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 Summer 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 pianist/keyboardist Jacob Mann 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.”
GRETCHEN PARLATO & LIONEL LOUEKE DUO: LEAN IN
A long-awaited collaboration between GRAMMY-nominated vocalist Gretchen Parlato and acclaimed guitarist Lionel Loueke, Lean In tells the story of 20 years of connection, inspiration and friendship between two musical soulmates.
The very first duo recording from two musicians who have performed together for more than two decades, Lean In is all about healing, deep trust, love and family. In a time when warmth and compassion are needed more than ever before, both artists felt compelled to make a record sharing songs of inspiration, reflection, wonder and unity, with the title encouraging us to ‘lean in’ to ourselves and to those around us.
The intimacy of the duo songs reveals the depth of the trust and connection between the two artists at the core of the music, an intensity that gradually unfolds and blossoms out into a larger, universal whole as they are joined on the record by members of their families: Mark & Marley Guiliana, Lisa Loueke, & close friend Burniss Travis.
Both Gretchen and Lionel are individually renowned for the extraordinary mastery of body and voice in their music enabling them to create intricate, infectious rhythms. Fans will undeniably be excited to hear what happens when these two rhythmic virtuosos come together – the two styles seamlessly intertwined – and the resulting sound is truly magical: soothing yet joyful and full of light with Gretchen’s love for Brazilian music and Lionel’s West African roots shining through – it’s like nothing you’ve ever heard before! Released on May 19, 2023 on Edition Records, this really is a record for the soul.
Co-booked with Arcartists
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
