"A thunderous standing ovation" @ North Sea
Dirk Vandenberghe, NRC Handelsblad
July 11, 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.

Parlato took obvious pleasure in being supported by a great band playing the piano (Taylor Eigsti), upright bass (Alan Hampton) and drums (Mark Guiliana). With her deep, sometimes fragile sounding voice, it made for sexy music, but Parlato also made significant sound when necessary.

Parlato played her own work, including the brand new "Winter Wind", but also took off with a delicious version of Butterfly by Herbie Hancock, who she really admires (which incidentally is mutual.)

After what seemed like three minutes, the party was already over unfortunately, with already a thundering standing ovation before the band even came back for a cover of another hero of Parlato, Stevie Wonder. "l Can't Help It" is of course best known for Michael Jackson. In her version it became a sultry love song, very suitable for these temperatures. A little love and shakers and a happy mood, I was walking towards soccer finals.