gretchen parlato

"Gretchen Parlato’s The Wise Ones is one of the best records of the year”  —Modern Drummer
 

Parlato’s subtlety has never meant musical smallness. Here, the details of her singing expand outward until they become principles of arrangement. On  The Wise Ones Parlato does not merely sing inside the arrangement. Increasingly, the voice is where the arrangement begins.
— Jeff Becker, Jazz Sensibilities
 

Parlato's approach influenced an entire generation of artists, and The Wise Ones shows that Parlato herself has no intention of standing still.  
In a musical world increasingly obsessed with effects, speed and instant impact, Gretchen Parlato offers something much more difficult to manufacture: sincerity. Her voice remains human, her musicians remain musicians rather than decoration, and the arrangements leave enough room for us to dream.  It is beautifully made, deeply intimate and quietly ambitious…
— Thierry De Clemensat, Paris-Move
 

The coolly aerated vocal style that Gretchen Parlato brought to modern jazz in the mid-aughts — laid-back yet locked-in, with Brazilian and R&B influences finding common cause with the enlightened Herbie-and-Wayne cohort — created a lane so routinely traveled that it’s now just part of the infrastructure…  makes smart use of [Glasper’s] hallmark gospel harmonies, as Parlato sings with muted but firm conviction about a hopeful symbol of inclusion emerging from the gust and the gloom.   — Nate Chinen

“has the same spell-weaving qualities of her earlier vocal work: a close-to-the-mic intimate timbre, immaculate jazz phrasing and faultless pitching and intonation.”
— David Shiers, UK Jazz News

"The combination of skill and artistry that has characterized her career is on full display in the songs from her latest album, The Wise Ones."
— Imani Raven, Shatter the Standards