Gretchen Parlato gave us an interview in May 2011.
LondonJazz: Tell us about your third album “The Lost and
Found” (Obliqsound)
Gretchen Parlato: There’s a lot more original material, or lyrics that
I wrote for other musicians’ melodies. There’s a
song of Taylor’s (Eigsti) a song by Alan (Hampton)
a song of Ambrose (Akinmusire) that I wrote lyrics
to. There are pop covers as well – “Holding Back
the Years” (Simply Red ) and “All that I Can Sing”
(written by Lauryn Hill in 1999 for Mary J Blige) I like
to say it’s another branch, growing from the same
roots. It’s where we left off, but with the production
team of Robert Glasper and me, there’s definitely a
different sound.
LJ: Robert Glasper’s been a friend for a while, right?
GP:We met when I first moved to New York , this
was 2003. He was one of the first people that I
met. Robert and I became friends and musical
collaborators from the beginning. We’d write
and arrange music, try to write songs. We’ve only
played together a few times.
Where are you from, and where did you study?
I’m originally from Los Angeles, and that’s where
I moved from in 2003. I did all my study at UCLA
where they have an enthno-musicology program,
with a jazz studies specialization within it.
Then I did the two-year progam at the
Thelonius Monk Institute. It was an instrumental
program before, and the year I heard about it they
were opening auditions for singers. I believe it was
Herbie Hancock who said he wanted to include
singers, so they were specifically trying to find the
right person to make it work.
LJ: And there’s music in your family background too?
GP: My father played bass in one of Frank Zappa’s
groups. He’s a jazz musician as well. And he did a
lot of rock music. In Los Angeles in the seventies
and eighties, he was a session player, and that was
the big-time for sessions. His father had been a
singer and a trumpet player.
On my mother’s side, her father was a
recording engineer. He built a studio, and recorded
Louis Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald. So there’s a
lot of history with the entertainment industry, and
specifically music in my family. It’s in the blood
for sure.
LJ: Sarah Ellen Hughes wrote in her London
Jazz Festival review about your “rhythmic
confidence,” and the way you “feel the beat
through [your] whole body.”
GP: Thank You! Rhythm does come from that nature/
nurture thing. If it’s in your blood, that definitely helps.
It’s an instinctual thing, but if you hear it your entire
life, especially if you hear different rhythms from all
over the place, and very early, you think about it. And
it helps to hear and to work with people from other
places who have that sense of rhythm. Like when I worked with Lionel Loueke. That
forced me to get it together, just being able to
keep a steady beat while he’s weaving all over
rhythmically. Someone needs to be steady so
that the others can be interactive and play around
it. There’s some part of my body that’s doing
something that’s keeping it steady and another
part that’s the soloist. And it’s a lot of practice.
Study. Practice. You do it and then you don’t think
about it any more.
LJ: You have also done a vocal duet with Lionel
Loueke. What about the language?
GP: Yes, we did lyrics in a dialect that Lionel Loueke
speaks. I had no idea what it meant – he told me,
gave me general translation. I was learning that
phonetically so there was a part of me that was
saying: “This is really cool , but what’s my story?
What do I have to reveal?” In a good way you turn
that into something...
LJ: And you are also singing less in Portuguese?–
there’s only one track on the new album.
GP: The Brazilian repertoire goes back to when I
was thirteen years old. I was looking through my
mother’s album/ vinyl collection, and I found
the classics, Stan Getz, Gilberto Ipanema. I put
that on and just fell in love with the sound. The
whole sound of bossa nova, but very specifically
Joao Gilberto’s voice, his approach. Even as a 13
year old I could hear and be moved by that, so
detailed but you’re drawn in. It’s a pefect example
of something being deceptively simple. It’s very
tangible but there’s so much going on.
And since then I’ve listened more, studied
more, developed.... I do my best to be influenced
by that whether I’m singing in Portuguese or
English there’s so much there. I like to do Flor de
Lis, often its about love, a study a listening
Since I came to New York, I haven’t really
immersed myself in the Brazilian scene. It’s been
more jazz and my own music. I won’t really sing
in Portuguese except one song here and there
in the set. I’m not Brazilian. I don’t really sing the
language, so I’m not really understanding every
word as I’m singing it. But I realised I could take
the rhythmical influence, the theoretical sound of
Brazilian music and absorb that into writing my
own music in English.
LJ: It must help to be playing regularly with the
same musicians?
GP: That’s true, everyone speaks the same language.
I’m so lucky with these guys. There’ definitely a
sense of love and respect and admiration. And
listening. That’s the probably most important
part, just to be able to step back and appreciate
whatever might be needed in the music , not
trying to force your idea, or your sound, or who
you are.
.
LJ: Has “Butterfly” become something of a
signature tune?
GP: I hadn’t realised it (laughs). But now when I start
singing it or announce it, people start clapping.
And it’s so crazy especially for a jazz musician,
because that’s such a pop thing. As a lover of
all kinds of pop music that’s something that you
do and its like YEAH. But for people to react that
way to a Herbie Hancock song that I arranged
is pretty awesome. That’s also a Youtube thing.
Whatever is on Youtube, people have seen that a
lot. I think that is a lot to do with that live version
from Germany. We do sing that every set. That is
something which gives a nice balance.
LJ: Also on Youtube are some comedy videos...
GP: It’s an alter ego, another character. It’s a character
that I created that taps into the absurdity of life. I
put on a wig. The other singer is Becca Stevens.
If you don’t know her, she’s incredible. There has
been miscommunication. Maybe even criticism I’ve
received. But it’s totally me, being fun.
LJ: And where does that come from?
GP: There’s a part of me that has always wanted to
act. I’ve done improv. The feeling that I’ve got
when I’m on stage or in a video – it’s making
someone laugh I get the same joy as I do singing,
even serious songs, there’s that community,
that release.
LJ: So what you’re saying is that’s important to
you to have a sense of humour, to be able to
laugh?
GP: Yes. It’s totally just me being fun. It’s so important
to laugh at life. Even at things that are extreme
and painful and dark. You can find the beauty in
it, you can smile about it. There’s some kind of
absurd humour in there.
When I think about being funny or laughing
– either I’m making someone laugh , or someone
is making me laugh, for that split second they’ve
forgotten about whatever they’re in trouble with
[...] I think that’s something that runs in my family
too, I come from funny people crazy people, when
you grow up with funny parents you learn that
that’s normal.
LJ: And how does humour work in the band?
Gretchen Parlato: This band is so funny A lot of artists before they
perform they like to maybe connect with each other
as a band, get together and say a prayer – I’ll have
that desire, or the desire to just – laugh. That’s
usually what we do. Jokes, jokes right up until the
very moment when we go on stage. As soon as
we’re on stage, there’s humour underneath it, but
we’re focussed, serious...
LondonJazz: Which seems like a good point to wish you
well for the gig. Thanks for the interview.
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