About Lisa

About Lisa
Woodwinds - alto, baritone & soprano saxophones, clarinet & bass clarinet

Lisa first came to New York in 1993, and received two Australia Council for the Arts grants to study in New York with saxophonists/composers Steve Coleman and Lee Konitz. Her career has taken off in NY as a sideperson as well as a leader. She received recognition for her baritone saxophone playing in the 69^th Annual Downbeat Readers Poll where she placed 5^th. Nicki and Lisa Parrott performed at the prestigious Tribute to Mary Lou Williams Festival at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. in 2002. She has performed with such great musicians as - Dave Brubeck, Nancy Wilson, Skitch Henderson and the New York Pops, Diane Schuur, Gregory Hines, Rachel Z, Cindy Blackman, Gunther Schuller, Clifford Barbaro, Denis Charles, Lea Delaria, Jason Linder’s Big Band, DIVA, Rob Reddy’s Horn Choir, the Jimmy Heath Big Band and the Jimmy Dorsey Big Band. She has toured with the best of Australia’s ensembles, including John Pochee’s Ten Part Invention, Paul Grabowsky’s Australia Art Orchestra, Lloyd Swanton’s The Catholics, James Morrison’s Big Band, Mara Kiek Quartet and Jackie Orszacksky. She also has appeared numerous times on television and in magazines including Downbeat, CMJ Music magazine, Billboard, Vogue (Australia), Dolly and Australian Jazz and Blues.

Background

Born in Australia – 100 miles north of Sydney, Lisa started studying clarinet and piano from the age of six. As a teenager she switched to saxophone when she discovered jazz and moved to Sydney with her sister Nicki who had switched to double bass. She studied under Don Burrows at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music and graduated with distinction. Lisa’s reputation grew as an innovative bandleader and an in demand freelancer around the Sydney scene. Recognition of her talent was evident in her nomination for the Mo Award’s Best Female Jazz Performer in 1991 and 1992. She also placed 3^rd in the 1994 Australian Jazz Saxophone Competition.

Lisa has been leading her own groups since 1989 with Influences ranging from jazz and western classical music, as well as Eastern European folk music, African and Indian music. These groups included: the acclaimed Melody Rhythm Ensemble, Lisa Parrott Trio, Matambo (ABC recording 1995), and NUDE (co-led with bassist Cameron Undy). PLK Trio is a co-led trio with Chris Lightcap (bass) and Heinrich Koebberling (drums). Since late 1996, they have performed at the Knitting Factory as well as other performance spaces in New York. In December 1998, they released a CD Bab Bab on Goat Angel Records and toured Germany performing their original music at the Kassel International Jazz Festival, as well as jazz clubs in Hamburg and Berlin. Lisa currently plays the baritone saxophone chair in DIVA, leads her own trio, co-leads a quartet with her sister Nicki Parrott, and is teaching and freelancing in New York City.

Festival and club appearances include:

2009 – Dizzy’s Club - Jazz @ Lincoln Center with Nicki Parrott

2008 – Dizzy’s Club - Jazz @ Lincoln Center with DIVA, & also with Virginia Mayhew Septet

2007 – Tri-C Jazz Fest in Cleveland with the Lisa Parrott Trio

2006 – Blue Note Jazz Club in NYC w/ DIVA & Ann Hampton Callaway

2005 – Dizzy’s Club - Jazz @ Lincoln Center with DIVA & Ann Hampton Callaway

2004 – Carnegie Hall w/ Skitch Henderson and the New York Pops – with the Diva Jazz

Orchestra

2003 – Lincoln Center - Verizon Jazz festival with the Diva Jazz Orchestra

2002 - Mary Lou Williams Jazz Festival - Kennedy Center (D.C.)

2000 – Jamaica, Sydney, Melbourne, 1999 – Montreal Jazz Festival, Salzburg, Mary Lou

Williams Festival

1998 – Ottawa, Kassel (Germany), Melbourne. 1997 - Texaco/New York Jazz Festival, Berghausen (Germany).

1996 – Kansas City, “What is Jazz?” Festival (Knitting Factory NY)

1995 – Festival of Perth, Brisbane, Adelaide.

1994 – Wangaratta (Australia). 1992 – Sydney. 1988 – Jakarta (Indonesia).