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Among the top jazz vocalists of her generation, featured on over 85 albums, and four as a leader, Gretchen Parlato received a Grammy Award nomination for Best Jazz Vocal Album, and a coveted 4.5 star review from DownBeat, for Live in NYC (2013). The Lost and Found (2011) received more than 30 national and international awards, including the DownBeat Jazz Critics Poll No. 1 Vocal Album of 2011, and iTunes Vocal Jazz Album of the Year. Her sophomore release, In A Dream (2009), was hailed by Billboard as “the most alluring jazz vocal album of 2009.” It all began with her self-titled debut, Gretchen Parlato, recorded shortly after winning the 2004 Thelonious Monk International Award for Jazz Vocals.

Parlato’s latest project, Flor, is a gorgeous synthesis of original material, American popular music, European classical music, and Brazilian standards. With Flor, Parlato debuts her quartet of the same name, featuring guitarist Marcel Camargo (Michael Bublé, Herb Alpert), originally from São Paulo, and Léo Costa (Sergio Mendes, Bébel Gilberto), a native of Rio de Janeiro, who adds a broader palette with his distinctive percussion-drum hybrid. Perhaps the most unique and defining new texture for the ensemble comes from the role of bass taken on by cellist Artyom Manukyan (Melody Gardot, Kamasi Washington), from Yerevan, Armenia. Together, they exquisitely compliment the intensity and delicacies of Parlato’s signature voice.

Gretchen Parlato is “…a singer-arranger of consummate control and slow-burning intensity... who lives at the crossroads of sensuous and spiritual” (DownBeat).

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Ben Williams Band

Featured by a galaxy of artists ranging from Wynton Marsalis to Pat Metheny to Lauryn Hill, during the past decade and more Ben Williams has established himself as one of the leading jazz bassists of his generation.

Williams became a “Rising Star” when he won the 2009 Thelonious Monk International Jazz Bass Competition Award. His debut album as a leader, State of Art, received an impressive 4.5 Star review in DownBeat and reached #1 on the charts of iTunes and BillBoard. He was named the 2011 iTtunes Breakthrough Artist of the Year in the category of jazz. In 2013 and 2015 Williams received the DownBeat Critics Poll Rising Star Award for Bass.

For this San Diego appearance, Williams’ band features John Davis on drums, Braxton Cook on saxophone, and Andrew Renfroe on guitar. In addition to his masterful jazz-centric repertoire, the band will feature tunes from his newest album, I AM A MAN, imbued with his love for modern R&B and hip-hop as well as Williams’ socio-political awareness. I AM A MAN features mesmerizing vocal-centric songs that recall Soulaquarian albums released by The Roots, Erykah Badu, Common, and Roy Hargrove’s RH Factor. Williams says, “I wanted to make this not just a musical statement, but sonically, I wanted to dig into a different sound. I wanted this record to deal with the past, present, and future.”

Ben Williams has a “…dark, righteous sound on an upright bass and an almost liquid mobility” (The New York Times).