As the 2010s dawned, acclaimed singer and composer Gretchen Parlato released a pair of albums that redefined the possibilities of vocal jazz in the post-millennium era. In a Dream (2009) and The Lost and Found (2011) didn’t merely expand the genre—they reshaped its contours, setting a new creative standard that continues to reverberate today. Now, with her eagerly anticipated new album The Wise Ones, Parlato returns to those formative roots, revisiting their kaleidoscopic beauty through a contemporary lens shaped by time, experience, and transformation. More than a decade of profound personal, artistic, and global change has passed since those recordings, and The Wise Ones reflects both continuity and evolution. The album draws nourishment from the same soil that sustained her early work while allowing new branches to grow—reaching outward with deeper emotional resonance, refined perspective, and renewed curiosity. Reuniting with many of the trailblazing musicians who helped bring that original vision to life, Parlato revisits a sound that was once boldly new and now feels timeless, enriched by everything that has unfolded since. With those landmark early albums, Parlato forged a singular voice that honored the deep tradition of jazz while fearlessly advancing it—infused with luminous elements of R&B, soul, pop, West African, and Brazilian music. Her originality was immediately recognized, marking her as an artist not only fluent in the language of jazz, but capable of expanding it. That distinctive musical vocabulary continued to grow on 2013’s Grammy-nominated Live in NYC, followed by Flor (2021), a Brazilian-tinged release met with rapturous acclaim and earning her a second Grammy nomination. Her most recent album, Lean In (2023), brought a third nomination, celebrating two decades of creative partnership with Benin-born guitarist and vocalist Lionel Loueke.
