Song Selection

Gretchen Parlato puts the pop in her jazz vocals

Vocalist Gretchen Parlato proved her place in jazz society with her well-received 2009 album “In a Dream.” The New York City resident plays twice tonight at the Walton Arts Center. COURTESY PHOTO
Vocalist Gretchen Parlato proved her place in jazz society with her well-received 2009 album “In a Dream.” The New York City resident plays twice tonight at the Walton Arts Center. COURTESY PHOTO

Like so many others who grew up in the 1980s, Gretchen Parlato had a poster of Madonna on her bedroom wall.

Parlato simultaneously loved many of the other pop stars of the era, too, such as Duran Duran and Michael Jackson.

“My parents allowed us to discover music on our own,” says Parlato by phone from her home in New York City.

It could have been much different if her relatives had foisted their own musical choices upon Parlato and her sister. Many of her family members, among them her grandfather, who played trumpet for the Kay Kyser Big Band, and her father, who played bass for Frank Zappa and other musical luminaries, leaned heavily into jazz.

Instead, Parlato found jazz on her own. She recalls what was likely the first time she attempted to sing a jazz song at a Los Angeles-area high school.

Her rendition of the Eddie Jefferson cut “So What” caught the ear of Parlato’s instructor.

Parlato kept singing. She was accepted at the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz Performance in 2001 and has since recorded several acclaimed albums, including the 2009 release “In a Dream” and in 2011, “The Lost and Found,” which was named the No. 2 best jazz album of its release year by both NPR and Amazon.

In addition to serving as a guest vocalist for dozens of artists, notably Esperanza Spalding, Kenny Barron and Lionel Loueke, Parlato tours often. Her current travels will bring her to the Walton Arts Center tonight for two shows. Touring with her are Taylor Egsti on piano, Burniss Earl Travis on upright and electric bass and Mark Guiliana on drums.

Hailed by jazz giant Herbie Hancock as “a singer with a deep, almost magical connection to the music,” the pixie-like, sultry-voiced Parlato says she works hard to further the connection between herself and the tunes she writes and sings.

For Parlato, that often means following her own path.

“I try to honor myself and my intuition. And (be) connected to my own voice and my own sound,”she says.

Fittingly for someone who grew up with a love of pop music, Parlato isn’t afraid to rework a radio hit for her own voice, which isn’t much different for her than when she was singing along to pop tunes when she was younger. In recent years, she’s recorded songs by Mary J.

Blige and Michael Jackson.

More than ever, Parlato is also taking the helm as a composer and lyricist. She is working on a new batch of tunes for a yet-to-be-announced project.

Whether the song is hers, someone else’s, jazz or otherwise, Parlato just wants to connect.

“I always say a good song is a good song,” she says. “I just find something that means something to me.”

Whats Up, Pages 11 on 09/21/2012

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