Jazz singer Gretchen Parlato is impressive for her sultry, crystalline voice and originality. The LA-born, Grammy-nominated singer is part of a new wave in jazz and is coming to New Zealand with her four-piece band for the Wellington Jazz Festival, playing one concert at the Opera House on the 8th of June. Parlato's "Live in NYC" album was nominated for a Grammy Award in 2015, and an earlier release in 2011 "The Lost and Found" was Billboard's jazz pick of the year and iTunes' vocal jazz album of the year. Parlato is the daughter of Frank Zappa bass player Dave Parlato and granddaughter of trumpeter Charlie Parlato and is a graduate of the prestigious Thelonius Monk Institute of Jazz in Washington - the first vocalist to ever land a place.