Gretchen Parlato Reflects on Growth, Connection, and Renewal on The Wise Ones, New Album out Digitally August 28, CD/LP out September 11, 2026 via Edition
Co-produced by Alan Hampton, The Wise Ones features Robert Glasper, Becca Stevens, Amber Navran (Moonchild), Meshell Ndegeocello and more
As the 2010s dawned, acclaimed singer and composer Gretchen Parlato released a pair of albums that helped redefine the possibilities of vocal jazz in the post-millennium era. In a Dream (2009) and The Lost and Found (2011) established a singular musical language that drew equally from jazz, R&B, soul, pop, Brazilian music, and beyond, influencing a generation of artists in the process. Now, with The Wise Ones, due out digitally on August 28, and as an LP/CD on September 11 via Edition Records, Parlato returns to the creative spirit of those landmark recordings while bringing to it the perspective, experience, and artistic growth of the years since.
More than a decade removed from those formative recordings, The Wise Ones reflects both continuity and evolution. 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.
From In a Dream and The Lost and Found to the GRAMMY-nominated Live in NYC, Flor, and Lean In with Lionel Loueke, Parlato has built one of the most distinctive catalogs in contemporary vocal music. Those three nominations underscore a body of work that consistently transcends genre while retaining remarkable intimacy and emotional depth.
On The Wise Ones, reunites Parlato with a core circle of collaborators from her earliest recordings, including Robert Glasper, Gerald Clayton, Alan Hampton, and Mark Guiliana. Together, they revisit creative relationships that stretch back more than two decades. “I’m so grateful to have formed such profound bonds with the musicians on this album,” Parlato shares with a smile. “Beyond the artistry, we’re friends—humans on a deeply connected path.”
Singer, multi-instrumentalist, and songwriter Alan Hampton—who also co-produced the album with Parlato—adds, “These songs were written at very different moments in our lives: some brand new, others nearly twenty years old. Gretchen had a beautiful vision of weaving them into one cohesive work—exploring time, love, loss, and personal growth, while honoring the shared history that connects us all.”
Throughout The Wise Ones, co-producers Hampton and Parlato form a subtle emotional spine. Bandmates and creative partners for more than twenty years, their voices move together with an ease that only long familiarity allows—intertwining, yielding, and lifting one another in ways that feel instinctive rather than arranged. There is a shared breath to their singing, a tenderness that reveals how deeply their musical languages have grown side by side.
That sense of community extends throughout the album’s guest list, which also includes vocalists Becca Stevens and Amber Navran of Moonchild, as well as the visionary Meshell Ndegeocello.
“Gretchen has had a huge impact on my artistry and musicianship,” Navran says. “In a Dream and The Lost and Found came out while I was in college, and we would sit together and listen to those records front to back, fully taking in every detail.” Stevens echoes the sentiment: “If you encounter a contemporary, jazz-adjacent vocalist—myself included—they’re influenced by Gretchen Parlato, whether they realize it or not. She raised the bar into entirely new stratospheres, especially through her deeply authentic reimagining and a vocal sound that could only begin with her.”
Meeting in the New York City jazz scene in 2004, Robert Glasper was one of Parlato’s earliest collaborators in composition, arrangement, and co-production. The two share a long-standing history for reimagining familiar material through a deeply personal lens.
“Gretchen Parlato is easily one of my favorite singers to collaborate with,” shares Glasper. “She understands, honors, and respects all the genres of music she touches. She’s not singing at it, she’s singing in it. It’s a rare thing to be able to cross over and get the attention of people in R&B music. That’s not something you really learn, that’s a gift that is given to you. Gretchen definitely has that gift.”
Mark Guiliana—one of the most inventive and influential drummers of his generation—serves as the connective thread woven through every track on the album. A beloved and fearless re-imaginer of his instrument, Guiliana brings a rhythmic language that is at once grounded, elastic, and serenely radical. As with Alan Hampton, Guiliana has been a featured presence on Parlato’s past recordings and touring projects, but The Wise Ones marks the first time his contribution extends to the album’s core foundation. Here, his playing does more than support the music—it helps shape its architecture, guiding the sound, feel, and forward momentum of the entire project. His sensibility anchors the album with subtle authority, allowing space, texture, and groove to coexist with striking emotional clarity. “I’ve been a fan of Gretchen‘s music since before we even met and I have been lucky to see her evolution up close.” confesses Mark. “This album is undoubtedly her most personal and strongest statement yet. She somehow managed to look back and collect experiences and collaborators from the past and make a statement that feels very present while vividly looking forward.”
“Having recently turned 50, I feel like I may be right in the middle of my lifetime—balanced between my younger self and my future elder,” Parlato reflects. “I try to stay grateful and present, without clinging or drifting too far ahead. There’s a necessary acceptance in honoring every version of who we were, are, and will become. Everything changes. Everything transforms.”
In many ways, The Wise Ones feels both like a homecoming and a new beginning. The title is not a declaration, but rather a question, reflecting a process of becoming. It is shaped by patience, friendship, and a deep trust in the creative process, one that honors the roots of Gretchen Parlato’s artistic voice while opening the door to what comes next.
“I have always been patient with my creativity, allowing the wave to come in due time,” Parlato says. “Looking back, I realize that everything has led to this. This moment used to be my future and will someday be my past. So, I want to hold it, suspend it, and make art of it.”
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Tracklist:
01 Capricorn (feat. Alan Hampton)
02 Never Come Down (feat. Meshell Ndegeocello & Mark Guiliana)
03 Rainbow
04 The Wise Ones (feat. Amber Navran)
05 If It’s Magic
06 It’s You (feat. Alan Hampton)
07 Mad World (feat. Becca Stevens & Alan Hampton)
08 Already Gone (feat. Robert Glasper)
09 Block The Sun
10 In My Bed (feat. Alan Hampton)
11 Landslide (feat. Alan Hampton)