To
Gretchen Parlato at
Bruce Eaton's Hunt Real Estate Art of Jazz--
the final show of the season. Parlato is a pro, as versed in showmanship as she is in music. Her excellent trio* took the stage and vamped a bit before she made her entrance, and she then proceeded to move smoothly from one song to the next with scarcely a breath. Her sound incorporates some unusual hand percussion; her voice was breathy and light. In a way I felt as though her music would be a fine accompaniment to a Carlos Castaneda adventure, with lyrics using natural imagery which reminded me that there is an ancient quality to the New World that we seldom see or hear about, except in the way we see things that used to be where we are looking. It isn't a memory, unless perhaps in some vague, Jungian sense. It's just an.... evocation. With all that, there was also a hint of Laural Canyon informing what she was doing, just a bit, like the wintergreen taste in a glass of root beer.
She played a generous set, then left as she'd arrived, leaving the band on stage playing her off, before they returned for an encore. It was the kind of show that left me a bit light-headed, a nice sensation on a warm spring night.
*Keyboard player Jason Lindner, drummer Mark Guiliana and guitarist/bassist/singer Alan Hampton
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