Houston SUMMERJAZZ: Gretchen Parlato

Award-winning vocalist and songwriter Gretchen Parlato is one of the most inventive and mesmerizing vocalists of her generation, with two Grammy Award nominations for Best Jazz Vocal Album. Featured on over 85 albums, and four as a leader, her recording Live in NYC (2013) received a coveted 4.5 star review from DownBeat. 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. Parlato’s quartet features Houston native and HSPVA alum Alan Hampton on bass, plus renowned pianist Taylor Eigsti and in-demand drummer Mark Guiliana.

“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

“one of the most dreamily mellifluous timbres in jazz…and one of the most imaginative and inspiring artists on the scene” – Jazzwise