Night 1: Straight from New York
Artist: Gretchen Parlato // Date: 25 September 2009 // Genre: Vocal jazz
As the song goes, lady sing the blues. Well, lady sing the jazz, but lady sing the jazz quite well. Personally I've never liked vocalists in classical or jazz, but Gretchen Parlato started to change my mind a little. Before showing up for my first night volunteering at the Yardbird, I read through her posted biography and poked around on her website a little - and I was impressed by what I saw. Her credentials are as impressive as her portability as a vocalist: she was the first vocalist accepted into the Thelonius Monk Institute of Jazz Performance; studied under both Herbie Hancock and Wayne Shorter; and she has performed at "A Celebration of Jobim", the 2008 Charlie Parker Jazz Festival, and at the 2009 Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival.
Gretchen Parlato (courtesy Jalylah Burrell)
And the crowd must've loved her as well; from working the door, I can tell you that we sold up to and beyond capacity - half an hour into the first set, it was standing room only. The first song of Parlato's I heard after the crowd at the door calmed down was "Circles," the first full composition (ie. not just vocals) that she wrote. Inspired by Wayne Shorter, it opened with a lengthy, yet captivating, bass solo that set the avante garde tone of the piece masterfully. Parlato said Shorter had once told her that "Perfectionists try to make something out of gold all the time. But you can make lots out of silver. And a hell of a lot more out of tin." And I think she took this to heart, and in the best way possible. Perfection, on its own, has a harsh metallic quality to it - it is a piece's imperfections that lend it a warm, intimate quality.
Prior to attending to attending the Monk Institute, Parlato graduated from UCLA with a BA in Ethnomusicology/Jazz Studies. This background shows strongly in various aspects of her vocal style, and comes to the forefront in a brilliant way with songs such as "Doralice." In her performance of it, she melded African and Latin elements together with the traditions of jazz to create a product that is at time jarring, but on a whole creates a wonderful mélange of sound. In a genre of musicians that often carve out a niche in a small sub-genre, Parlato has portability: she is adept at the classics but can take songs such as Björk or Michael Jackson's "I Can't Help It" and let them transform her style, while still remaining within the boundaries of jazz.
Gretchen-Parlato-I-Cant-Help-It.mp3 (2 minute sample from Parlato's most recent album, "In a Dream")
Kendrick Scott (courtesy Tracey Nolan)
A worthwhile night
Parlato was backed by an excellent trio of Taylor Eigsti on piano, Alan Hampton on bass, and
Kendrick Scott on drums. They blended marvelously as a rhythm section should, every-present but not overbearing, subtle yet still interesting. Yet the drummer stood out to me almost as much as Parlato himself. He was brilliant to say the least, and is easily amongst one of the smoothest drummers I've ever heard. The beats he kept drifted effortlessly from complicated, poly-rhythmic rolls into almost melodic simplicity. Scott managed the mood of the sets expertly, never leaving a song to get complacent; this is something I really appreciate in jazz, which can often lapse into monotony halfway into a ten minute bass solo. I highly recommend checking out his work.
All in all, it was definitely a worthwhile night. Parlato was simply sublime for the first set; during the second, the rhythm section began to come out of their shells and play around a little steadily becoming more aggressive and bold, with this building energy culminating in a hot and fast final song. With those last notes drifting across the room, one felt that little bit lighter, that little bit happier, that little bit more alive. That much more alive, because for another night, jazz lived.