Chip Parker

Singing has always been one of the most important ways for me to communicate how I feel. I started singing about the time I started speaking, maybe even before. Music was part of every day in our home. The radio or the records were frequently playing. I listened and sang along to all the great music - Louis Armstrong, Benny Goodman, Ted Lewis, Ink Spots, Beethoven, Brahms, Bach, Ravel, and Broadway show records. I’d get the music going, singing and harmonizing.

I've been performing in Seattle clubs since 2009 and have been extraordinarily fortunate to work with many local musicians and singers including Greta Matassa, Darin Clendenin, Hans Brehmer, Andy Shaw, Chris Morton, and Randy Halberstadt.

I love the interaction and improvisation working with musicians – the interplay in performance where we take a known tune and build on it’s structure, bending it a bit into a slightly different shape and form, exploring the music with each rendering and sharing it with the audience.

The best thing for me about singing? I get to share my creative energy and tell stories through music - conveying joy, humor, love lost and found – little bits of theatre in tunes. My style reflects what I have absorbed over the years from many singers including Tony Bennett, Mel Torme, Frank Sinatra, Chet Baker, Shirley Horn, Ella Fitzgerald, Carmen McRae, Billy Holliday, Nat King Cole and many, many more. It’s swinging jazz, ballads, blues, and all fun.

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