Gretchen Parlato wins Monk contest

Jazz singer Gretchen Parlato has been a talented if relatively low-visibility performer for most of her brief career. But all that changed when she won first place in the 17th annual Thelonious Monk Jazz Competition.

In addition to the $20,000 first-place prize, a win at the Monk Competition -- which took place Monday at the Kennedy Center in Washington -- usually triggers interest from record companies and opens the doors to top-level performance rooms. Saxophonist Joshua Redman and pianists Jacky Terrasson and Marcus Roberts, among others, have jump-started careers based upon their Monk Competition first-place awards. And singers Jane Monheit and Tierney Sutton benefited from semifinalist finishes in 1998.

Parlato, 28, is a Los Angeles native who graduated from UCLA with a bachelor’s degree in ethnomusicology and was the first vocalist accepted into the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz Performance at USC.

Don Heckman