Gretchen Parlato
PROJECTS:
Gretchen Parlato has forged a singular voice that honors the deep tradition of jazz while fearlessly advancing it. On her eagerly anticipated Fall 2026 Edition Records release, The Wise Ones, Gretchen’s singer-songwriter roots reflect both continuity and evolution, weaving together jazz, R&B, and soul. The album features new collaborations with Robert Glasper, Gerald Clayton, Amber Navran of Moonchild and Meshell Ndegeocello. The recording and touring quartet reunites Gretchen with longtime bandmates: bassist, guitarist, and vocalist Alan Hampton and drummer Mark Guiliana – alongside a pianist form the touring quartet.
Featured on over 85 albums, and five as a leader, Gretchen received her first Grammy Award nomination for Live in NYC (2013) and a coveted 4.5 star review from DownBeat Magazine with the DVD hitting No. 1 on the iTunes best music video list. The Lost and Found (2011) received more than 30 national and international awards, including the DownBeat Jazz Critics Poll No.1 Vocal Album of 2011 and iTunes Vocal Jazz Album of the Year. Her 2009 sophomore release, In a Dream, was JazzTimes Critics Poll Vocal Album of 2009 and hailed by Billboard as “the most alluring jazz vocal album of 2009.”
PRESS QUOTES:
“Her voice is a conflux where hope, sensuality and tragedy all merge… the most original jazz singer in a generation.”
Boston Globe
“…transfixing…she fashions a mellow, drifting sound informed by Brazil and Wayne Shorter and organic R&B.”
The New York Times
“Gretchen Parlato is a singer-arranger of consummate control and slow-burning intensity… lives at the crossroads of sensuous and spiritual, singing from deep within hypnotic grooves with enormous rhythmic sophistication.”
DownBeat Magazine
