Singing in perfect pinch since the age of two, American vocalist and Los Angeles native Gretchen Parlato was raised surrounded by music and the arts, thanks to her musical family. With an early interest in jazz, African percussions and Brazilian rhythms, she studied ethnomusicology and jazz at UCLA, and in 2001 became the first vocalist to be admitted at the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz Performance. In 2004, her impressive vocals won her the Thelonious Monk International Jazz Vocal Competition. After a move to NYC, she recorded a Grammy-winning album with Terence Blanchard and in 2005, self-released her first CD. After extensive touring and sharing the stage with such legends as Gal Costa or Wayne Shorter, she released her long-awaited second album, In a Dream, in 2009. The Lost and Found came out almost two years later.