Gretchen Parlato: The Wise Ones review | John Fordham's jazz album of the month

(Edition)
With guests including Robert Glasper, Parlato turns her immaculate phrasing to soft funk, dancefloor numbers and interpretations of Stevie Wonder and Tears for Fears

Hearing Gretchen Parlato’s spellbinding version of the Herbie Hancock song Butterfly was unforgettable when the eloquent LA-born singer’s star glimmered into view in the 2000s. The unique qualities she revealed soon brought her worldwide acclaim. Butterfly would open in an onstage silence only broken by Parlato’s soft handclap on a Brazilian groove, eventually turned into a wordless vocal hook, and then the awestruck natural-world homage of the lyrics written by Hancock’s sister Jean. She would time phrases between deliberately emphatic in-breaths like cymbal hits, and arrestingly morph words in and out of abstract sound.

The Wise Ones arrives as her third album since 2021, when she returned from six years of parenting. Here, she’s backed by longtime partners including guitarist Lionel Loueke, folk-rockish and jazz-influenced multi-instrumentalist Alan Hampton and Parlato’s percussionist husband Mark Guiliana, plus guests including Robert Glasper, Meshell Ndegeocello and Becca Stevens.