretchen Parlato Performs
Stevie Wonder's 'I Can't Help It'
by Josh Jackson, NPR.org
September 15, 2009
» listen to full live interview and recording
The
Documentary Channel's
4-part series—
Icons Among Us:
Jazz in the Present Tense
gp was featured in Episode 2—
Icons Among Us:
12 Notes In Real Time
RISING STAR OF JAZZ
Gretchen Parlato — Song of the Soul
Jazzit Magazine, by Marta Raviglia
"It’s a beautiful thing to sing through your vulnerability in a song. Then it's just about honesty and purity of the music... To me, it’s as if the music is this higher power above all and bigger than all of us. It’s about being a true artist and serving the beauty of the music, not your ego."
» read interview in English
Gretchen Parlato
Living & Sharing Her Dreams
By Fancee, itsall411.blogspot.com
August 26, 2009
"I sing from my heart and soul and i try to be as open and vulnerable as possible. It's all about honesty and being genuine. Sharing your own unique story through your art."
Sinatra's heir apparent
By Katherine Feeney, Brisbane Times
Oct 22, 2008
There's something special about being labelled Frank Sinatra's heir apparent - particularly when that successor is a woman. ...barely thirty, [she] has already attracted acclaim from the upper echelons of jazz world royalty.
Speaking with the singer, it becomes clear she won't be drawn on questions surrounding her much-publicised brilliance. To say that Parlato is modest is an understatement. She says a highly creative upbringing in Los Angeles cultivated her talent and that her ambition is merely a quest to remain "honest, open and venerable" about her art.
Spotlight: Gretchen Parlato
VIBE
Interview with Jalylah Burrell
July 28, 2008
"Long enamored with the sounds of Brazil and, in recent years, transplanting listeners to West Africa with frequent collaborator Blue Note guitarist Lionel Loueke, her influences range from folk to New Wave to R&B to the jazz vocalists Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan and Nancy Wilson. In fact, her pared down cover of the Michael Jackson hit, "I Can't Help It", is a case study in genre transcendence and interpretative brilliance."
» read interview
She's a singer ... naturally
by Zan Stewart/The Star-Ledger
May 29, 2008
"It's a very spiritual experience that makes me very much in touch with myself, what's going on in my body. Especially when I'm performing, there's that sense of feeling really grateful to have musicians around me, the audience connecting with the lyrics. In short, it's a very intimate thing for me to do that brings me a lot of peace."
» read interview
Open to Possibilities
JAZZWOMEN
Hot House, June 2008
"There's nothing like conversation with others, sharing this art and having the audience there to support you, encourage you. You feed off the energy and it moves the music to a different space."
» read interview
Jazzed up - Gretchen Parlato
OurBrisbane.com
by Justin Grey
Jan 30, 2008
"it was really just realising how to be a better musician – how to drop my own ego and not let it get in the way of me growing. When you come out of it [Thelonious Monk Institute] you realise this was a heavy, heavy thing, and the greatest part is it makes you realise what you want and don’t want in music and even in life... To me, what I do has always been very pure, natural and simple in its approach. Sometimes you’re not even aware of the steps that you’re making, but it’s a wonderful thing that, in turn, by just expressing what I love myself, other people have loved it too. "
» read interview
Women of Jazz
Jim Cryns, Express Milwaukee
Feb 2008
"The first time I saw Gretchen perform live was in New York. She was freaking me out," remembers [Esperanza] Spalding... "Here was this skinny little white girl putting out this wonderful music," she jokes. "I was covered in goose bumps."
» read interview
Gretchen Parlato and Esperanza Spalding:
Dynamic duo
Gretchen Parlato and Esperanza Spalding
point to jazz's future
Isthmus - The Daily Page
Susan Kepecs, Feb 2008
"Just the fact that players like that know me and like what I do is completely humbling," she says. "Jazz is such a broad word for a genre of music. Artists like Herbie and Wayne haven't been stagnant, they haven't tried to keep jazz inside one box. They know the only way it can live is if it moves forward. I'm grateful to have artists like them influencing us and taking us on tour."
» read interview
Sultry Gretchen sizzles
The Courier-Mail
Brisbane, Australia
Feb 1, 2008
"THE phone rings three times before voicemail picks up. A piano sounds in the background, introducing the sultry voice of American jazz artist Gretchen Parlato, crooning: "Please leave a message and I'll call you back, and l'll call you back . . ."
» read interview
KPFK - Global Village
Jan 25, 2008
- gp & Marcel Camargo:
interview with Sergio Mielniczenko & live performance
Juju (gp/mc), Tales From Banyan (mc), On the Other Side (gp/mc)
>> listen to performance & interview
Critically Acclaimed Jazz Prodigy Visits Australia for the First Time
Brisbane Powerhouse
Dec 2007
"Hailed by critics as a female Frank Sinatra, winner of the prestigious Thelonious Monk International Jazz Vocals Competition... Gretchen is renowned for her ethereal sound and fusion of jazz, Brazilian and African elements."
» read article
The Other Side of Gretchen Parlato
Jazz Review, by Joe Montague
July 24, 2007
"Donning a blue wig and performing a whacky improvisation of a very senior citizen awaiting her boyfriend’s arrival, the absolutely comedic woman on the [myspace] video is obviously blessed with talent... Miss MacKenzie is the alter ego of the very talented and equally beautiful jazz vocalist Gretchen Parlato, whose ethereal vocals have caused seasoned jazz musicians and singers to marvel at her seemingly endless musical gifts."
Gretchen Parlato reinterprets bossa nova
at La Villette Jazz Festival
Radio Interview with Leticia Constant
Paris, France, Sep 5, 2007
Interview with Morrie Louden
Jazz Police, Joe Montague
July 8, 2007
"She is a very special, I will say musician, she’s a singer, but she is also a musician. She is very well studied and knows music very well. A lot of singers don’t know much about the theoretical part of music, they just sing, which is a great thing too, but Gretchen is also a musician. She understands everything that she is singing. Beyond that, she has the most amazing angelic voice."
KRML Interview with Leroy Downs
The Jazz Cat, Leroy Downs, thejazzcat.net
April 25, 2006
Gretchen Parlato -
Straight from the Heart...
with special guest, Tierney Sutton
By Gerald W. O'Brien
Jazz Review
September, 2005
"I have always been exposed to music where voice was used in really different and unique ways, so it seems very natural for me to continue [to] bridge the gap, so to speak, between singer and instrumentalist. So many people have done that before me. It's just an important thing, as a singer, to be educated, so that you are speaking the same language as instrumentalists around you – and just being humble and letting go of your ego and singing from your heart and not your head all the time."
