Woody voice, sensual melodies: Melody Gardot, the great lady of contemporary jazz, has seen death up close. So today, behind her intimate and delicate songs, she celebrates life, its beauty and its delights.
That day, when a car hit her head on, Melody Gardot was a normal young woman, nothing more, nothing less. From this tragic accident, the fighter from New Jersey will come out taller. Music has taken hold of her like a painkiller that soothes the pain. Her memory is at zero, but her inspiration is growing. She has to learn to speak again, but not to create. Nothing, oh never, will be the same.
From now on, Melody Gardot is no longer an ordinary person. With her velvet voice and her hypersensitivity, she enters the big league, signing on the label bluenote which is a reference in the jazz world. Her music goes off the beaten track, flirting with a soft and bewitching soul, as if to underline her golden words with a silver line. She mixes influences, from Radiohead to Janis Joplin, to bring new colors. She even sometimes drags on the side of the Brazilian sonorities, by pushing the doors of the bossa nova. In short, Melody Gardot does not know what is forbidden, on the contrary, she covets it.
Conquering her own emotions, she liberates her experience, with light and gravity, to build a singular universe. She walks us tenderly, with sweet melancholy, and a touch of spirituality with Buddhist accents. Moreover, under her airs of diva with the certain elegance, the American artist, who fell in love with the city of light, troubles even the most serene souls. She deploys her charisma and her absolute sensitivity. She asserts a state of mind, raw and untamable, even downright wild. But above all, with her dark glasses and blonde hair, Melody Gardot confirms her class incarnate.
Melody Gardot keeps the scars of her accident. But that doesn't stop her from moving forward. She releases her first EP. The critics are excellent and she starts to be noticed at the local level. Quickly, she is approached by prestigious labels. Her career begins!
Her first album is acclaimed. It must be said that Melody Gardot has a lot to say, and that her velvet voice leaves no one indifferent. In the space of a few months, the young American from New Jersey made a name for herself on the international scene. The success will never leave her! In the wake of this, in 2009, she went on stage for the first time at the Olympia. The beginning of a love affair between the mythical hall and the artist because she did not want to play elsewhere, she celebrated her twentieth Olympia in 2019.
To seduce at first sight is one thing, to confirm is another. The exercise is perilous for many artists. However, with The Absence, her third album, Melody Gardot asserts her refined style with Latin flavors. In collaboration with the producer Larry Klein, she puts together a high-standing album, which will remain one of the masterpieces of her discography.
Five years that the jazz diva was waiting! And like other artists, the confinement at the beginning of 2020 offered her the opportunity to step back and deliver a real jewel. On the label Decca Records, she signs Sunset in the Blue. A cover in the form of a work of art when all museums are closed. Music played by philharmonic musicians from all over the world who were forced to work. And rights donated to the association Protège ton soignant. Because just like her album, Melody Gardot is an ode to love.