Biography

Jazzy-Pop! All Original Music from 39th Annual Chicago Music Awards ~ Lifetime Achievement Recipient for Extra-Ordinary Contributions to the Music Industry Singer-Songwriter Joanie Pallatto

co-produced by modern guitar virtuoso Fareed Haque

featuring an ALL Star Chicago lineup: Joanie Pallatto, Fareed Haque, Howard Levy, Bobby Lewis, Steve Eisen, John Devlin, Luiz Ewerling, Juan Pastor, Kurt Schweitz, Bradley Parker-Sparrow

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Described by Rick Kogan of the Chicago Tribune as having “a stirring and special voice,” Joanie Pallatto is a graduate of The University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music. Pallatto toured with The Glenn Miller Orchestra as a featured vocalist before moving to Chicago in 1979. Co-owner and partner with pianist/composer and husband, Bradley Parker-Sparrow at Sparrow Sound Design Recording Studio and Southport Records, Pallatto has expertise in all aspects of musical production. As a studio singer and voiceover talent, she has recorded on hundreds of Radio and TV commercials. As a jazz vocalist, Pallatto has performed at Chicago clubs City Winery, Andy’s and The Green Mill and New York venues the Iridium, Pangea and Birdland. Concert engagements have include Chicago Jazz Festival, Chicago Cultural Center, The Old Town School of Folk Music, Park West, Stage 773 and Bailiwick Theater; she was also a featured soloist with Daniel Barenboim in “Ellington Among Friends” at Symphony Center in 1999. Awards include: Lifetime Achievement Award for Extra-Ordinary Contributions to the Music Industry, Chicago Music Awards (2021); The Coleman Award in Music Business Entrepreneurship from Elmhurst College (2018) and the Jazz Journalist Association 2016 Chicago Jazz Heroes Award, to Joanie Pallatto & Sparrow.

Joanie Pallatto My Original Plan (2021) featuring modern guitar virtuoso Fareed Haque, showcases Singer-Songwriter Pallatto’s fourteen original Jazzy-Pop songs! Produced by Fareed Haque and Joanie Pallatto. The Single Do Butterflies Cry? is available on all digital platforms, and the music video, a rhythmic journey through nature and the beautiful countryside of Costa Rica, is available for viewing on YouTube.com. This Winter is a heartwarming track from the CD with a music photo video.

“Listen closely and find out how to dream and how to use those dreams…
With Joanie, the personal becomes universal.”
Stephen Cole, award winning songwriter and playwright (from liner notes)

In 2011, Pallatto released the critically-acclaimed CD As You Spend Your Life and the music videos “For My Mother’s Love,” “As You Spend Your Life” and “Playa Bonita” plus Jazz Legend Bob Dorough recorded his vocal and piano on Frank Foster’s “Simone,” with Pallatto’s lyrics. It’s Not Easy is Singer-Songwriter Pallatto’s first CD of ten original tunes and videos (2008.)

Christopher Loudon in the May 2011 issue of Jazz Times says of Pallatto “Pallatto sounds a lot like Stevie Nicks – if, that is, Nicks was a top-drawer jazz stylist of expansive musical tastes and keen instincts.” and “Trying to channel Pallatto is like attempting to bottle a cyclone. It’s best to just let her run wild…”

Other recordings in Pallatto’s discography include Float Out to Sea with Sparrow (2017); Two Again with pianist/arranger Marshall Vente (2015) Days with Joanie & Sparrow (2013); The King and I (2000) with legendary pianist/composer King Fleming; Words and Music (1999); Two with Marshall Vente (1997); FIRE with Von Freeman (1996); Passing Tones (1995); Who Wrote This Song? (1994); and Whisper Not (LP 1986). Pallatto has continually recorded original music with Sparrow, The Light, a tone poem (2004); Canned Beer (2003), and We Are Not Machines (2001).