| Jazz |
An Intellectual Jazz from Chicago, Poetic in Spirit, Honest in Soul.
There’s a kind of intellectual jazz that comes from Chicago, steeped in poetry, and achingly beautiful. Song, the new duo album from Joanie Pallatto and Bradley Parker-Sparrow, is built on a deceptive simplicity ; the kind that only deep artistry can achieve. Across its twelve tracks, Song unfolds more like a collection of poems than a conventional jazz record. It conjures the spirit of Juliette Gréco ; not in theme or genre, but in artistic intention: a fierce commitment to meaning, to nuance, and to the emotional life of words.
Here, jazz is not the end it’s the medium through which a broader, richer vision of art is realized. The music bends toward poetry when needed, and stretches toward jazz when the poetry demands flight. At the heart of it all is a rare intelligence; lyrical, musical, emotional; radiating equally from voice and piano.
Bradley Parker-Sparrow brings a near-Dalí-esque sensibility to the piano — surreal, sometimes whimsical, always precise; sculpting sonic spaces in which Joanie Pallatto’s voice becomes not only an instrument but a character, a presence, a question mark. She is as much actress as singer, searching the upper edges of tone and timbre, with breathtaking sincerity. There is no artifice here. Only soul.
Their story is one of family, of shared life and shared sound. Pallatto; vocalist, composer, lyricist; and Parker-Sparrow; pianist, composer, sonic architect; have made their home in Chicago. Over the decades, their musical and personal lives have grown in tandem. As co-founders of Southport Records and producers at Sparrow Sound Design Recording Studio, they’ve released hundreds of recordings since 1977, documenting the city’s ever-shifting jazz landscape; including sessions with the legendary Freeman family (Von, George, and Chico), as well as Willie Pickens and Fred Anderson. Their live performances are equally storied, spanning such iconic venues as The Jazz Showcase, The Green Mill, City Winery, Davenport’s, the Chicago Jazz Festival, the Cultural Center, and New York’s Iridium, Pangea, and Birdland. In 2016, the Jazz Journalists Association honored them with the Chicago Jazz Heroes Award; a fitting tribute to a life spent in service of sound.
But Song is also a love story; and perhaps that’s what makes it so radiant. In Pallatto’s own words: “I write this with love and gratitude for Sparrow, my partner in life and musical inspiration. As we began working on this recording, we realized we had never released a full album as a duo, though we’ve appeared on each other’s records for years. The opening track, our gentle creation ‘Song,’ eventually gave its name to the album. (Sparrow always has the best title ideas!) Some of these pieces, I like to call Sparrow’s classics.”
What’s most moving about Song is that it doesn’t just ask to be heard; it asks to be seen, to be read, to be held. It carries something almost painterly: a visual, tactile quality that transforms each track into a tableau. It’s a multidimensional work of art; voice, piano, silence, suggestion; and it’s no surprise that Joanie Pallatto, for 46 years, has been one of Chicago’s most in-demand studio vocalists, lending her voice to countless national ad campaigns (Sears, United Airlines, Hamburger Helper…) as well as more elevated performances, including a solo role with Daniel Barenboim in Ellington Among Friends at Symphony Center. In 2021, she was honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award by the Chicago Music Awards. Several of her music videos are available on YouTube.
Albums like this don’t happen by accident. They’re born of necessity; the kind that only true artists know: the need to express, to create, to connect. Writing about Song as I begin to sketch the outline of a novel feels like a gust of clean, fresh air. In a time when vulgarity often dominates the cultural landscape, this album rises like a rare flower in the middle of a crowded garden. It sings. It breathes. It means something.
And for that; Simply, deeply; Thank you.
Thierry De Clemensat
Member at Jazz Journalists Association
USA correspondent for Paris-Move and ABS magazine
Editor for All About Jazz
Editor in chief – Bayou Blue Radio, Bayou Blue News
PARIS-MOVE, April 14th 2025
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Titles: Song; The Ferris Wheel; Monk Is Drunk; Jim De Jong; Stare Ahead; Sparrow’s Solo; Tomorrow; Jobim; Tico’s Lust; Epilogue; Another Solo; Cottage Grove
Musicians: Joanie Pallatto (voice) and Bradley Parker-Sparrow (piano)